The colonial visitas were, in the best of cases, virtual censuses, nearly as complete as the most comprehensive censuses of the modern era. They provide historians with one of the finest sources available for reconstructing the lives of thousands of unnamed commoners. Andean-area specialists have several published visitas available to use in their attempts to recreate the past. The most detailed of them, such as those of part of the province of León de Huánuco, taken in 1562, and the province of Los Collaguas in 1591, give the name, age, sex, community, and ayllu (kinship unit) of each individual, as well as precise information on family resources.
The visitas published here are a portion of the extensive papers presented on behalf of two female litigants, doña Jordana Mejía, widow of Melchor Verdugo, and doña Beatriz de Ysasaga, widow of Garcí Holguín, contesting the control of encomienda Indians in the Cajamarca district. It is clear that all papers relating to the history of the grant were available to the justices who originally reviewed the case, which dates from the time of the original grants of Francisco Pizarro. Some of these documents have been found and published (for example, the visita of Barrientos of 1540 by Waldemar Espinosa Soriano). This particular inspection, ordered by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, was begun by Diego Velázquez de Acuña in 1571 and completed by Corregidor Diego de Salazar in 1578. This inspection is not to be confused with the fiscal visita of Corregidor Francisco de Cueto undertaken from 1572 to 1574. A fragment of this important census remains, unpublished, in Seville’s Archive of the Indies (Escribanía de Camara 501A).
By comparison to the censuses already published, the visitas of Cajamarca are disappointing. The information provided differs markedly from the standard Toledo visitas. Those published here rarely give the ages of adults, for example. Typical is the entry for “Martin Manya and his wife, Catalina Cacune, he has a boy and two girls, the oldest female is ten” (vol. 2, p. 97). The ages of girls appear more frequently than those of boys. This is most unusual, particularly because the age of the boy approaching the age of tribute was critical for all segments of the colonial regime. Beyond calculating total population and family size, the demographic use of these data is thereby severely restricted. Although the publisher claims that the Cajamarca visitas provide information for “numerous specialists from diverse disciplines, from mining engineers and historians to linguists, biologists, geographers, ecologists, and demographers,” this reviewer would be hard pressed to find the supporting evidence.
The essays that accompany the data likewise are less satisfying than the more detailed studies that have been published in consort with other sixteenth-century Andean visitas. Maria Rostworowski’s piece on “etnias forasteras en la visita toledana a Cajamarca” appeared originally in Andean Ecology and Civilization (1985). Pilar Remy’s article was published elsewhere at about the same time. The present edition was entrusted largely to Remy, who unfortunately failed to discuss norms of transcription; nor did she describe the location and condition of the document. More disconcerting is the presentation of the data. The slash (/) is used to indicate (I suspect) the page in the original document, but no foliation is given. Furthermore, the published transcription seems to begin somewhere in the middle of the original text, but where?
Editor Remy’s misleading and inaccurate comments on historical demography betray a lack of knowledge of both method and the basic bibliography. At best, a full transcription of the visita following accepted norms should have been provided, along with the supplementary information on the Cajamarca district so beautifully described by the documents.
