"Mulieris Litterarum": Oral, Visual, and Written Narratives of Indigenous Elite Women.

Women’s literary expression in Latin America started as a crossroads of rhetorical practices and textual devices that included the knowledge and transmission of oral traditions, visual iconic narratives, tangible systems of record keeping, and the incorporation of the alphabetic script. I propose to look at the written production of Indigenous women of the native elites in Spanish America as a discursive “contact zone” in which these individuals negotiated the place of native oral and visual practices of expression in the production of lettered texts. Indigenous and Mestizo elite women used the quill to claim nobility, resources and power. By doing this, they also developed a female consciousness and identity as “Mulieres Litterarum” that will span for more than 250 years (1550-1801). Themes developed by these women include ethnic pride, social mobility, noble genealogies, awareness of their written word and its pitfalls if not used in their best interest. This chapter will build upon the analysis of texts dictated or handwritten by Indigenous and Mestizo women who claimed to belong to the Inka elite from the sixteenth century (Inés Huaylas, Francisca Pizarro) to the late eighteenth century (Micaela Bastidas, María Joaquina Uchu Inca, Manuela Topa Amaro), among others