The Bishop's Utopia. Emily Berquist Soule

information was the very foundation of reform culture—without it, officials had no way of knowing what needed to be done. For help in beginning such an important task, he turned again to his parish priests, asking for them to facilitate detailed answers from local informants on the following queries:

      1. What is the character and natural inclination of the natives of this doctrina, and if they understand and speak Castilian. If they are applied to their work or not. If there is any noticeable difference between Indians, Spanish, and other castas, as much in this or in their customs. And if this is attributed to differences in their education, or to some other natural or accidental principle. And what is the education they usually give to their children.

      2. If the weather and climate is beneficial, and if … the … [territories] … of your jurisdiction are reputed to be healthy or sick, and to what they attribute whichever of these two qualities … are prevalent. Which are the most common sicknesses, and their causes, and the common medicines used to cure them, and [what is] the age to which its inhabitants typically live.

      3. If there might be news that any of the towns belonging to this doctrina have been abandoned, [have] disappeared, or moved to another place, and the cause of the one or the other.

      4. At what age they usually marry … in this doctrina. By which hand they usually arrange marriages. If there are any celibates, and [where] this virtue is most frequently found, both in terms of the castas and in terms of the sexes.

      5. If one finds increased or not the number of landowners and city residents, both in this capital and in its annexes, with respect to the information in the censuses and old books, or the traditions of the towns. And what is the total of this augmentation or diminution, and if it is of Indians or other castas, and to what cause they attribute it.

      6. If either within this principal town or its annexes, or surrounding areas begin any sources [of water], if these are the waters that serve for the common use of the people, and if in these they might have noted any particular quality, and what it might be.

      7. If a river runs through its land or its borders, what they call it, where it has its beginnings, if they make use of its waters, and if they are known to be healthy. If it is navigable and if it has a bridge, and if not having a bridge if it would be possible to build one, and how much, more or less, its construction would cost.

      8. What crops they harvest, and their quality, how much the fields produce, and what is the method, form, and season of doing their planting, cultivating, and harvesting.

      9. If they keep any commerce … and of what kind, with towns or provinces, and what utilities it produces, and whether there might be some method or means of advancing it.

      10. If there are any sugar plantations or refineries, cattle ranches, workshops, or agricultural estates, what are their profits, if tribute is given to them, how much they are given and how many workers they maintain. And if among them there are any mitayos, what salaries they pay them, and how they are paid.

      11. If there are any minerals, which they are, how they mine them, and what they yield.

      12. If there are any medicinal herbs, branches, or fruits, which they are, what are their shape, and the virtue of each one of them, and the mode of applying and using them.

      13. If there are any mineral waters, and … if they are hot or temperate, sulfurous, nitrous, ferrous, or of another quality, what use they made of them, and to what effect.

      14. If there are any resins or fragrant balsams, which they are, and what virtue they attribute to them.

      15. If there are any strange birds or carnivorous animals, or any poisonous animals or insects, and if there are any of these, what precautions those who live around them take.

      16. If there are any woods, their abundance, and qualities, the use they make of them, or might be able to make of them.

      17. If there are any structures from the times before the conquest that are notable for their material, form, grandness, or any vestiges of that. If at any time they have found any huge bones that seem to be human. And whether they have any tradition that in some time there might have been giants, and in the places where they might have had them, for what time, when did they become extinct and for what reason, and what support the people have for the said legend.

      18. If in the Indians one sees anything that smells of superstition, about what points and which are the reasons to distrust, or believe it, and what methods would be the most effective to extirpate them with respect to [the Indians’] character, inclinations, ideas, and customs.³⁴

      A careful reading of the questionnaire suggests that the Bishop was already imagining how to draw the broad outlines of his utopia in Trujillo. Perhaps thinking of the Túpac Amaru Indian rebellion that had so recently threatened Spanish hegemony in the southern portions of the viceroyalty, the first section of the document sought details about “the character and natural inclination of the natives of this doctrina.” This had several facets, most of which concerned how “Hispanicized” the Indians were. Martínez Compañón wanted to know whether they spoke Spanish, a central indicator of previous meaningful interaction they had with church and state authorities. He also inquired whether there was any “noticeable difference” between the local Indians’ places in society and that of the Spanish or other castas who lived nearby. This would reveal whether they had fared well under Spanish colonial authorities, or whether they had become a permanent underclass that would have little motivation and few resources with which to support his reform agenda. Another factor that would signify a group receptive to his plans was whether “they are applied to their work or not,” as he put it. In response to this query, he must have hoped that he would not hear stereotypically negative comments such as those that would appear in Carrio’s Lazarillo a few years later, which claimed that Peru’s Indians had “no objective other than that of drunkenness” and that they were so lazy that they “would let themselves be eaten by lice” rather than work.³⁵

      Given his experience as rector of the Saint Toribio Seminary in Lima and his plans to extend primary education throughout the bishopric, Martínez Compañón inquired as to whether area children attended school, likely understanding that “differences … in education” for Indian and white children might explain why the Indians were not known for industriousness or facility with the Spanish language. If local people assumed that differences between Spaniards and Indians were based on inherent deficiencies in native bodies and minds, the Bishop needed to know about the “natural or accidental principle” to which they attributed this difference.

      Assuming that the Indians in question did work, Martínez Compañón wanted to gather more specific details about how they did so. He wanted to know if the community in question had any established commercial networks, and where these were. He hoped that the priest might suggest, if he could, “whether there might be some method or means of advancing [such commercial activity].” The Bishop knew that the people might also work in agriculture or mills, or perhaps in small workshops known as obrajes, if they did so, he wondered whether it was in order to meet their tribute duties or to earn money for themselves. He inquired as to how large these commercial operations were, including how many employees they had and whether any were assigned mita laborers. Such information would help him imagine how to improve each—perhaps through facilitating transportation along trade routes, sharing innovative agricultural techniques, or seeking updated machinery that might increase production in mills or obrajes.

      While work and productivity were key to the present and future potential of Trujillo’s Indian communities, Martínez Compañón—like most administrators in Spain’s overseas territories (as Chapter 3 will illustrate)—believed that communal living in cities or towns was also key to development. He knew that with the exception of larger population centers such as Trujillo, Piura, Cajamarca, and Chachapoyas, many miles of Trujillo were isolated and rural, with no towns to speak of. He therefore inquired if the area in question had been home to any previous urban settlements that had “been abandoned, [have] disappeared, or moved to another place.” A related