Women in the Peruvian Viceroyalty: Before viceroyalty

Women in the Peruvian Viceroyalty: Before viceroyalty- Information collected by Patricia Herrero Sánchez  

Women found ways to challenge and subvert the patriarchy of Spanish colonial society. The gateras, the Native market women of Quito in Peru, exploited the legal system to earn greater financial security for their people. Zuni potters were at the forefront of the revival of traditional Native practices during the Pueblo Revolt. Women could use the marriage traditions of the dowry and arras to escape unhappy marriages. And wealthy Spanish women expertly wielded their privilege to draw attention to the hypocrisy of traditional gender roles or survive encounters with the dreaded Holy Office of the Inquisition.

Through the stages of the conquest of Peru, the relations of the conquerors with women, ranged from assault rape to acceptance as a couple. That is why it has been said that such was the amorality that the first conquerors led to the conquest of Peru and that they lost the idea of ​​marriage since women were public.

Francisco Pizarro took the ñusta Quispe Sisa as his concubine, daughter of the almighty Inca Huayna Capac and sister of the successor Atahualpa. Other Spanish conquerors also took women of Inca origin as concubines or wives, such as: Gonzalo de Pizarro, who took the coya Manco, which had a great scandal and protest from General Tiso and the high priest Villac Umu; the sister of the Inca Atahualpa, Francisca Coya married the conqueror Diego de Sandoval; among other.

References:

Herrero P. “Las Mujeres en el Virreinato del Perú”.From https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/6202358.pdf

Bathell, Leslie, (ed.), Historia de América Latina, volumen IV, Barcelona, 1990. 

Molina, Natacha, Tres mujeres de América, Madrid, 1976. 

Muriel, Josefina, Las mujeres de Hispanoamérica. Época colonial, Madrid, 1992. 

Núñez Jiménez, Antonio, Un mundo aparte.