Gregorio González de Cuenca: Visitador y legislador en la Costa Norte, Perú, siglo XVI (1566/67)

Abstract

The subject of this article is the report of the visita of the province of Trujillo carried out by Gregorio González de Cuenca (1566/67) as a document of colonial history and as an expression for the search of a new colonial order at a moment of deep economical and political crisis in the Peruvian viceroyalty. In that context the continuation of prehispanic indigenous institutions — as a deliberate reception of certain elements of prehispanic legal relations — had been considered as part of the new colonial order to facilitate a more effective control over the Indian population. The objective of the visitador Cuenca was to create the legal basis of a reformed colonial administration in the Northern region of Peru. It will be shown how Cuenca modified the reorganization of social hierarchy of the cacicazgos, the privileges of the caciques and the regulation of mutual aid (mita and ayni) and in which way the adoption of money as a form of colonial rent was established.