Prologue: cacicas in the early Spanish CaribbeanIda AltmanIntroductionSara Vicuña Guengerich and Margarita R. OchoaThe cacicas of Teotihuacan: early colonial female power and wealthBradley BentonFounding mothers: the tapias of Querétaro, 1571-1663Peter B. VillellaDoña Marcela and the cacicas of bourbon Mexico City: family, community, and indigenous ruleMargarita R. OchoaSinking fortunes: two female caciques and an ex-gobernadora in the kingdom of Guatemala, 1700-1821Catherine Komisaruk"Women were governing before the Spanish entered in this kingdom": the institutionalization of the cacica from the north coast of PeruKaren B. GraubartPublic voice and political authority: native female leadership in the sixteenth-century northern AndesChantal CaillavetCacicas, land, and litigation in seventeenth-century Chincha, PeruLiliana Pérez Miguel and Renzo HonoresA royalist cacica: Doña Teresa Choquehuanca and the postrebellion natives of the Peruvian highlandsSara Vicuña GuengerichPeacemaker cacicas in the Río de la Plata southern frontierFlorencia RouletConclusion: to be cacica in colonial times--the rhetoric of "Pureza"Mónica DíazAppendix: Cacicas in Nicaragua, 1522-1550Patrick S. Werner
"The term cacica was a Spanish linguistic invention, a female counterpart to caciques, the Arawak word for male indigenous leaders in Spanish America. But the term's meaning was adapted and manipulated by natives, creating a new social stratum where it previously may not have existed. This book explores that transformation, a conscious construction and reshaping of identity from within. Cacicas feature far and wide in the history of Spanish America, as female governors and tribute collectors and as relatives of ruling caciques--or their destitute widows. They played a crucial role in the establishment and success of Spanish rule, but were also instrumental in colonial natives' resistance and self-definition. In this volume, noted scholars uncover the history of colonial cacicas, moving beyond anecdotes of individuals in Spanish America. Their work focuses on the evolution of indigenous leadership, particularly the lineage and succession of these positions in different regions, through the lens of native women's political activism. Such activism might mean the intervention of cacicas in the economic, familial, and religious realms or their participation in official and unofficial matters of governance. The authors explore the role of such personal authority and political influence across a broad geographic, chronological, and thematic range--in patterns of succession, the settling of frontier regions, interethnic relations and the importance of purity of blood, gender and family dynamics, legal and marital strategies for defending communities, and the continuation of indigenous governance.This volume showcases colonial cacicas as historical subjects who constructed their consciousness around their place, whether symbolic or geographic, and articulated their own unique identities"--