130 – The History of Mala

Shortly after the Spanish invasion Hernando Pizarro, brother of the Castillian leader Francisco Pizarro, came to the religious oracle at Pachacamac in 1533 to destroy the shrine and take the gold and silver. He was met there, the chroniclers tell us, by coastal officials from Chincha, Huarco [Cañete], and Mala who brought gifts of gold and silver amounting to 90 thousand pesos, perhaps half a million dollars worth in current terms. At this stage the Spanish had inflicted a defeat on the Inca army and kidnapped Atahualpa, who ruled the northern half of the country, but were still travelling through a country they did not control. It would seem that the coast was wealthy and politically united or at least willing to work together. They must also have had good communication and transport systems along 150 kilometres of coast and ten river valleys to be kept informed of the Spaniards journey and co-ordinate the meeting. The amount of gold and silver they brought could have amounted to more than twenty fully loaded llamas. This was not a world of peasant farmers.

Mala was referred to, under that name, by several chroniclers including Pedro Cieza de León and Garcilaso de la Vega, as were Chilca, Chincha and Huarco, so they must have been significant centres at the time of the invasion. Pedro Cieza in particular, recounting his travels throughout Peru in the twenty years following the invasion, repeatedly talks of how prosperous and well populated these valleys were before the coming of the Spanish.

The Inca had established a series of way stations, tambos, providing food and forage to travellers and troops: Onee was located at Mala, two stories high, and close to a suspension bridge over the river. These stations were continued by the Spanish, who put their military officers in charge. In Mala, the Tambo was given to Pedro de Alconchel and his wife Doña María de Aliaga. Pedro, known as the trumpeter, had been a loyal supporter of Francisco Pizarro in the invasion and also received lands in Mala and Chilca. 

Other lands around Mala were divided up in 1536 as encomiendas amongst Spanish landowners including Guillermo Lumbreras, Pedro Navarro, Juan de Bedoyay and  Diego Figueroa. Land near Mala was also given to the indigenous people of San Marcos de la Aguada, under their chief Chapayco.

The encomienda system was actually a labour system – the grantees could demand tribute from the indigenous people occupying the lands. In “exchange” for the tribute of the
peoples, the encomendero, or landowner, was required to protect and “christianize”
them. The people continued to work their lands but gave a proportion of the produce to the encomendero. It was similar to the reconquista system, when the Spanish took back their country from the Moors, and military leaders were given the right to exact tribute in the new frontier lands they had conquered.

Technically an encomienda did not imply ownership of the land. But this had little relation to reality, and encomenderos often treated the land as private property that could be divided, sold, or mortgaged in violation of the law. These lands were run, as elsewhere on the coast, as feudal production units. The rights were to be held in perpetuity by the grant-holder and his descendants.

Peru – The Greater Peru which then comprised Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia – was seized by the conquistadors on behalf of Prince Charles of Spain, the Crown. Whilst in practice Pizarro and his followers on their arrival were uncontrolled, and largely uncontrollable, their invasion had been approved by royal warrant and they were operating “under license”.

One the riches of Peru became apparent, the forces of the Crown sought to enforce the terms of that license. Lima was founded in 1535, to provide comfortable living quarters for the Spanish and with a port to ship back the gold and silver of Peru to Spain. The coast, just recently conquered by the Inca, was willing to submit to Spanish rule, but some indigenous people were still fighting in the highlands whilst others allied with the invaders.

The Vice Royalty of New Castille was established  as a legal entity to govern the new province in 1542. In an attempt by the Spanish Crown to reduce abuses in the colonies, a new Viceroy was sent by King Charles to implement the New Laws. Slavery was abolished and the grant of encomiendas as a hereditary right was stopped. Instead, the labour tribute rights would be held for just two generations. In Peru, the Spanish rejected the law and killed the Viceroy. The King backed down and repealed the New Laws.

Thirty years later, in 1572, another reforming Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, was sent out from Spain. Toledo set out to maximise the income for Spain from its colonies with a series of economic and administrative reforms. One of these was the imposition of reducciones, the establishment of Spanish-style towns to which the population were forcibly removed from their traditional communities. The reducciones in turn were organised into districts for adminstration and taxation known as repartimentos, which replaced the encomienda system.

Under repartimentos, the system of labour rights continued but the rights were assigned not to individuals but to officials representing the Crown, the Curacas, who collected the tribute. An additional labour tax or form of conscripted labour, the mita, was introduced to enable workers to be sent to work in the silver mines of Potosi in Bolivia or the mercury mines in Huancavelica.

Introduction of Corregidors

The seventeenth century haciendas represented a change from the encomienda system.  These were farm estates, devoted to economic enterprises – ranching, farming, or mining. The owners were often the descendants of encomenderos and the workers were now employed -though imported chinese and African slaves were also used.

In 1862 Peruvian ships seeking more slaves sailed to Easter Island, where they killed or captured 1500 men and women, half the island’s population. The islanders were taken to Peru to work as slaves but after international protests, they were freed a year later. Only twelve were left alive, the others having been killed by diseases such as tuberulosis and smallpox. Those few returned to Easter Island but took with them smallpox which led to an epidemic.

The first to be established in Mala was called The Lord of the Stair,  “El Señor de la Escala”, and its first owner was  Dominico Alonso Hernández de la Cueva. The next was la Hacienda Chuquipampa,  which would become  la Hacienda San José del Monte.
Other great properties were established at that time such as the Hacienda “El Salitre”.

The land reforms initiated by the military g0vernment of General Juan Velazco seized large land holdings – owners were allowed to keep fifty hectares – and gave them to newly established cooperatives, in some cases comprised of the campesinos who had previously worked on the haciendas. In Mala two Farm Production Cooperatives were established, San Pedro de Mala and San José del Monte.