Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria
Memoria Americana – Cuadernos de Etnohistoria (MACE) is a publication edited by the Sección de Etnohistoria del Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas published by the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires. It is a scientific journal which publishes original research papers written by national and international authors in the fields of ethnohistory, historical anthropology and colonial history of Latin America, aiming to make the advances in these disciplinary fields widely available. Its contents are intended for specialists, undergraduate and graduate students and scientists in related fields.
Sección Etnohistoria, Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas. FFyL, UBA
Los derechos de autor son cedidos a Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria, no obstante los autores podrán recuperarlos y reproducir su trabajo en otros medios o formatos previo envío de solicitud al Comité Editorial. En tales casos, deberá citarse a Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria como primera publicación del trabajo y el mismo queda bajo una licencia Creative Commons CC BY NC SA 3.0 Attribution- Non Commercial -ShareAlike 3.0, la cual provee libre acceso inmediato a sus contenidos pues se rige por el principio según el cual hacer disponible -en forma gratuita- la investigación al público fomenta un mayor intercambio de conocimiento a nivel global. Los autores deberán remitir el siguiente formulario de cesión de derechos y compromiso de originalidad: Cesión de derechos y compromiso de originalidad Al Comité Editorial de Memoria Americana, Cuadernos de Etnohistoria Por la presente declaro ser el autor del trabajo titulado (nombre del artículo), el mismo es original y propio y no ha sido publicado en ningún formato o soporte con anterioridad. En caso de ser aceptado para su publicación en Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria (número/año) cedo los derechos editoriales que me corresponden por el aludido artículo para su publicación en todos los formatos que posea la mencionada revista. Si quisiera publicar este artículo a través de otro editor o en otro lugar me comprometo a solicitar el correspondiente permiso por escrito al Comité Editorial de Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria. De ser afirmativa la respuesta del Comité Editorial me comprometo a lo siguiente: especificar lugar, editorial y fecha de la primera publicación del artículo en la nueva publicación realizar esta republicación sólo luego de transcurridos un año calendario desde la fecha de la presente nota de cesión de derechos FIRMA Aclaración
Guaraní surnames in Paraguay. An update of their current use from Mil Apellidos Guaraníes, by León Cadogan
This article presents the Guaraní surnames currently used in Paraguayan population, according to the database of the Police Identification System of the Paraguayan National Police, based on a check of the list published by León Cadogan in Mil Apellidos Guaraníes ([1960] 2005). This compilation, contains a total of 1,189 Guaraní surnames, collected by the author from parishes in former indigenous missions and villages. Of this number, only 79 (6.6 %) are in use today, with births covering not only Paraguay, but also Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Spain. In total, these surnames are carried by some 11,602 people, born in the last 150 years (1869-2019) in the area of extension. Asunción is the town with the largest variety of registered surnames (40 in total), and the department with the smallest amount is Boquerón (6 in total). The department of Caazapá concentrates the largest number of births of people with Guaraní surnames in the entire area.
Copyright (c) 2021 Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria
Who are the “trigueños” (wheat coloured). Analysis of an interstitial racial category (1810-1830)
The term trigueño is an interstitial and ambiguous category into which a significant percentage of soldiers and recruits in freedom condition was classified as of 1810. The following research has a dual purpose: first, to examine the historical content of the expression trigueño -wheat coloured- through the affiliation sheets in relation to recruits enlisted between 1810-1830 where the racial dimension will be articulated with other equally relevant factors such as origin, way of life and education. The second objective will be to emphasize the mestizo possibility this expression implies, since it moderates the idea that statistically African population were classified into this category, which inevitably leads to the study of colonial miscegenation and racial mixed race categories. The dialogue between documentary corpus from the early republicanism allows a greater understanding of the classification logics as they reveal -or are an indication of- the policies that created those instruments as well as those who designed them.
Kinship, territory and power in Northeastern Patagonia: the trajectory of the Cacique Negro’s lineage, 1774-1830
This article explores the indigenous lineages of northeastern Patagonia during the first decades of Carmen de Patagones settlement. By focusing on the study of kinship, it deepens our knowledge on the internal power dynamics, making visible a wider radius of relatives and allies, as well as long-term changes in the indigenous geopolitics. This study analyzes the cacique Negro and his descendants, revealing a certain tension between the local historical memory that weaves a territorial and patrilineal linearity between him and caciques Llanquitrúz and Saygüeque, the cousins who led the region during the mid-nineteenth century. It also relativizes Negro's power and highlights the expansion of lineages from Patagonia to the north of the Negro River. This phenomenon generated greater trans-regional integration. At the same time, this article brings to light the importance of matrilineal ties in power building, and the flexibility that kinship provided to adapt to changing contexts as well as project new leaderships.
Entertainment and symbolic functions of dwarfs and hunchbacks in Mexica society
This article proposes an approach to the functions performed by dwarfs and hunchbacks in the Mexica society and particularly in the courtly life of the sovereign. First, this paper aims to study these figures through their daily roles as emissaries and confidants of the tlatoani. Later, the study will focus on the staging entertainment activities by these individuals, ranging from music and dance to acrobatics. Another topic to be analyzed will be the sacrifice of dwarfs and hunchbacks to accompany the deceased sovereign in the hereafter, as well as atypical events such as drought or a solar eclipse. Through the information traced in the historical records of the 16th century, the article provides new interpretive clues to understand the importance of these figures in the pre-Hispanic Nahua society.
Copyright (c) 2020 Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria
The representation of the Amazonia in the journal Misiones Dominicanas del Perú (1919-1940)
The article presents the main lines of thought contained in the magazine Misiones Dominicanas del Perú (MDP), which began to be published in 1919, exposed as a narrative sample -which also included profusely photography- of the late evangelization in the Amazon at the beginning of the 20th century. In our work converge, among others, the particular history of a religious order as old as Spanish colonialism, the regional situation of southern Peru at the beginning of the 20th century, the offensive of Peruvian Catholicism and the nature of the missions that oscillated between religious paternalism and the support for the expansion of the state and of people who thought of the jungle as a civilizing, economic frontier and in which the original man was absent.
"Those who walk". A Calchaquí narrative event valued from archeology and ethnohistory
The Late rock art recorded in the Quillivil cave, located in the Calchaquíes Valleys, in the Argentine Northwest, exhibits a series of rows of painted human figures, walking in one direction or another. These figures wear decorated garb and important headdresses suggesting that they are elite characters. Who are these characters and what was their destiny? To try to answer these questions, I adopted, as a methodology, a narrative perspective based on the passage of actors through different media; that is, identifying similar pilgrimages in other sites with art or in archaeological pieces of the region. These changes of scenery are forming the thread of a narrative and the comparisons facilitate the identification of the trappings and objects present in the paintings. This information, added to that from Andean ethnohistoric sources -local and regional- allows formulating hypotheses about the event that is portrayed.
Against Morcillo: Peralta Barnuevo’s defense of the Viceroy
In 1720, Don Diego Morcillo Rubio de Auñón, then archbishop of La Plata, was named viceroy of Perú for the second time, at the end of Prince Caracciolo’s term. During his last term as viceroy, Morcillo was elevated to the Metropolitan Archbishopric, thus holding both powers, religious and political. Several pamphlets were published accusing the Viceroy of severe irregularities, such as embezzlement, nepotism, greed, corruption, bribery, etc. Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo, a criollo intelectual close to the viceregal power, wrote two texts defending him from his enemies: Templo de la Fama Vindicado ([1720] 1996), y Diálogo político. La Verdad y la Justicia ([1724] 1996). In this article, I analyze both of these texts and examine the rhetorical devices used in their double function: as defense of the viceregal authority, and as part of the rhetorical and performative position of the criollo intelectual under Bourbon power.
Charrúa graves in Sierra del Arbolito? An approach from History and Archeology based on a map of 1834 that locates them in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay
An interdisciplinary investigation was carried out based on an 1834 map indicating Charrua burials. This information has been considered exceptional because there are no other sources with precise data about sites of this nature in reference to the Charrúa nation. The short distance between the site and the place where the events that ended with the Charrúa nation in the new Oriental Republic of Uruguay took place was also considered relevant. Likewise, the short lapse between these events and the creation of the map -1831 and 1834, respectively- was also taken into account. The main results of the investigation included locating the site in the area, identifying its characteristics, as well as identifying patterns and regularities in the surrounding area; additionally, the archaeological information was contrasted with that of the available ethnohistorical sources.
The Fronteira Sul (Southern Brazilian Frontier) and the wanderings of Cacique Doble between Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina (1852-1864)
The present article is part of the field of indigenous history; it takes the 19th century as its time frame and the wide territory named Fronteira Sul (Southern Brazilian Frontier) in the historical sources used in this study. Throughoutthe text we seek to investigate part of the trajectory of a historical figure, the indigenous Kaingang leader named Cacique Doble, whose leadership took place in the above-mentioned period and scenario. Analyzing Doble’s trajectory allows to examine the relationships this leader maintained with non-indigenous, colonizing agents, and with the indigenous themselves in the struggle to hold their traditional territory. Doble’s movements across the Kaingang territory and the political and diplomatic relations with indigenous and non-indigenous people, observed through historical sources, suggest a broader understanding of the concept of frontier, which in Doble’s particular case has proved to be a very dynamic frontier: a meeting place for different people, a point of communication and exchange among the various agents.
The Comechingon people in Córdoba. A historical review about the indigenous invisibilization (16th to 21st centuries)
In a context of re-emergence of indigenous communities in Córdoba, Argentina, this paper aims to analyze the hegemonic representations of the Comechingon people in the long duration. For this matter, we identify three historical periods in which we find different dominant conceptions about the indigenous people in general and the Comechingon in particular: the Spanish Conquest, when this ethnonym was imposed as a way of homogenizing the various peoples that inhabited the region; the 19th century, when the new nation-state ruling elite sought the invisibilization of all traces of indigenous people; finally, during the 20th century, when both anthropology and historiography brought back the culture and history of the pre-Hispanic indigenous people but, once again, denied their present and their future.
The Lords of Devastation. Ritualized violence in warlike and underworld deities of Western Mexico during the Postclassic (900-1521 AD)
The worship of gods of war in West Mexico has been the object of study before, especially in Michoacán. In the non-Tarascan West; that is, the states of Jalisco, Colima and Nayarit, the issue has not been thoroughly investigated due to the lack of written sources on the matter. However, the iconographic evidence available in the regional archaeological record allows us to infer the presence of very widespread war cults in the region during the Postclassic (900-1521 AD). The phenomenon of war was not exclusive to this period and there is archaeological evidence of it in figurines from the Formative, but it is during this late period that religious representations associated with war and militarism spread, especially in areas with presence of the Aztatlán Network. This paper proposes that the regional warrior cults shared a common symbolic language as part of the growing interregional integration of the Mesoamerican World-System.
A theoretical-methodological proposal regarding territorial transformation. Pulmarí and its rhizomes
This article is part of the studies and field trips carried out in the Pulmarí region -Aluminé department, Neuquén province, Argentina- between 2007 and 2017. Taking into account the field work, the survey of different archives and the contributions generated from geography and critical cartography, we propose a way of territorial understanding which observes the interstices and the vessel-communicators between logics that, initially, are presented in parallel and without possible connections. This type of approach to territory requires crossing space with time in order to generate the historical depth that allows explaining the agencies and the particular reemergence of each territory. Likewise, we propose connections with “the outskirts” that stress and bend the territory. Like a river the territory is in constant movement, but those movements are layers, hence the importance of including these pasts-presents in the ways of being in the territory.
“Ever since your cradle rocked, you were brave”. Mapuche leadership in a post-conquest context, late 19th and early 20th centuries
In the present article we will refer to some specific lines of thought opened by Martha Bechis’ research in the field of studies of politics and leadership in the so-called frontiers of the Southern Cone. In general, to the field of historical studies of the indigenous peoples of Pampas, Araucanía and Patagonia her work became a legacy in terms of concepts, themes and interpretative frames. To be precise, we will reflect on the implications and limits that Bechis’ proposal has offered in approaching process of submission and incorporation to the state of indigenous peoples during the late 19th and 20th centuries in Norpatagonia.
There is no 'dacalapata' (meat), there is no reduction. The Indian escape from San Ignacio de los Tobas at the beginning of the 19th century
This paper is based on an article by Martha Bechis which utilized the mathematical theory of drama or confrontation theory. This methodological instrument allows us to understand a historical episode whose deeper meanings are rooted in a broader process which gives them significance and relationships. We will analyze the escape of the Tobas from the San Ignacio reduction -Jujuy jurisdiction- at the beginning of the 19th century. To this purpose, we will contextualize the episode within the drama of the chronic frontier instability and the scarcity of resources assigned to the maintenance of forts and reductions, and we will connect it with other episodes of the same drama and another -the suspension of the rations to the reduction, the indigenous exploitation on the haciendas and the misconduct of friar Ortiz. We propose that the escape was a strategy to which the indigenous people resorted to assert their interests and needs against the Spanish Creoles.
Political vocabulary for the indigenous peoples of the Chaco and Pampa regions during the colonial period: nación and parcialidad
In the documentary sources of the colonial period, one usually finds the words nación, parcialidad, parcialidades or parciales linked to indigenous groups. As many other terms found in the sources, their use has spread -without much analysis- to academic writing since the beginnings of anthropology in Argentina. A closer examination to the situations and contexts in which these terms are used and registered -on frontiers, in Cabildos, in Jesuit writings and in the works of the first ethnohistorians- allows us to identify different nuances. We sustain that reflecting on those contexts and nuances could shed light on the imaginaries of colonial agents regarding the political organization of indigenous peoples in the past and, at the same time, enlighten the ways in which these terms have remained as technical political vocabulary in the academic literature.
Cacical succession and political strategies in Santa Isabel de Pucará (Cabana and Cabanilla province), Audiencia de Charcas, 16th and 17th centuries
This paper recovers Martha Bechis’ proposals on the cacical succession among the rankülchen of the south of current Córdoba province (Argentina) in mid-19th century to consider the same problem in the southern Andean pueblos de reducción between late 16th and early 17th centuries. We evaluate the hermeneutic operativity of the concept of “adelphic succession”, referred to a collateral or “fraternal” hereditary pattern, to analyze the transformations carried out by the Hispanic colonial domination on native groups and on the criteria of legitimacy of the pre-Hispanic kuraka, who became caciques principales. Nourished by this exploration over discontinuous spatialities and temporalities, we focus on the pueblo of Santa Isabel de Pucará -Cabana y Cabanilla province, current Puno department, Peru- to examine the changes in the inheritance patterns through the prism of an inheritance lawsuit of 1591-1606.
Introduction to the Dossier: “When I grow up”: some derivations of Martha Bechis’ work
Martha Bechis's work was prolific and drew from diverse theoretical frameworks -catastrophe theory, chaos theory, discontinuous change theory, and play and drama theory, cybernetics, discourse analysis, and state formations- and she constantly reflected on the ethnohistory of Pan-Araucanía. Her centrality in the disciplinary field transcended her theoretical, historical, and analytical contributions, as she had the gift of writing with simplicity, making complex notions or concepts easy to understand. Her work is often an inexhaustible source of ideas. It is also worth highlighting another aspect that we consider fundamental to the growth of the disciplinary field of which she was a pioneer: her enormous generosity, as she dedicated a good part of her time, patience, and kindness to training the disciples who today make up this field. This is the motivation for preparing and publishing this dossier.
Early industrial innovations, entrepeneurs, literate women and Mapuche merchants in the Concepción and Araucanía border. El Correo del Sur 1849-1865
This article uses the records of the newspaper El Correo del Sur, published in Concepción -a city located in the south of the nascent state of Chile- between 1849 and 1865, to examine perceptions of the historical changes unleashed by the innovations of the industrial revolution, linked with the installation of milling factories, the development of coal mining, the use of steam engines and the publication of newspapers. Particularly it focuses in the point of view of the emergent new social agents, such as businessmen, elite women and salaried workers, also joined by traditional actors as Mapuche merchants around the Araucanía border who remained outside the republican state. These people were reported on in the newspaper as characters which articulated the transition to a global market economy.
Copyright (c) 2022 Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria
From levo to town, the socipolitical and demographic evolution of the Mapuche of Concepción: the Coyunche and their transformations in the context of Alonso Galiano’s encomienda, 1550-1700
Before the arrival of the Spanish to the region of Concepción its inhabitants were organized in alliances or social groups: levo or rewe expanded in some cases into larger alliances recognized later as ayllarewe. One of these larger alliances were the Coyunche from the plains of the Laja River. Due to the presence of the Spanish the Coyunche suffered a rupture: the levo north of the Laja River stayed under Spanish control while those to the south maintained a relative independence. In this paper we present the evolution of the northern Coyunche who were subjected early to the encomienda regimen, and we will analyze the changes and trajectories that they experienced during nearly one and a half centuries of history within this work regime.
Spaces and daily activities of pre-hispanic Nahua childhood
This paper analyses the different spaces in which daily life of the Nahua children of the Mesoamerican Central High Plateau took place, based on the revision of documentary source. It begins with an examination of quotidian life at home and in the domestic units. Afterwards, the paper analyses the children’s presence in places such as the market, the milpa, the mountain and the lake, where they learned the activities that they would have to perform in their adult life. Also, it briefly reflects on their presence in the temples of education; finally, additional places in which pre-hispanic childhood took place are considered.
"Las quentas de las Benditas Ánimas". An approach to the economy of a rural Indian brotherhood in Omaguaca, 17th century
This paper deals with the economic activity of an indigenous brotherhood (cofradía) named Benditas Ánimas del Purgatorio, during the second half of the 17th century. This institution, formed by the Indian of Omaguaca and Uquía people was established in 1664 in the church of San Antonio de Omaguaca, located in the Quebrada de Humahuaca -today Jujuy Province, northwestern Argentina. We present an analysis of the participation of indigenous sectors in the economy of the people living in the Quebrada during colonial times. It is focused on the economic dynamics developed by the brotherhood: production, accounts, expenses, deliveries, debtors, credit circulation and other data provided by the sources. The paper aims to characterize the role of the institution within this economy, giving an account of the aforementioned movements and evidencing the different protagonists in the context of their liturgical practices.
Disputes over memories of the conquest: the chronicle of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl
Memories of the Mesoamerican conquest were recorded in manuscripts known as the corpus of the chronicles of indigenous tradition that respond to a complex of temporal and spatial meanings, as well as the concerns of its authors regarding pre-hispanic cultures and their alliances. In this article, we study how the Compendio histórico de los reyes de Tetzcoco, of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, represents the war against Tenochtitlan and deals with the symbolic construction of the rulers of Tetzcoco. This chronicle is composed of thirteen Relaciones that explore the history of the Acolhua population in the eastern basin of Mexico. It represents the author's intention to insist on the recognition of his social position as a descendant of the most important allies of the army led by Hernán Cortés, a version that confronts the hegemony of the Tenochca presence in the reorganization of the Spanish vicerroyal government.
Rock art in colonial context. Preliminary analyses of the Alero Estancia Guayascate site, north of Córdoba (Argentina)
This paper attempts to contextualize pre-Hispanic rock art in the north of Córdoba, while analyzing its presence within the framework of a colonial institution (encomienda). In this sense, the study of the Alero Estancia Guayascate archaeological site may reveal aspects related to the indigenous-colonial situation since it involves groups of different ethnic origins: the indigenous residents of Guayascate, the indigenous residents of Guayascate, the indigenous populations introduced as a result of the encomienda and the merced de tierras and the Spaniards in charge of them. Rock art is understood as a marker of identity shared by indigenous groups in the north of Córdoba. Therefore, foreign groups interrupting both the spaces as well as daily life routines in Guayascate could imply a loss of the original meaning in the execution of the rock art, due to the fact that there were no further interventions on the site.
De-indianization and evangelical ethnicity in the foothills and the Andean highlands of Jujuy. An historical ethnography
This paper proposes a historical and comparative ethnography on the first evangelical expansion in the Andean foothills and the highlands of the province of Jujuy, Argentina. Although under different ecological and demographic conditions, this evangelical expansion occurred during the first half of the 20th century as part of the same process, as it was driven by Christian Brethren missionaries and later by indigenous evangelists. These facts occurred in the framework of the construction of the Nation State and under the domination of enclave economies -sugar mills in the foothills and mining in the highlands. The encounter of Guaraní and Colla populations with this new religion and how they adopted it tended to a process of de-indianization and towards the configuration of an evangelical ethnicity.
Territorial dispossession and indigenous extermination campaigns in the Northeast of Santa Fe Province (1866-1890)
At the end of the 19th century, the Argentine State campaigned across the Chaco region to extend its territory. Earlier, European and American immigrants had colonized the northeast area of present-day Santa Fe Province and raided against Mocoví people, already settled there. Although these campaigns took place particularly throughout the decade of 1870 they continued at least until 1890. This article analyzes and discusses their characteristics and purposes in detail. After examining the reports of the colonists involved in many of the incursions and comparing them with complementary documents of the time, it is claimed that these campaigns sought displacement and annihilation of the indigenous people. Moreover, this work contributes to the study of Mocoví society, economy, and culture during the second half of the 19th century.
Moral condemnation, political fear and mercantile profit: Spanish attitudes and policies in the face of Indian borrachera feasts (frontier of Concepción de Chile, 18th century)
Throughout the native Americas, collective feasts were important events of sociability. In Chile, Indian borracheras were considered one of the main difficulties Christian missionaries had to face in order to convert natives, also civilian and military authorities considered them dangerous because they could lead to rebellions and uprisings. Therefore, the sale of alcohol to the Indians was traditionally rejected until, on occasion of the Parlamento of 1793 and after obtaining several favorable opinions in this regard, the Spanish government decided to encourage the trade of alcoholic beverages with the natives. Why did those who had traditionally opposed the introduction of alcohol at the border now overwhelmingly endorsed and recommended it with emphasis? Through different sources, which include the opinions requested from several colonial actors, we will try to answer this question, examining the economic situation of the Concepción’s frontier towards late 18th century, whose avatars explain the reactions of the interested parties to a large extent.
Notes for a conversation on the study of colonial cartographic records
This article constitutes a summary or annotated bibliography on the main contributions towards the study of maps and other cartographic documents from different social disciplines. Diverse ideas coming from anthropology,cultural, colonial, cartographic and visual studies are selected and put into a discussion that reflects on the nature of cartographic images and a possibleanalysis methodology. It is suggested that by virtue of their hybrid nature, a study that contemplates both textual and visual features will lead us to a better understanding of these documents and their possibilities as sources of information.
District mayors of Jujuy. Between colony and revolution
This work analyses the role of district mayors in the socio-legal framework of Jujuy city in the early 19th century. These court auxiliaries were key agents in the complex political scenario developed in the territory after 1810. Their representation was overlapped by the functions they performed as community life organizers and as intermediary agents of the electoral process in the Republican period. In order to explain the judges’ actions during the revolutionary process and the consolidation of the new order we have tried to answer the following questions: who were these district mayors?, where did they come from?, how did they perform their role?, how did they build structures of authority? This paper dialogues with the latest historiography about the social history of justice, in particular with studies on peripheral municipal justice, neighborhood mayors, as well as with case studies of different territories in the Río de la Plata region.
The organization of the urban magistrate courts: the justices of the peace in their daily endeavour, between material resources and administrative plots (Rosario, 1854-1872)
The paper examines the performance of the urban magistrate courts of the city of Rosario between 1854 and 1872 and shows that these courts have played a key role in the political and institutional reorganization process that sought to bring the areas of justice to the population. In this regard, the analysis in not limited to the regulatory and institutional orientations adopted by the state authorities, but also extends to the daily duties of these judges. This article studies the administrative plots in which these justices of the peace were involved, their communications with different social agents such as police chiefs, political leaders and first instance judges, the composition of the courts, such as lieutenants and other aid personnel, as well as the dynamic and the materiality which they have developed in the performance of their duties.
Jurisdictional powers in the government and customs administration in the Rio de la Plata: the secret commission of Francisco Ximénez de Mesa in the Royal Customs of Montevideo in 1786
The present paper aims to learn about the political and institutional reality of the Royal Customs of the Río de la Plata. It seeks to understand the political system of the Spanish monarchy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and analyzes the secret commission of Francisco Ximénez de Mesa in the Royal Customs office of Montevideo in 1786. The jurisdictional powers of the Royal Treasury in the hands of the superintendent of the Royal Treasury, Francisco de Paula Sanz, allowed organizing such an investigation. In 1788, after the restructuring of the superintendence, the commission reports were resumed, causing the revision of the financial statements, leading to the bankruptcy of the administrator Antonio Quintana Lasso de la Vega. For the study of this case, files from the Criminal section of the Archivo General de la Nación, documentation of Royal Order, regulations and ordinances linked to the administrative organization of the customs branch were consulted.