2024/10/01 by Brais Lamela · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Historical Studies in Latin America #Latin American history and culture
paper · doi:10.1080/10609164.2024.2429250
openalex publication_date 2024/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
Between 1561 and 1563, the mestizo interpreter Antón Ruiz was accused of inciting a series of protests that took hold of Cuzco in the context of ‘the perpetuity controversy’—a conflict over the perpetual jurisdictional rights of Spanish encomenderos and Andean lords over Indigenous labor and resources. At the heart of the ensuing legal dispute was the Quechua term that Ruiz allegedly used to translate ‘perpetuidad,’ that seemed to imply that the encomienda in perpetuity was, in fact, a form of enslavement. This paper reexamines the criminal trial of Ruiz and his subsequent appeal from two different angles: studies of colonial translation and scholarship on slavery and Indigenous bondage. This court case provides important evidence regarding Indigenous perceptions of slavery and the encomienda during an early time in the evolution of colonial society. At the same time, it reveals that the shifting sands of translation could accommodate subversive interpretations of key Spanish institutions and even forms of colonial critique.