The Birth of Ocopa, 1709–1742

Abstract

Chapter one examines the first three decades of the Apostolic Institute’s presence in Peru. As part of this narrative, chapter one will delve briefly into ethnohistory to illuminate the missionaries’ difficulties with “converting” the local populace. It will explore the friars’ initial attempts to culturally assimilate the natives of the region into mission life and how and why these ethnic groups resisted their efforts, sometimes violently. At the same time, Ocopa’s emerging relationship with the Spanish colonial bureaucracy at its various levels. While Ocopa initially received promises of funding from the Crown, as the chapter discusses, a series of increasingly regalist viceroys refused to fund them consistently. These early failures to aid Ocopa’s evangelization efforts, combined with indigenous resistance to the missionaries’ political, economic, and cultural impositions, led to instability in the missions, which was easily exploited by Juan Santos leading up to the rebellion in 1742.