Segundo Moreno Yánez’s Sublevaciones Indigenas En La Audiencia de Quito. Desde Comienzos Del Siglo XVIII Hasta Finales de La Colonia (1977) looks at ten riots, protests and other tumultos in colonial Quito between 1760 and 1803. Moreno argues that conflicts over labor and a lack of trust between Andean communities and the colony’s Creole elite contributed to much of the social unrest in the late eighteenth century, even when policies were intened to help indigenous communities. Yet Moreno says that while political violence was frequent, it was more often directed at local authorities than the figure of the Spanish Crown, acting as an escape valve for political pressures to blow off in a way that didn’t challenge the underlying colonial project.
By N. H. Gill
Quito, 2020
Southern Affairs 