Borracheras, huidas y rebeldía entre los indios de Chile colonial.Decretos, autos y bandos de los siglos XVI y XVII

Abstract

The documents presented below provide a picture of the political, social and ethnic mosaic of the colonial Chile. They form an administrative body revealing ambiguities in a bustling frontier. The documents express the direct representative’s voice of the Crown or members of the collegiate organizations composed for the elite, i.e. cabildos, specifically the Cabildo of Santiago, displaying everyday problems that the officials must face, reacting to situations that were explained by the precarious territorial control that judges, magistrates and even the encomenderos could have on indigenous groups and other conquered individuals from central Chile, who participated in the customs, rituals, games and criminal behavior, including those deployed in urban and rural areas. These documents constitute legal actions derived from the Crown activities and their representatives in Chile, interpreting certain actions that, in the eyes of both the authorities and the Spanish elite, conspired against the security of the kingdom, the establishment of Christianity and even against the moral and physical integrity of those involved.

Keywords

• Decrees
• rebellion
• the chueca game
• drunkenness