Cumanana IV - ENG

JULY 2021

NUMBER 4

Cumanana PERUVIAN CULTURE VIRTUAL BULLETIN FOR AFRICA MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

THE INDEPENDENCE TURN Afrodescendants in the independence process

SPANIARDS AND MOORISH WOMEN DUNRING THE XVI CENTURY North African influence in colonial Peru

RECIPE Peruvian flavours with African influence

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THE INDEPENDENCE TURN AND THE FIRST REPUBLICAN DECADES * MARIBEL ARRELUCEA BARRANTES AND JESÚS COSAMALÓN AGUILAR HISTORIANS, SPECIALIZED IN SLAVERY, IDENTITY AND GENDER (ARRELUCEA), AND SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF PERU BETWEEN THE 18TH-20TH CENTURIES (COSAMALÓN) The confluence of protests and strong political and social movements in the late eighteenth century was prolonged through the wars of independence and the struggles of caudillos, generating new opportunities to erode slavery.

From escapes, banditry – now with a new political tinge – and palenques, to the possibilities of using liberal language. Another interesting feature was the chance of using new paths towards freedom and social advancement. For example, many Africans and Afrodescendants joined royalist and patriotic troops under the promise of freedom, although this was not fulfilled in all cases. For Andrews (2007: 98), the eighteenth century was a hard experience with great lessons for the SpanishAmerican authorities, hence the policy towards Africans and Afro-descendants was nuanced over time. For example, at the end of the 18th century Africans and Afrodescendants were incorporated into the royalist military forces, eliminating several requirements and offering several advantages. However, national independence was quickly associated with freedom and the abolition of slavery, a noticeable aspect in some references. For example, in 1818, the viceroy reported in a letter that slaves in Lima had "openly opted for the rebels, from whose hand they await freedom."

The fear of disorder resulting from the lack of control of the slave population and the possibility of uprisings preceded the wars of independence, especially in the viceregal capital. However, beyond rumours and intentions, authorities maintained Lima as a solid seat (Bonilla and Spalding, 1972; Lynch, 1976; O'Phelan, 1988; Fisher, 2000; Basil, 1980). This effort has also been detected before. For instance, during the seventeenth century in Cusco, numerous Afro-descendants called "free mulattoes" entered the workshops of artisans as apprentices to learn the trade. As detailed by Tardieu, they were placed by their fathers, mothers, grandparents and ex-owners trough notarial contracts (1998: 143-144).

Hall, an English sailor who visited Lima in 1821, pointed out that the Lima elite lived in terror from the possibility of a riot, which Hall did not consider possible: "The belief

“The belief, based on intended propaganda and welcomed with the sick desire for terror, that the enslaved population of the city planned to take advantage of the absence of the troops to rise up en masse and massacre the whites. As for me, I could not believe this as was possible because the slaves never had time to take such a measure, and their habits were not one of union and company, being all servants and scattered in a vast city, with very rare occasions for confidential treatment” (cited by Contreras and Cueto, 2007: 53).

The two leaders of the independence process, José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar, initially sympathized with the elimination of slavery by recruiting hundreds of African and Afro-descendant slaves as soldiers under the promise of freedom. They later changed their positions, applying gradual measures such as "Freedom of wombs" while also passing rigorous laws to control and sanction enslaved and free population. Both San Martin and Bolívar agreed that slavery was a regrettable inheritance from the colonial past but difficult to eliminate at that time (Andrews, 2007: 100; Aguirre, 2005: 163). However, Africans and Afro-descendants took advantage of the opportunities of this new historical conjuncture and joined both sides. Hence, Hünefeldt wondered what was the unifying political element, their African origin? The experience of being slaves? Recognising themselves as 'black'? Or the convergence of all of the above? She proposed that those who decided to be the king's soldiers were the Bozal Africans, while those who

Tapada limeña Francisco “Pancho Fierro” (ca. 1840) (C) Google Arts & Culture

PAGE 2 sided with the independence armies were the enslaved and free Africans with experience as artisans, confreres, merchants, and domestic servants (2010: 271).

Belonging to the ranks of either side had several advantages, such as military jurisdiction, exercising a certain degree of authority, territorial mobility, income salary and the consensual right to looting - and prestige.

Almost half of Lord Cochrane's squad and two-thirds of San Martin's army were of African descent; General Miller, in his memoirs, noted that they were soldiers distinguished by their courage, perseverance and patriotism (quoted by Tardieu, 2004: 24). Numerous slaves from Ica, Chincha, and Cañete fled their farms to join the newly arrived San Martín army. For example, the slaves from Caucato hacienda formed a patriotic troop known as "Los infernales" (the infernals) due to their wearing red hats and ponchos, standing out for their bravery. One of the few names that has survived is that of Ildefonso, a Chincha slave, who carried out espionage missions on the central coast. Ildefonso was sent on a mission to Pisco, where he was discovered by the Spanish cavalry; being chased, he threw himself to the sea shouting that he would rather "die a thousand times for the cause of the homeland rather than obey a Spaniard."

Once his body was rescued, he was buried as a hero by his comrades in arms (Tardieu, 2004: 26).

For their part, the royalist troops also incorporated Afrodescendants. To attract more slaves and freedmen, Viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela promised them freedom in exchange of five years of service against the enemies: «You will be clothed, fed, paid and considered in all the same way as the veteran troops of the National Army ”(quoted by Tardieu, 2004: 26). Subsequently, fearing that San Martín would attack Lima, Viceroy La Serna enlisted 1500 slaves from the city and its surroundings, promising them their freedom after six years of service (Anna, 2003: 227).

This was, nonetheless, a new scenario where Africans and Afro-descendants acquired a new language to litigate in the courts, riot on the estates demanding freedom or the right to better treatment. Aguirre has studied what he considers a "legal awakening" in Africans and Afrodescendants because they learned that their condition was not "natural" or irreversible and that they could appeal to justice when their rights were violated (Aguirre, 1990: 152). Coincidentally, for Hünefeldt the struggles for independence unleashed the ties of dominance and provided a new language for litigation and negotiation (1979b: 82).

Other slaves took the opportunity to free themselves by forming both not so disciplined militias, and fearsome

Las tres razas o La igualdad ante la ley (The three races or Equality before the law) Francisco Laso de los Ríos (ca. 1859) (c) Lima Art Museum

gangs, which learnt to negotiate with existing warlords, or wander on their own, traveling around the national territory and defying the flimsy order of the first republican years (Walker, 1990: 116-120; Aguirre, 2005: 165).

Their victims were common people and ranchers, tax collectors and bureaucrats. For instance, Santa's militia colonel, Ángel González del Riego, was killed with 23 stab wounds by his slaves, forcing the intervention of the troops of the Monteagudo frigate. Likewise, in 1835 a picket of slaves from Cañete toured the haciendas to free enslaved workers (Walker, 1990: 124-125). Although the available documentation barely consigns them as bandits, murderers and montoneros, today they would be considered as liberators, because they tried to eliminate slavery without waiting for State decrees.

Between the aftermath of the viceroyalty and the republic, numerous Afro-descendants lived, rose, gained status and enjoyed public prestige, in the midst of those turbulent years. Some were musicians, painters, dance teachers, intellectuals, religious, among others, living between colonial and republican society. Among the most prominent are José Manuel Valdés (musician, medical doctor and politician), José Gil de Castro (portrait painter) and Francisco “Pancho” Fierro (traditional painter).

* Excerpt from the original article, available in La Presencia Afrodescendiente en el Perú, XVI-XX Centuries, Ministry of Culture, 2015, pp. 90-97

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TENSIONS IN THE ORIGINS OF COLONIAL PERU. SPANISH AND MOORISH WOMEN IN THE 16TH CENTURY * LEYLA BARTET. WRITER AND SOCIOLOGIST Pre-colonial society appears, from its beginnings, as a split society. This fracture will endure throughout the Colony, and will assume new forms after the Independence, during the Republic. The separation between winners and losers, and the legal bases that support this model, hindered the internal performance of the colonial system from an early stage. The French specialist Bernard Lavallé argues, rightly, that the 18th century was the most representative of the ethnic conflict and therefore welcomed uprisings and diverse movements that attest to the difficult progression towards a complex and disputed miscegenation. (…)

The attitude of the conquerors in the early years, their relative rejection of miscegenation and their intention of bringing European women to ensure the formation of a Hispanic society in Peru are interesting elements for this research. Even so, the crucial issue is undoubtedly that the first "Spaniards" to fulfil this essential function were actually Moorish slaves, whom Hispanics preferred to indigenous women upon their arrival in Peru. The reasons for this preference must be sought in the history of the relationship of Catholic Spain with the idea of otherness and in the "project" of society they brought. The characteristics of the Moorish presence in the country constitute the axis of this work.

Spain in America It is necessary to insist on a fundamental aspect: what arrives from Spain to America with the conquest is far from being homogeneous. Spain is permeated and marked by its eight-century relationship with the brilliant civilization of al-Andalus first and, later, with political-military negotiations and conflicts established between the Taifa and the Christian kingdoms.

The concept of otherness that the Spaniards brought is heir to this relationship with the Arab world. A quick glance at the texts of the first chroniclers is enough evidence. For instance, Pedro Cieza de León designated

indigenous temples as “mosques”. Bernal Díaz del Castillo also stated that the expeditionary Francisco Hernández de Córdoba described the first great Aztec city he encountered on his way to Tenochtitlán as "Great Cairo" and Cortez himself compares the latter to Granada. (…)

According to Peruvian historian Nelson Manrique, the Moors who came to America, although with some exceptions, belonged to a modest status. Among the conquerors present in Cajamarca only one, Cristóbal de Burgos, would have been of Moorish origin. There is no confirmation of anything else. But, as the Guillermo Lohman suggests, the presence of Moors in the viceroyalty was almost impossible to detect with certainty because most of them had Spanish names. Those who arrived throughout the sixteenth century would have done so as slaves, a majority of whom were women. (...)

The Moors, slaves of Muslim descent, were mostly Caucasian Berber women, Spanish by birth, and converts to Christianity. Their mother tongue would have been Spanish. Mulattos — already cultivated — were generally born in Spain or in an old colony. Slaves of both types who became lovers of the Spaniards used to gain their freedom in a short time and took a place among the Spaniards, which was relatively easy given their place of birth. (…)

"Some remained in marginal positions, as servants, others assumed the role of Spaniards and there were some who reached a high social condition" (Manrique, op. Cit.). A good example of the latter is the case cited by the historian José Antonio del Busto: Doña Beatriz de Salcedo, despite her surname, was Moorish. Lockhart, who also cites her case, claims that she came to Peru in 1532 as a slave under the simple name of Beatriz. Concubine of Pizarro's overseer, García de Salcedo, she ended up marrying him, legalizing her status. Beatriz de Salcedo became the first Spanish speaker woman in the Andes.

PAGE 4 one who sowed wheat for the first time in Peru, after recovering some poorly grounded grains of a certain flour that arrived from Spain. In fact, an official document signed by Viceroy Conde de Nieva acknowledges that it was not the Castilian HIDALGAS who introduced the cultivation of wheat in the country, but the Moorish slaves. But the matter is delicate since almost all the Spanish women who arrived in Peru before 1537 Moorish or not - claimed the same honour. (…)

With the passage of the years, the presence of the Moors was diluted. Even so, their traces could still be found in 1554, when the Moorish Lucía de Herrera served as advance delegte of the CAUDILLO Francisco Hernández Girón, leader of the 1554 revolution. And in 1560, the Inquisition handed over several Moors to ordinary justice.

Dame with mantle Estudio Muñíz y Charton (ca. 1869) (C) Lima Art Museum

She accompanied her concubine to Cajamarca when the Inca Atahualpa was still imprisoned, and managed to establish a certain friendship with the sisters and women of the deposed Inca. She herself narrated her encounter: “Because as I was the first woman to enter this kingdom, in Casamalca, I was with them and I treated and talked to them.

That this witness knows it well because she was and lived many times with them. She lived with them because they took care that she did not live with the men of the host” After a period in Cajamarca and another in Jauja, she settled in Lima with her husband in a house located opposite the governor's, near the Rimac river. Since royal officials were not supposed to be merchants, she largely took care of the overseer's business. There, she saw the agonies of her master who, in articulo mortis, married her to make her heir to his Indian encomienda. Beatriz de Salcedo —who held the vocation of doña— thus became an exception in the West Indies: the only Moorish and encomendera woman in the history of America. But Del Busto attributes another merit to her: that of being the

Conclusion We do not want to stop evoking here the difficult nature of the Spanish-indigenous miscegenation in Peru since the beginning of the Viceroyalty. It is a very stratified society, marked by caste and race, a stratification that persisted throughout the Colony and did not disappear with Independence. (…)

Around 1570, when the Conquest ended, the country was occupied by an extreme minority of white emigrants and Creoles. There were no more than 150 thousand that, added to the 250 thousand black and mulatto slaves, reached only 5% of the total population. The Peru of Viceroy Toledo was massively Indian. But by 1650 there are already as many "castes" as there are Indians. In general, from the 16th to the 18th century, the Indian population declined and various mixes in race increased.

These ethnic-cultural fractures continued after Independence, leading to a republic that, beyond its efforts to finally become a multicultural state of shared and balanced citizenships, continues to suffer in a veiled and perverse way, racism and asymmetries.

* Excerpt from the original article, available in "Mujer e Independencias", Centro Virtual Cervantes, 2016, https://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/mujer_independencias/bartet01.htm

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RECIPE: PICARONES Return again, to the neighbourhood I left, the old guard, the boys of yesterday.

No more picarones, from good Isabel, Everything is gone As years go by.

Felipe Pinglo, Back in the neighborhood, 1934

INGREDIENTS Pumpkin - 1 kilo Sweet potato - 750 grams Dry yeast - 10 grams Plain flour - 650grams Sugar - 60 grams Aniseed - 2 tablespoons Pumpkin Water - 100 millilitres Sweet Potato Water - 200 millilitres Salt - 1 teaspoon PREPARATION In a saucepan, add the sweet potato cut into cubes. Add water and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Reserve the cooking water. Blend the cooked sweet potato into a puree.

In another container, add the squash cut into cubes. Cover with water and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Reserve the cooking water. Blend the cooked squash until it forms a puree.

In another container, mix 200 millilitres of sweet potato water (hot) and 100 millilitres of pumpkin water (hot). Add the aniseed, brown sugar, salt and dry yeast. Integrate to infuse. Pour 500 grams of the pumpkin puree and 300 grams of the sweet potato puree and integrate until no lumps are left. Add the flour, previously sifted. Mix. Beat the dough, cover and keep in a warm place for 2 hours. Then, uncover and beat the dough again. Cover and keep in a warm place for 2 more hours. After the 2 hours have passed, the dough should have a sticky texture.

In a cup of water, add 1 tablespoon of salt, mix and reserve. This solution will serve to wet the fingers and prevent the dough from sticking when handling.

Fry pieces of the dough at medium high heat. Wait for the dough to inflate, then form holes in the middle with a toothpick, as to resemble a doughnut.

Serve the picarones covered with honey.