Pueblos de indios del antiguo Obispado del Cusco

Abstract

The former Bishopric of Cusco used to serve and encompass over 200 towns that now belong to the Departments of Cusco, Apurímac and part of Arequipa. They were the so called «pueblos de indios» («town of indigenous people») that had been formed during the colonial period. In order to delimit this portion of the land, this study focuses mainly on documents from the late 18th century. Three types of supplementary documents contributed to this research: numeric records, maps and descriptive texts.

Some of these jurisdictions have changed, but we decided to maintain the division from the 1780’s, and use it to organize this study. The documentation gathered was not equally distributed; therefore, we had to resort to maps, current photographs and surveys, as well as anient photographs and engravings. Satellite images were used to get an idea of urban maps and determine details regarding the surroundings, access to and connections between towns. In a few cases, these images con?rmed that certain areas had been abandoned or had disappeared.

This paper is a synthesis that involves the preexistence of indigenous communities and considers social, economic, architectural, artisanal, and religious issues. It also mentions important people such as Bishop Mollinedo, and proposes certain policies for heritage recovery.