without honor or shame.”67 Clearly outraged, Tejada exclaimed, “even if one looked, I wager that there would not be found in all of New Spain or in any of the Indies three persons so vile, without honor, and bad Christians, so lacking in truthfulness and shame, nor in whom coincide so many ugly and enormous vices as in the said … naguatatos.”68
As seen in the denunciations against Triana, Romero, and Ortiz de Zúñiga, perceived new Christian presence added to already existing anxieties about the catechization of indigenous peoples and the infiltration into the Republic of Indians of non-Catholic beliefs and unorthodox behavior. Spanish authorities increasingly restricted Spaniards’ and Africans’ access to indigenous communities, and the recent converts from Islam fell in between these two categories. Some Moriscos did make their way to Spanish America during the early years of colonization, before greater attempts were made to enforce the royal decrees restricting emigration. In a few cases local authorities requested their participation in local projects, as interpreters or as artisans, occupations traditionally associated with Moriscos. A number also arrived as slaves.
MORISCO SLAVES
Many of the Moriscos arriving in Spanish America during this earlier period were slaves who accompanied their masters’ households as dependents. The royal licenses granted for them to emigrate placed strict limits on the length of their presence in Spanish America. However, a number of these Morisco men and women remained in Spanish America, either because their masters looked the other way, or because they were able to run away and forge new lives for themselves, in communities where they would presumably, although not always, go unrecognized. Traces of these individuals can be found in the records of the Casa de Contratación in Seville, which kept track of the length of time Morisco and North African slaves remained in the Americas. The license that Bartolomé de Anaya y Villanueva obtained for his berberisca slave María in 1624 to accompany him to New Spain, where he was to assume his post as secretary of the Consejo de Guerra, shows the process whereby slaveholders proved their slaves were qualified to enter the Indies. Anaya summoned witnesses who signed statements that María was commonly held to be “a Christian, because they see her go to Mass and pray, and she does Christian works.”69 The final portion of the document was her official royal license to emigrate without restrictions, “despite being of the berberisca nation,” and like most official licenses, it listed her identifying markers: María was “twenty-four years old, white, fat, branded on the chin and forehead.”70 While no limits were placed on María’s term in this license, earlier ones show that individuals of lesser status were subject to restrictions on the number of years their slaves could spend in the Indies, and could be prosecuted if they did not comply. For example, in 1578 the Crown issued a royal decree to the officials of the Casa de Contratación, to ensure that Ruy Díaz de Mendoza return the two Morisca slaves he brought to New Spain for a limited period of four years, and if he did not comply, that he would be punished.71
In 1512 Hernando de Peralta was granted a license to bring to the island of San Juan two esclavas blancas, or “white slaves,” a term often applied to Moriscas, so long as they were baptized Christians. They were to be brought for the service of his wife and household, which he was transplanting to San Juan.72 Another license was granted in 1537 to Licenciado Iñigo López de Cervantes who was traveling to Santo Domingo as judge (oidor) of the audiencia, to bring two esclavas blancas in addition to four African slaves. The two slaves were Christians, “raised in his household,” and they were granted royal licenses so long as López de Cervantes could prove they had been Christians since before the age of twelve.73 The license stipulated that the women “be brought to the island of Hispaniola … for the service of his household. He cannot take them from the said island to any other place other than to return them to these kingdoms [Spain].”74
Many of the enslaved Moriscos were women, and some of them were eventually freed. They gained status through marriage to Spaniards, thereby joining prominent or upwardly mobile families in the Peruvian viceroyalty.75 In 1968 James Lockhart proposed that Morisca slaves “did not have a broad spectrum of roles,” acting only as concubines for Spanish male conquistadors. They then “disappeared from view” during the 1530s with the arrival of Spanish old Christian women who were the preferred companions.76 However, their supposed disappearance was likely related to the cédulas restricting Morisco immigration, which were issued during this period. Such restrictions and brushes with authority may have driven individuals to be more careful when transporting slaves, or when emigrating to the Americas themselves. In this sense, Joanne Rappaport’s idea of the “disappearing mestizo” is useful in describing the active choices individuals made to present themselves before their communities. This goes beyond racial “passing” by encompassing attempts to hide one’s lineage or religious identity while making claims to status in colonial society.77
Testimonies describing the slave market in Lima in one riveting case mention the notable presence of Moriscas in Peru. In 1543, Juana, a “white slave” and a Morisca from Tunis, petitioned for her freedom before the Royal Audiencia and Chancery of Panama. She had been the slave of Hernando de Zevallos in Peru before she was sold to cover a debt that he owed the royal treasury. Juana’s new master Juan de Cáceres freed her and her infant daughter Ynés, but Zevallos wanted them back, citing the nullity of their sale to Cáceres, under an illegitimate judge appointed by Diego de Almagro the Younger’s tyrannical government, formed after the assassination of Francisco Pizarro. Zevallos also claimed that his debt to the royal treasury was unfairly leveled against him by another “tyranically” appointed alcalde and should now be forgiven.78 Juana gave Luis Suárez, the father of her daughter, power of attorney. He was to appeal in her name to the Royal Chancery in Panama the order that the governor of Peru, Licentiate Cristóbal Vaca de Castro (1541–44), had issued in favor of Zevallos that he keep Juana and Ynés as his slaves. Juana and Luis Suárez presented the freedom papers (carta de libertad) given to her by Cáceres and emphasized that “in conformity with the law, her freedom should be favored being as she is a free person possessing a title…. It should never have been ordered that she return to servitude and captivity.”79 They expressed concern that Zevallos was planning on labeling Juana and her daughter physically as his property, by “marking them with a brand or a sign so that they appear to be subjected to servitude, being as they are free persons…. [This mark would be] injurious and an affront.”80 Witnesses testified that Juana had conceived Ynés with Luis Suárez who was an “honorable and rich” Lima merchant and whose responsibility it should be to free the girl, especially as Juana became pregnant after having been manumitted by Cáceres.81 A number of witnesses also discussed the average price of Morisca slaves auctioned in Lima, as Zevallos was attempting to determine the value of Juana and her daughter. Alonso de Huete testified in Suárez’s favor, saying that he knew Juana and that she and her daughter were worth no more than 300 or 350 pesos because he “had seen other Morisca slaves sold in Peru for less, who were as beautiful or more so than the said Juana.”82 Two other witnesses for Suárez testified to similar practices in Lima, including Jerónimo de Aliaga.83 Aliaga stated, “According to what he had seen, there have been sold in Peru Morisca slaves of Juana’s quality for [300] and [400] pesos, some for more and others for less.”84 Miguel Vendrés added, “According to the experience and knowledge I have concerning slaves, especially Moriscas, Juana as a slave and her daughter could be worth up to 400 pesos of gold, in the places and provinces of Peru.”85 The Council of the Indies finally ruled in 1547 that Zevallos drop his cases against Juana Morisca and Luis Suárez, and cover the cost of the trials. Juana and her daughter were now presumably free either to live with Suárez who had remained by their side during the years that the trial unfolded, or to forge their own lives altogether.86 In 1547 she is mentioned in the final documents of the case as a resident of the city of Nombre de Dios in Panama, and Suárez had assumed the post on the city council of Nombre de Dios previously held by his brother. By this time, Suárez and his extended family represented merchants in Seville and Panama, and they ran one of the most lucrative firms in Peru.87 Juana’s case is echoed in others of Moriscas in Peru who associated
