Writing as Poaching: Interpellation and Self-Fashioning in Colonial "relaciones de méritos y servicios"

168 Pages·2011·2.114 MB·English

by  Robert Folger

Writing as Poaching
The Medieval and Early
Modern Iberian World
(formerly Medieval Iberian Peninsula)
Editors
Larry J. Simon, Western Michigan University
Gerard Wiegers, University of Amsterdam
Arie Schippers, University of Amsterdam
Donna M. Rogers, Dalhousie University
Isidro J. Rivera, University of Kansas
VOLUME 44
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/memi
Writing as Poaching
Interpellation and Self-Fashioning in Colonial
relaciones de méritos y servicios
By
Robert Folger
LEIDEN • BOSTON
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2011
Cover illustration: Detail from Consulta del Consejo de Indias, with annotations by Philip II,
Archivo General de Indias, Indiferente 740, N. 295.
Reproduced with permission of the Archivo General de Indias.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Folger, Robert.
Writing as poaching : interpellation and self-fashioning in colonial relaciones de méritos
y servicios / by Robert A. Folger.
p. cm. -- (The medieval and early modern Iberian world ; v. 44)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-21109-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Spain--Colonies--America--
Administration. 2. Patronage, Political--Spain--History. 3. Autobiography--Political
aspects--Spain--History. 4. Biography as a literary form. I. Title. II. Series.
F2233.F64 2011
324.2’04--dc23
2011029426
ISSN 1569-1934
ISBN 978-90-04-21109
Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
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Fees are subject to change.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................vii
List of Figures ..............................................................................................ix
1. Introduction ............................................................................................1
2. Strategic Interpellation and Tactical Writing in Colonial
Historiography (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries) .................13
2.1. Introduction .................................................................................13
2.2. Relaciones de méritos y servicios .................................................16
2.2.1. The Bureaucratic Dispositif: The Allocation of
Offices and Privileges ......................................................18
2.2.2. The Archive: La Historiografía Indiana and the
Monopolization of Historiographical Discourse .........52
3. Tactical Appropriations .......................................................................67
3.1. Dorantes de Carranza: Memoria y Papeles ...............................67
3.2. The Arduous Work of Writing History: Alonso
Borregán ........................................................................................95
3.3. Self and Archive: El Carnero de Juan Rodríguez Freyle .......108
Epilogue: The Hallucinatory World of Bureaucracy ...........................133
Works Cited ..............................................................................................139
Index .........................................................................................................153

ACKNOWLEDGEmENTS
I did the bulk of research for this book in my capacity as a researcher at
the Center for Collaborative Research 573, “Pluralization and Authority
in the Early Modern Period” at the University of Munich (LMU),
funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
The present text is based on a substantial part of my habilitation the-
sis at the University of Munich (LMU). My thanks go to the commit-
tee of mentors, Wulf Oesterreicher, Bernhard Teuber, and martin
Baumeister.
I am indebted to Anna Larsson for her editorial help.
This book is dedicated to Helmut Zedelmaier, whose intellectual
curiosity, perspicacity, and friendship have always been an inspiration
to me.
Robert Folger