Alfredo Escudero is a PhD Candidate in History at Florida International University and a 2023-2024 Consortium Research Fellow.
It was an honor to participate in the fellowship program of the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine to support my dissertation research. This dissertation explores the tribute and labor conditions of Andean indigenous peoples in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the early Spanish colonial rule. My goal is to analyze how the colonial tribute regime contributed to the “capture” and systematization of knowledge about indigenous agricultural and textile technologies, and labor management in Andean villages across the central and Southern Andes. Specifically, I focus on the systematic process of data collection through visitas (land inspections and censuses) in which official colonial inspectors engaged with local indigenous population in interviews, observations and registration over crops, animals, textiles, land management, local demographics and other aspects of indigenous labor relevant for the fixation of tribute. The fellowship from the Consortium allowed me to expand my research by exploring the Archives & Manuscripts at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University in Summer 2024, and the Newberry Library in Spring 2025. This research formed part of a broader set of archival collections I have consulted across four countries for my dissertation.
At the Archives & Manuscripts of the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University, I was able to consult rich documentary materials from Latin America, particularly the Andean collections, which contain key manuscripts on the colonial history of Peru and Bolivia. Among various sources, the collections included documents related to the history of Indigenous tribute, such as notary records for the visita of Diego de Salcedo (1576), a book detailing tribute sold in the Cuzco market (1589), letters from viceroys concerning the collection of tribute payments, and two descriptions of land from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, among others. These documents are closely connected to several themes in my research. For example, the Cuzco document reveals how Indigenous tribute was commodified in the Spanish colonial market, transforming labor—and the knowledge systems behind that labor—into monetary value. The land descriptions provide insight into the long-term practices of geographical documentation by Spanish colonial officials, who observed, engaged with, and reported on Indigenous knowledge that could be harnessed for economic gain. Particularly striking was the strong connection between the creation of new geographic and ethnographic descriptions and the opening of new frontiers for profit, most notably the Amazon rainforest in the eighteenth century. This reinforces my argument that the colonial processes of surveying Andean nature and Indigenous communities were not mere scientific or administrative curiosities, but deliberate initiatives of knowledge extraction aimed at fueling new ventures of wealth production.
At the Newberry Library, I was able to consult valuable primary and secondary sources that shed light on the histories of land and population surveys under colonial rule. These included visitas, village descriptions, correspondence and communications from viceroys and other colonial officials, ecclesiastical investigations of Indigenous lands, and numerous publications related to geographic and natural descriptions. Among these materials were a visita from the valleys of Chillos in present-day Ecuador (1551–1559), a visita of Popayán in present-day Colombia (1558–1559), a visita to the pueblo of Coyoacán in Mexico (1553), ecclesiastical visitas conducted in Florida during the seventeenth century, and a collection of letters from President Pedro de la Gasca, among other early documents from the period of Spanish colonization. These sources enriched my research by allowing me to adopt a broader comparative perspective and to pose new questions about the processes of surveying land and people in the early colonial period. It became evident that the visitas I study were not unique to the Andes but part of a larger imperial strategy to document, assess, and extract value from Indigenous knowledge about land use and resource management. These efforts reveal how colonial authorities sought to determine which aspects of local knowledge could be mobilized to improve tribute assessments and enhance economic extraction. It was particularly illuminating to see how, in different regions, visitas became repositories of agricultural and technological knowledge. For example, in the valleys of Chillos, Indigenous Andean farmers reported on the cultivation of crops across mountainous terrains. In Popayán, they described the adoption of new technologies and animals to increase agricultural productivity. These accounts broadened my analytical framework by highlighting how visitas served as spaces of knowledge exchange, where colonial administrators captured local experimentation with crops and the use of new techniques and skills for bureaucratic and fiscal purposes.
The fellowship contributed to my project in more ways than simply providing access to archival and library collections. The time and space dedicated to research offered a unique opportunity to closely examine documents, reflect on the deeper implications of their content, and develop my ideas in writing. In addition, meeting and engaging with other scholars in my field, and sharing my research and ideas with them, proved to be an invaluable experience that enriched my work. For all of this, I am deeply grateful to the Consortium.