CHRISTIANS AND “LENGUARACES” (SPEAKERS OF THE LOCAL NATIVE LANGUAGE): RELIGION, EDUCATION AND RACE IN THE SPEECHES OF ANDEAN ENUNCIATION DURING THE COLONY AND THE REPUBLIC

Abstract

In the Andean area, one of the most important aspects of the colonial rule is the imposition of Christianity as a civilizing element. In the colonial period, those men who were not Christian were considered primitive. In this context, an ethnic group considered as being backward and inferior, is undoubtedly that of the Indians. Therefore, the Christian religion forms the basis for hierarchies which acquire racial character by segregating specific human groups. Later, at the beginning of the republican period, we can see a drop in the strength of the religious element, at the proposal of education as saving grace of the Andean inferiority. This paper explores the inclusion of religion or the Spanish language in three speeches which I call “andean enunciation”¹: El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno of Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala (1615) [The First New Chronicle and Good Government by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (1615)], Representación Verdadera...² of Fray Calixto Túpac Inca (1748) [True Representation of Fray Calixto Túpac Inca (1748)], and Huillca: habla un campesino peruano, enunciado por Saturnino Huillca (1974) [Huillca: a Peruvian peasant speaks, enunciated by Saturnino Huillca (1974)], in order to observe continuities and ruptures in the articulation of the idea of race with concepts linked to religion and education. Following Aníbal Quijano, who has noted that race is a mental construct that expresses the colonial experience (2000: 201), I would suggest that this underlies the civilizing elements existing in the imagination of every epoch, permeating identity constructions in the speeches of colonial and Republic Andean enunciation.