Magical Meztizaje in the City: Exchanges, Appropiations and Receptions. The Inquisitorial Trial of María Flores «la llana Candela», 1699-1709

Abstract

This paper analyzes one of the inquisitorial trials conducted by the Santo Oficio of Lima between 1699 and 1709. The pages 109 to 11 of the file 5.345 in the Lima Inquisition section of the AHN describe the personal characteristics of a woman whose knowledge, actions and social interactions reveal ethnic, cultural, and above all superstitious alliances, with urban magical practices. The fact she was from Cuzco, her trade as a spinner, and that she was mestiza exemplified the exchange and appropriations of the magic-religious prac­tices and expressions developed in the city. In each of her confessions, she related to her inquisitors the motilities, the knowledge and the skills acquired over the years, as her being mestiza allowed her move between the Hispanic and indigenous worlds, and, at the same time, carry with her a series of prejudices that facilitated a level of recognition among her peers. However, this same social recognition labelled her as a dangerous woman and, there­fore, a transgressor. Therefore, the paper details the dialogues, actions and expressions that assert the urban magical practices developed by subjects whose social position symbolizes, on the one hand, the magic-religious exchange between the different ethnic categories and, on the other, a threat to the inquisitorial authorities.