In 1750, a Spanish resident of Huarochirí, the soldier Sebastián Franco de Melo, plotted and participated in defeating an indigenous uprising that sought to seize control of the region and end Spanish rule. Thanks to Karen Spalding, our knowledge of Franco de Melo, of colonial society in eighteenth-century Huarochirí, and of the rebellion itself is enhanced by the publication of Franco de Melo's day-by-day account of events. The work includes not only transcriptions and photographic reproductions of Franco de Melo's entire diary, but also transcriptions of other documents related to Franco de Melo's life from multiple archives and libraries. Spalding's preliminary study, moreover, provides valuable contextual information and an interpretation of the sources.
Franco de Melo's diary is a fascinating and rare source, since personal diaries were uncommon in the Spanish colonies. Housed in Buenos Aires' Museo Mitre, it was written not as a report for government officials, but rather as an account of Franco de Melo's adventures in Huarochirí for his children. Born in Lisbon to a family that included nobility, Franco de Melo arrived in the Americas after suffering an injury as a soldier in the 1727 Spanish attack on Gibraltar. He married and established residence in Huarochirí, where he fought for the Spanish in the Juan Santos Atahualpa and Huarochirí rebellions. He died poor. During his time in Huarochirí, Franco de Melo worked for Spanish miners, learned Quechua, gained an understanding of indigenous society and customs, and came to know many of those who eventually rebelled. His writings are useful precisely because he could see past stereotypes that informed official reports of indigenous unrest.
Spalding's discussion of colonial society and the framing of the Spanish colonial system in Huarochirí help the reader navigate the social and political world depicted in Franco de Melo's diary. Beginning with descriptions of pre-Hispanic social organization, her preliminary study traces how the Spanish incorporated indigenous offices and practices into their systems of authority and economic extraction. She then surveys the tribute obligations and legal and extralegal burdens indigenous peoples faced, noting that several are mentioned as grievances among rebels in Franco de Melo's diary. Throughout, she emphasizes Huarochirí's proximity to Lima and various mining regions, arguing that this fact of its location shaped the local economy, the rise of powerbrokers and intermediaries, and the experiences of those identified as Indians. With her description of a prototypical indigenous man, Juan Runa, she illustrates both the economic costs indigenous people faced in colonial society and the changes Huarochirí experienced in the eighteenth century.
Spalding is particularly attentive to how colonial power was exercised in Huarochirí and contributed to the 1750 rebellion. She uses Franco de Melo's impressions of both indigenous people and Spaniards to argue that rebels sought to challenge a complex system of exploitation at the hands of Lima's aristocracy and various administrators, landed elites, and intermediaries, there and in Huarochirí. Franco de Melo's text suggests that effective governance in the countryside depended less on direct threats and force than on Spanish residents’ deep local knowledge of indigenous society. Drawing on various sources and published scholarship, Spalding argues that significant deviations from this approach occurred in the eighteenth century, resulting in both increased violence to exert control over indigenous society and the emergence of Spanish and creole fears of indigenous revenge through a mass uprising. Stereotypes and fears of Indian barbarism led to misperceptions of rebels’ motives and prompted brutally violent initial responses to their rebellion. Ethnic identity, however, ultimately played little role in fueling the uprising itself.
A key achievement of Spalding's preliminary study is her nuanced depiction of Franco de Melo in relation to late colonial society's shifting norms and practices. Spalding describes him as reminiscent of don Quijote because he lived according to his own standard of personal honor and according to values and expectations from previous centuries. In Spain, he eschewed his family's ambitions, while in Peru he behaved as a gentleman who was loyal to the sovereign but sympathized with indigenous peoples. Franco de Melo criticized corrupt government functionaries and judges who had become the face of the colonial system in the countryside, even as he fought against indigenous rebels in 1750. Drawing on his writings, Spalding reconstructs how he strategized rebels’ capture and defeat through practices of divide-and-conquer, which were based on extensive knowledge of intercommunity tensions and rivalries. He was, in many respects, an individual whose life and politics diverged from typical characterizations of Spaniards in the colonial Andes.
In addition to providing Andeanists access to a rich and little-known source, Spalding's publication is particularly useful as a teaching tool. For students proficient in Spanish, the transcription offers engaging accounts and the photographic reproductions provide an accessible introduction to colonial paleography. Franco de Melo's marriage documents, his will, and various letters, reports, and legislative acts accompany the diary and with it form the basis for Spalding's excellent preliminary study. By including these sources, Spalding not only enables students to see how primary source analysis and historical interpretation take place, but also gives them materials to build arguments of their own.
