Supersticioso, embustero, engañador. El proceso judicial contra Juan Mequeb (San Antonio de Chacao, Chiloé, 1728)

Abstract

Judicial sources, brushed against the grain, have proven to be documents that provide access to information about marginalized sectors, particularly practices that, if not considered criminal by powerful groups, would likely go unrecorded. On this occasion, we present the transcription and analysis of a process that took place in 1728 in Chiloé, in which Juan Mequeb, an “indio de encomienda” resident on the island of Quenac, is being tried for the death of Antonia, an indigenous woman who lived on the same island. While both Spaniards and native people sought Mequeb's help to treat various health conditions, reading the records reveals that these same individuals suspected that these ailments were caused by the accused through witchcraft as a means of gaining personal benefits and seeking revenge. This is an unpublished document of twenty pages written on both sides, which analysis allows us to examine issues related to beliefs in witchcraft among the Spanish, mestizo, and indigenous inhabitants of the region, the interaction between belief systems, the role of rumors in the construction of narratives, and native-origin therapeutic practices.

Keywords

• Witchcraft
• kalkutun
• medicine
• Chiloé
• judicial sources