Indigenous Rights in Peru

Changes and Permanence from the Viceroyalty to the Centenary of Independence

Abstract

The transition from the Viceroyalty to the Republic meant a transformation of the legal and cultural paradigms that had
regulated the life of the Peruvian Indians. The Hispanic Monarchy, having a plural and corporate character and being imbued with a post-Tridentine Catholic culture, established
a legal regime that recognized the human dignity of the indigenous, as well as their legal privileges and community rights as “miserable” and vassals of the Crown. The Bourbon Reforms and the Constitution of Cadiz (1812) initiated a shift towards an enlightened conception that favoured the individual over the social body. After independence, guided by a liberal vision, Peruvian legislators, opposed to the tutelary laws of the Viceroyalty, sought to convert Indians into citizens and owners by recognizing their legal equality and individual
ownership of their lands. However, these laws deepened the marginalization and fragility of the rural population. During
the first decades of the twentieth century, these problems gave rise to a broad national debate that was taken up again during the government of Augusto B. Leguía (1919-1930), who promoted a new tutelary legislation that, within the  framework of legal pluralism, recognized the subjectivity and
community rights of the Peruvian Indian.