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In Search of Tinterillos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Marc Becker
Marc Becker*
Affiliation:
Truman State University
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Abstract

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The tradition of intermediaries negotiating conflicts between Indigenous and Western worlds in Latin America can be traced back to the colonial period. Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, semiprofessional or petty lawyers known as tinterillos assumed a seemingly ubiquitous presence in rural communities in Ecuador. Often local elites with some education, tinterillos commanded respect among their largely nonliterate Indigenous neighbors because of their ability to read, write, and handle documents. These intermediaries commonly exploited their privileged position for their own economic, social, and political benefit. Nevertheless, Indigenous peoples came to rely on tinterillos to petition the government and to challenge landholder abuses. On occasion, rather than feeling disempowered or victimized, Indigenous peoples learned to negotiate these relationships to their advantage. Tinterillos provide a convenient medium through which to examine how power relations were negotiated between different cultures and across deep class divides.

Resumen

Resumen

El papel de intermediarios en la negociación de conflictos entre indígenas y el mundo occidental en América Latina se remonta a la época colonial. A partir de mediados del siglo XIX, abogados semi-profesionales conocidos como tinterillos adquirieron una presencia aparentemente ubicua en las comunidades rurales en el Ecuador. Muchas veces tinterillos fueron elites locales con algo de educación. Ellos inspiraban respeto entre los indígenas quien en gran parte fueron analfabetos, debido a su habilidad al manejar documentos escritos. Estos intermediarios comúnmente explotaron su posición privilegiada para su propio beneficio económico, social y político. Sin embargo, los indígenas llegaron a depender del apoyo de los tinterillos para denunciar ante el gobierno los abusos de los terratenientes. A veces, en lugar de sentirse impotentes o como víctimas, los indígenas aprendieron a negociar relaciones con intermediarios en su beneficio. El estudio de tinterillos proporciona un medio conveniente para examinar las relaciones de poder que se negociaron entre diferentes culturas y a través de profundas divisiones de clase.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , 2012 , pp. 95 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

The research for this study was funded by a 2008 Truman State University Faculty Summer Research Fellowship. Earlier versions of this article were presented on the panels “Gender, Ethnicity and Class in the North Andes,” at the 2008 meeting of the American Society for Ethnohistory, and “The Law and Its Uses? A View from South America,” at the 2010 meeting of the American Historical Association. Thanks to Karen Powers and Robert Smale for organizing those panels and to Kimberly Gauderman and Carlos Aguirre for their excellent and useful commentary, which strengthened this article. Additional thanks go to Cassandra Mundt and Jeff Naylor for their helpful comments, as well as to the members of my reading group, Hena Ahmad, Jason McDonald, Rubana Mahjabeen, Bonnie Lynn Mitchell, and Daniel Mandell.

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