(Book chapter) “Identidades fluidas: Negociando la Nobleza Inca en los confines del Imperio.”

In the late eighteenth century, a resident ('vezina') of Mexico City claimed to be direct descendant of Inca Huayna Capac and petitioned, before Spanish officials, the recognition of her privileges and rights as a legitimate descendant of the last Inca ruler who had died more than 250 years prior to this request. In this way Doña María Joaquina Uchu Inca Tupac Yupanqui initiated a process in 1787 that lasted more than ten years later with a partial success for herself and her family. This essay examines elements of Doña María Joaquina’s petition that informed textual negotiations of her Inca noble identity and the production of her extensive proof of nobility. The main objective of this examination is twofold: from one side, I observe the role of the petition as an overarching genre in which the proof of nobility finds its defining performative and persuasive discourses. From the other end, I look at the recognition of Inca noble 'calidad' as the first objective of this woman in order to have access to privileges and economic resources that she considers hers because of her lineage, real or imagined. Doña María Joaquina’s petition constitutes an interesting case because, in spite of her partial success, she was the main agent of this long-term process in an unusual time.