Research Catalog

Title

Cacicas : the indigenous women leaders of Spanish America, 1492-1825 / edited by Margarita R. Ochoa and Sara Vicuña Guengerich.

Publication

• Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2021]
• ©2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Ochoa, Margarita R.
• Guengerich, Sara V., 1975-

Description

ix, 333 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm

Summary

"The term cacica was a Spanish linguistic invention, a female counterpart to caciques, the Arawak word for male indigenous leaders in Spanish America. But the term's meaning was adapted and manipulated by natives, creating a new social stratum where it previously may not have existed. This book explores that transformation, a conscious construction and reshaping of identity from within. Cacicas feature far and wide in the history of Spanish America, as female governors and tribute collectors and as relatives of ruling caciques--or their destitute widows. They played a crucial role in the establishment and success of Spanish rule, but were also instrumental in colonial natives' resistance and self-definition. In this volume, noted scholars uncover the history of colonial cacicas, moving beyond anecdotes of individuals in Spanish America. Their work focuses on the evolution of indigenous leadership, particularly the lineage and succession of these positions in different regions, through the lens of native women's political activism. Such activism might mean the intervention of cacicas in the economic, familial, and religious realms or their participation in official and unofficial matters of governance. The authors explore the role of such personal authority and political influence across a broad geographic, chronological, and thematic range--in patterns of succession, the settling of frontier regions, interethnic relations and the importance of purity of blood, gender and family dynamics, legal and marital strategies for defending communities, and the continuation of indigenous governance.This volume showcases colonial cacicas as historical subjects who constructed their consciousness around their place, whether symbolic or geographic, and articulated their own unique identities"--

Subjects

• Latin America
• Women
• Minority women
• Stateswomen
• History
• Biographies
• To 1830
• Latin America > History > To 1830 > Biography
• Women > Latin America > Biography
• Indigenous women > Latin America > Biography
• Minority women > Latin America > Biography
• Stateswomen > Latin America > Biography

Genre/Form

• Biographies.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Prologue: cacicas in the early Spanish Caribbean / Ida Altman -- Introduction / Sara Vicuña Guengerich and Margarita R. Ochoa -- Part I: North and Central America. The cacicas of Teotihuacan: early colonial female power and wealth / Bradley Benton -- Founding mothers: the tapias of Querétaro, 1571-1663 / Peter B. Villella -- Doña Marcela and the cacicas of bourbon Mexico City: family, community, and indigenous rule / Margarita R. Ochoa -- Sinking fortunes: two female caciques and an ex-gobernadora in the kingdom of Guatemala, 1700-1821 / Catherine Komisaruk -- Part II: South America. "Women were governing before the Spanish entered in this kingdom": the institutionalization of the cacica from the north coast of Peru / Karen B. Graubart -- Public voice and political authority: native female leadership in the sixteenth-century northern Andes / Chantal Caillavet -- Cacicas, land, and litigation in seventeenth-century Chincha, Peru / Liliana Pérez Miguel and Renzo Honores -- A royalist cacica: Doña Teresa Choquehuanca and the postrebellion natives of the Peruvian highlands / Sara Vicuña Guengerich -- Peacemaker cacicas in the Río de la Plata southern frontier / Florencia Roulet -- Conclusion: to be cacica in colonial times--the rhetoric of "Pureza" / Mónica Díaz -- Appendix: Cacicas in Nicaragua, 1522-1550 / Patrick S. Werner

Call Number

JFE 21-6824

ISBN

• 9780806168623
• 0806168625

LCCN

2020038252

OCLC

1198088314

Title

Cacicas : the indigenous women leaders of Spanish America, 1492-1825 / edited by Margarita R. Ochoa and Sara Vicuña Guengerich.

Publisher

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2021]

Copyright Date

©2021

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

To 1830

Added Author

Ochoa, Margarita R., editor.

Guengerich, Sara V., 1975- editor.

Research Call Number

JFE 21-6824