Towards the early 19th century, a multitude of factors were in play that would eventually lead to and signal the coming of the independence movement of the Spanish colonies in Latin America. In order to ease some of the discontentment of both the colonial and indigenous people of Latin American colonies, a number of reforms were enacted to adjust the social, economic, and political issues in the colonies. Among the many reforms, the financial reforms and situations at the time seem to have given those who were once proletarian in nature, a large degree of upward social mobility. In the image above, there are a few important things to note. As both the description on the bottom of the image and the color of her skin indicates, this is an image of an Indigenous woman of Lima. Judging by her Spanish-style clothing, we can glean that this woman was also of the middle or upper class in Lima. While the details of the image are quite straight-forward and easy to discern, it seems that the image itself is contradictory. Yes, we can easily see that this is an indigenous woman of a higher social class in the Spanish colony of Lima, but the question is How is it even possible for an indigenous woman to be of the middle or upper class in a Spanish colony?
In order to answer this question and to make sense of the possibility of indigenous women in higher social classes, we must first examine the context of both why this is surprising and how this is possible. To begin, it seems that for the time period, the phrase “high-class indigenous woman” seems to be at odds with conventional standards. In the colonial era, the indigenous people of a colonized region were at best, considered of a “lower class” than the settlers of European blood; and in many cases, indigenous people were often forcibly migrated or outright eradicated. On top of this already low-standing position on the social hierarchy, women were further down the chain as they were disparaged in the patriarchal society that existed not only in the colonies but around the world. However, despite the systematic discrimination in place for indigenous people, trade patterns and financial reform in the Spanish colonies of Latin America brought something completely maverick for its time, a large amount of social mobility, especially for indigenous women.
To fully grasp this unorthodox financial rise of indigenous women in the Spanish colonies as seen in the image above, we must first acknowledge and analyze the vital role of the declining Spanish-Colonial trade. In the beginning of the 17th century, there seemed to be a sharp decline of trade between Spain and its colonies, a pattern that would continue on to the 18th century and beyond. While at face-value, this decline in trade may seem to have hurt both Spain and the colonies economically, on the contrary, it actually helped solidify the colonial economy. The absence of trade between Spain led to the bolstering and increasing the presence of the local colonial market, which not only allowed the colonies to operate more independently but to thrive economically. In addition to the solidification of the colonial market, Kris Lane, in his writing on Indigenous Quito Labor, mentions a tax reform enacted in the early 17th century that exempted indigenous people from sales taxes. This new tax reform prompted a surge of indigenous women working as merchants in common areas such as flea markets. In addition, the rise of the local market would produce many indigenous women who have made a fortune and moved up the social ladder, perhaps like the one in the image above.
