Devociones de Inmigrantes. indígenas andinos y plurietnicidad urbana en la conformación de cofradías coloniales (Santiago de Chile, siglo XVII)

Abstract

In the origins of colonial Chile it is possible to find numerous Andean Indians who worked for Spaniards, settled and were integrated in labor and social spaces of this peripheral "new world". They established local nets and relationships, and had descendants. Many became craftmen and some left wills or traces on ecclesiastic and notarial documents that allow us to observe their participation in brotherhoods created in Chile's capital. These corporations had a religious aim, but worked as privileged channels for the insertion and mobility of diverse people. Under this premise, this article analyzes the main brotherhoods in which these immigrants participated, linking religious practices with their social nets and working spaces. The brotherhoods studied reveal themselves as instances that represent the diversity of geographic and ethnic origins of its members, as well as the multiple points of reference for their identities, that circulated and interacted in a colonial urban space such as Santiago of Chile. © 2010 Instituto de Historia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.