Traces in the Revisitas. Social tension and colonial impositions

Abstract

This article delves into the meaning of the Indian visitas and revisitas in the Andes during the first years of colonial domain, focusing in the Southern Andes after viceroy Francisco Toledo (1569-1581) ruled. Weintroduce different types of visitas and their features, an overview of several historiographical approaches as well as different contexts in which the visitas were encouraged. We stress the link between visitas and revisitas and two major institutions of the colonial regime: tributo and mita. Not only the meaning and relevance the colonial state attributed to visitas and revisitas -especially for the tasas and retasas fixation- are analyzed, the particular role played by the revisitas, with regard to the indigenous elites in their attempt to reduce colonial taxation, is also considered. In summary, this study is concerned with the visitas as an invaluable source to study a central aspect of social tension during the early colonial domain.