La incorporación de los indios desnaturalizados del valle Calchaquí y de la región del Chaco a la jurisdicción de Córdoba del Tucumán: Una mirada desde la visita del oidor Antonio Martines Luxan de Vargas, 1692–1693

Abstract

This work is framed in the ethnohistorical perspective and attempts to show the alterations produced in the inter-ethnic relations due to the process of “denaturalization” and movements of the peoples from the valle Calchaquí and the Chaco region towards the jurisdiction of Córdoba city – part of the Viceroyalty of Peru – in the second half of the 17th century. This investigation takes as the main source the visita of Antonio Martines Luxan de Vargas (1692–1693), to which other judicial and capitulary sources have been included. The sources show the changes produced in the economy and local society due to the incorporation of foreign people into the jurisdiction. One of the most important changes we can see in this process is the alteration of the inter-ethnic relations prevailing since then, where the autochthonous population manifested submission to the system, showing few examples and signs of resistance to the local power. In this sense, the Calchaquí and Chaco population offered a more obvious resistance which, in exceptional cases – as it is the case of the “La Toma” natives – contributed to improve the social cohesion.