THE INDIAN CASTE OF PERU, 1795-1940 — KUBLER 



37 



paragraph of his informe gives further light on 

 the terra. 



Se dice Mestizo el descendiente de Padre de esta casta 

 aunque la Madre sea India, o vice versa, quando verda- 

 deram t0 son Cholos. 



(A man calls himself a mestizo as the son of a father 

 of this caste, although his mother be Indian, or vice versa, 

 when in truth such people are Cholos.) 



Farfan implies that the true mestizo was at least 

 half white ; and that any smaller fraction of white 

 parentage classified the individual as a Cholo. 

 Farfan also comments upon the growing number 

 of non-Indian people in his jurisdiction, and upon 

 the insoluble technical problem of discriminating 

 clearly between the "races" in his time. 



Inquirir sus generaciones fue una ocupacion bien fasti- 

 diosa, en medio de la dificultad de conseguirlo. Porq hay 

 muchos Interesados en que los Cholos sean fixos, y grande 

 el numero de los que pasan por Mestizos no siendolos: 

 libros de tributo para el Rey . . . Los Cholos se hallan 

 considerados por Mesticos, y era ocio [so] el recurso a los 

 libros Parroquiales, para hallarse con la Partida de Bap- 

 tismo algun Comprobante de la calidad del Individuo. 

 Asi eran y son los Libros y los Curas . . . testigos ineptos 

 para descubrir y comprobar la verdad. 



(To verify people's ancestry was a most tedious occu- 

 pation, given the difficulty of getting the truth. Many 

 interested parties have a stake in keeping the Cholos 

 settled. And a number of Cholos, who pass as mestizos 

 exempt from royal tribute, are not mestizos. But the 

 Cholos are regarded as mestizos. It is futile to consult 

 parish registers, in the hope of finding some evidence as 

 to the quality of the person together with his baptismal 

 entry. Both the registers and the priests are inadequate 

 witnesses for discovering and proving the truth.) 



Farfan implies that he would like to class the 

 Cholos as tribute-paying Indians, by regarding 

 as Indian every person in whom he could prove 

 less than one-half white ancestry. 



The tax registers between 1826 and 1854, how- 

 ever, resolved the problem by an honest verbal 

 device. Instead of referring to the non-Indian 

 groups by misleading racial tags, such as appear 

 in the census of 1876 and in 1940, the apoderados 

 fiscales nearly always enumerated the non-Indian 

 lower-income groups as castas. This term, which 

 literally signifies "the castes," fully conveys the 

 status-bound character of these groups. Occa- 

 sionally an apoderado fiscal adhered to the usage 

 of the province in which he was employed, and 

 reverted to pseudobiological words, as in Yauyos 

 Province in 1826, when the non-Indians were 

 registered as mistos, or "mixed breeds." 38 In 



88 MS. "Revisita de Mistos de la Provincia de Yauyos, Dep. de Lima," 

 AHMH, R.0055. 57 fos. 



Huamachuco Province in 1826, the apoderado 

 labeled the Indians as Cholos, which also im- 

 poses a biological definition upon a caste. 39 



Occasionally a tax collector recorded an incident 

 or an observation that reveals to what extent 

 caste distinctions were elastic. For example, the 

 apoderado for 1846 in Jauja Province recalled that 

 during the War of Independence, the royalist 

 troops in Jauja had used the parish registers to 

 make cartridges. The apoderado observes that 

 for this reason, "many who used to be Indians, 

 have been transferred into castas." *° 



In 1845 in the Province of La Uni6n, an apoder- 

 ado named Gregorio Cornejo reported with pro- 

 found insight upon the caste situation, in words 

 that hold for the present and for the future of the 

 Peruvian "racial" problem: 41 



. . . es probable que se extinga [la clase indfgena] en 

 algunos pueblos . . . por que los Indigenas, se estan 

 casando con Mestizas, cuyos hijos siguiendo la condicion 

 de sus madres dejan de perteneser a esa clase. 



(It is likely that the Indian class will disappear in some 

 towns . . . for the Indians are marrying the mestizo 

 women, whose children, by adopting the status of the 

 mothers, cease to belong to the Indian class.) 



CASTE MAJORITIES 



Maps 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 display the regions of Peru in 

 respect to the dominant "racial" group, in 1795, 

 in 1826/54, in 1876, and in 1940. The shaded por- 

 tions show provinces with non-Indian majorities 

 of 50 percent or greater; and the unshaded areas 

 indicate Indian majorities greater than 50 percent. 

 Maps 1, 3, 5, and 7 display the boundaries of the 

 provinces and their nomenclature at the same 

 moments in time. 



To show the distribution of percentages in more 

 detail seems unprofitable, given the incomplete- 

 ness of the record. 42 It is likewise of little value 

 to treat the "races" other than as Indian and non- 

 Indian. By Indian we have here accepted the 

 census taker's or the tax collector's judgment of 

 who is an Indian, for it is with social attitudes 



8 » MS. "Libro primero, y Duplicado de Contribuclon de Indigenas, do la 

 Provincia de Huamachuco, que comprehonde la Capital do su Nombre, y sus 

 Doctrinas de Sartinbamba, Cajabambn, Marcabal, y Amarcucho, quo 

 empeso a correr desde 1° do Julio de 1826." AHMH. R.0054. 280 fos. 



•0 MS. "Matrlcula de Indigenas de la Provincia de Jauja, Dpto. do Junta," 

 AHMH, R. 0349. 223 fos. The informe on p. 14 Is signed by the collector, 

 Mario Llnas, and dated 1846. P. 6: ". . . muchos quo nan portenccldo a 

 Indljcnas, han sido convertidos en Castas . . ." 



" MS. "Matricula Oral, de Indigenas de la Provincia do la Union Dep. de 

 Arequipa," AHMH, R. 0340. 162 fos. 



« Complete percentage maps of "racial" distribution for 1940 are available 

 in Rowe, 1947, figs. 2-4. 



