Forbidden Passages. Karoline P. Cook
of four years, and if he did not comply, that he would be punished.71
In 1512 Hernando de Peralta was granted a license to bring to the island of San Juan two esclavas blancas, or “white slaves,” a term often applied to Moriscas, so long as they were baptized Christians. They were to be brought for the service of his wife and household, which he was transplanting to San Juan.72 Another license was granted in 1537 to Licenciado Iñigo López de Cervantes who was traveling to Santo Domingo as judge (oidor) of the audiencia, to bring two esclavas blancas in addition to four African slaves. The two slaves were Christians, “raised in his household,” and they were granted royal licenses so long as López de Cervantes could prove they had been Christians since before the age of twelve.73 The license stipulated that the women “be brought to the island of Hispaniola … for the service of his household. He cannot take them from the said island to any other place other than to return them to these kingdoms [Spain].”74
Many of the enslaved Moriscos were women, and some of them were eventually freed. They gained status through marriage to Spaniards, thereby joining prominent or upwardly mobile families in the Peruvian viceroyalty.75 In 1968 James Lockhart proposed that Morisca slaves “did not have a broad spectrum of roles,” acting only as concubines for Spanish male conquistadors. They then “disappeared from view” during the 1530s with the arrival of Spanish old Christian women who were the preferred companions.76 However, their supposed disappearance was likely related to the cédulas restricting Morisco immigration, which were issued during this period. Such restrictions and brushes with authority may have driven individuals to be more careful when transporting slaves, or when emigrating to the Americas themselves. In this sense, Joanne Rappaport’s idea of the “disappearing mestizo” is useful in describing the active choices individuals made to present themselves before their communities. This goes beyond racial “passing” by encompassing attempts to hide one’s lineage or religious identity while making claims to status in colonial society.77
Testimonies describing the slave market in Lima in one riveting case mention the notable presence of Moriscas in Peru. In 1543, Juana, a “white slave” and a Morisca from Tunis, petitioned for her freedom before the Royal Audiencia and Chancery of Panama. She had been the slave of Hernando de Zevallos in Peru before she was sold to cover a debt that he owed the royal treasury. Juana’s new master Juan de Cáceres freed her and her infant daughter Ynés, but Zevallos wanted them back, citing the nullity of their sale to Cáceres, under an illegitimate judge appointed by Diego de Almagro the Younger’s tyrannical government, formed after the assassination of Francisco Pizarro. Zevallos also claimed that his debt to the royal treasury was unfairly leveled against him by another “tyranically” appointed alcalde and should now be forgiven.78 Juana gave Luis Suárez, the father of her daughter, power of attorney. He was to appeal in her name to the Royal Chancery in Panama the order that the governor of Peru, Licentiate Cristóbal Vaca de Castro (1541–44), had issued in favor of Zevallos that he keep Juana and Ynés as his slaves. Juana and Luis Suárez presented the freedom papers (carta de libertad) given to her by Cáceres and emphasized that “in conformity with the law, her freedom should be favored being as she is a free person possessing a title…. It should never have been ordered that she return to servitude and captivity.”79 They expressed concern that Zevallos was planning on labeling Juana and her daughter physically as his property, by “marking them with a brand or a sign so that they appear to be subjected to servitude, being as they are free persons…. [This mark would be] injurious and an affront.”80 Witnesses testified that Juana had conceived Ynés with Luis Suárez who was an “honorable and rich” Lima merchant and whose responsibility it should be to free the girl, especially as Juana became pregnant after having been manumitted by Cáceres.81 A number of witnesses also discussed the average price of Morisca slaves auctioned in Lima, as Zevallos was attempting to determine the value of Juana and her daughter. Alonso de Huete testified in Suárez’s favor, saying that he knew Juana and that she and her daughter were worth no more than 300 or 350 pesos because he “had seen other Morisca slaves sold in Peru for less, who were as beautiful or more so than the said Juana.”82 Two other witnesses for Suárez testified to similar practices in Lima, including Jerónimo de Aliaga.83 Aliaga stated, “According to what he had seen, there have been sold in Peru Morisca slaves of Juana’s quality for [300] and [400] pesos, some for more and others for less.”84 Miguel Vendrés added, “According to the experience and knowledge I have concerning slaves, especially Moriscas, Juana as a slave and her daughter could be worth up to 400 pesos of gold, in the places and provinces of Peru.”85 The Council of the Indies finally ruled in 1547 that Zevallos drop his cases against Juana Morisca and Luis Suárez, and cover the cost of the trials. Juana and her daughter were now presumably free either to live with Suárez who had remained by their side during the years that the trial unfolded, or to forge their own lives altogether.86 In 1547 she is mentioned in the final documents of the case as a resident of the city of Nombre de Dios in Panama, and Suárez had assumed the post on the city council of Nombre de Dios previously held by his brother. By this time, Suárez and his extended family represented merchants in Seville and Panama, and they ran one of the most lucrative firms in Peru.87 Juana’s case is echoed in others of Moriscas in Peru who associated themselves with prominent families.
REQUESTS FOR MORISCOS DENIED
Local authorities in Spanish America on a number of occasions requested that the Crown send Moriscos to help settle and build colonial towns and fortifications. Reputed to be skilled artisans in Spain, Moriscos were sought to start silk-raising production in New Spain and to build fortifications in Havana and along the northern coast of South America in the area that is today Venezuela. These requests were eventually denied by the Crown, and Moriscos were not officially granted licenses to pass to the Americas to carry out these activities. However, as the cases of interpreters show, their perceived usefulness enabled some to make the journey anyway, supported by powerful Spaniards in need of their services.
During the early years of Spanish colonization of the Caribbean islands and mainland, the granting of licenses and the enforcement of emigration restrictions was more fluid. Officials of the town councils and royal courts composed a stream of letters to the Council of the Indies, lamenting the small Spanish population and requesting that more emigrants be recruited to populate and settle the new towns.88 From the late 1550s to 1575, African slaves were transported to Havana to construct the fort of La Fuerza, and approximately two hundred slaves continued to work on urban military constructions into the seventeenth century. According to Alejandro de la Fuente, in 1596, some of the forty-five forced laborers on Havana’s forts were Muslim and Turkish slaves.89 These Havana slaves also included the Mandinga and Wolof peoples of the Senegal Valley, deemed Muslims and potentially rebellious. In the seventeenth century the neighboring Fulo, also thought to be Muslims, joined the Mandinga and Wolof as slaves in Spanish America.90 The Spanish Crown placed some restrictions on their importation to the Americas, but a number nevertheless were also forcibly taken across the Atlantic. In Havana, local officials were aware of the presence of Muslims laboring as royal slaves, and in the 1650s ordered slave owners to declare their Muslim and North African slaves.91
Demands were similar along the northern coast of South America, in the defense of the coastline of what is today Venezuela. By 1600 fears of Dutch incursions along the Caribbean basin led local officials to petition the Crown for assistance in defending their towns and islands. In 1604 the engineer of the Cartagena fortifications Juan Bautista Antoneli examined the salt pans of Araya, a haven for Dutch smugglers. Antoneli determined that the salt mines should be inundated via canals linking the ocean with the low-lying salt-producing areas, in order to discourage the Dutch who had been actively loading their ships with salt. Approaching the eve of the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain, Antoneli requested that the Junta de Guerra de Indias allow between five and six hundred Moriscos from southern Spain to travel to Araya to construct the canals that he hoped would drench the salt pans, rendering them useless to the Dutch.92 While gaining initial support from the Junta de Guerra, Antoneli’s project was soon abandoned due to lack of funds.
Moriscos were noted for their skills as artisans in Spain, and some