(Colour online) Plaza Maior de Lima. .. , anonymous painting, 1680. The list on the right hand side indicates the products available for sale in the main plaza. Lima's cathedral and the archbishop's palace are in the background. At the left side is the viceregal palace. The plaza is represented from the point of view of the Cabildo building. Museo de América, Madrid. 

Contexts in source publication

Context 1

... the mid-seventeenth century, Lima's main square was officially considered the epitome of the Peruvian viceroyalty's prosperity. or paintings like the splendid Plaza Maior de Lima cabeza de los reinos del PerúPer´Perú año de 1680 praised its market function and its extraordinary abundance. The market's opulence and the diversity of produce available year round substantiated Lima's potency(see Figure 2). 28 Midway through the eighteenth century, it was still possible to document several key market characters in the square. First, the tenderos, vendors who occupied the shops in the portals along the outer edges of the plaza, including botoneros (button makers) (south side) and escribanos (notaries) (west side). Second, the cajoneros, who sold diverse products in movable kiosks (cajones) placed in front of the viceregal palace (north side), the archbishop's palace and the cathedral (east side). Third, the recauderas, vivanderas or abastecedoras, female vendors who sold food products, dispersed throughout the square; the mercachifles, peddlers. Finally, the negros angarilleros, a guild of black slaves who transported goods and water. The intense commercial activity associated with the plaza left an imprint on the surrounding street names: Three institutions with commercial and political interests regularly appear in the seventeenth-and eighteenth-century documentation related to the plaza. First, was the civic institution that represented the urban elite: the Cabildo. This was the owner of the square and the main beneficiary of the commercial activity performed there, through the annual quota paid by the asentista. 30 Second, was the Tribunal del Consulado, the rich merchant's guild that installed its seat immediately by the main plaza by the end of the sixteenth century. Third, was the viceroy and his ...

Context 2

... the early seventeenth century, if not before, colonial authorities supervised the market organization, probably as represented in the 1680 painting, which shows the plaza market from the visual perspective of the Cabildo's meeting room, where products are spatially ordered (see Figure 2). However, during the government of Manuel de Amat (1761-76), several crises threatened the normal strategy of maintaining the market in order. For instance, in an edict from 1765 against the regatones, viceroy Amat denounced the constant thefts and vexations perpetuated by the regatones against the Indians who brought their goods to the central esplanade, 34 'taking advantage of the multitude that gathers there'. 37 An incident from 1772, described below, further shows the situation of the square. In 1772, as a result of an infection attributed to some meat sold in the plaza, the Cabildo carried out an inspection. Some vivanderas found out about the plan ahead of time and informed their colleagues who hid any potential evidence. To avoid similar fiascos, the Cabildo proposed a new organization of the market by rows for each kind of product (meat, vegetables, bread, charcoal, flowers, firewood, lard). This new layout would provide authorities with full visual control of the products; buyers would be able to go directly to their elected row; and pedestrians and carts would have enough space to circulate. The viceroy Amat immediately approved the harsh penalties for those who ignored the new rule. 38 This case shows the Cabildo and the viceroy working together to fight disarray in the plaza; however, there were other routine or common conflicts that incorporated more voices, a wider scenario and different solutions, like one from the late ...

Context 3

... urban Lima, the late Bourbon reforms must be characterized by their presences (the construction projects and relocations actually performed) and their absences (the unfinished or unsuccessful projects). During colonial times, the transformation from Plaza Mayor to Plaza de Armas was incomplete, but this case is as informative as the successfully finished extramural cemetery: both of them clearly show the implementation of a new urban centrality reinforced by an impressive cycle of construction. Unlike the early incidents (1772,1787) that were related to frequent users and quotidian disputes about the plaza, the later conflicts (1799,1804,1808) implied a new kind of confrontation between two levels of colonial authorities: the viceroy and his entourage following orders from Spain versus the Cabildo, the local elite. This basic conflict was manifested by a volatile topic: the modification of the main and most profitable function of the plaza. The shift of spatial models is also traceable in graphic representations of the main square that had earlier been shown as full of vendors (as in Figure 2) but later was represented as an empty -or almost empty -esplanade used for martial activities. Not surprisingly, this visual tendency began during Amat's regime (1775) and is patent in an engraving from 1805 (see Figure 3). 80 In parallel, and even prior to any actual urban changes, the graphic representations of the plaza evidence an official intention, a new urban model, with novel aesthetic and political concerns. 81 While the Bourbon urban reforms were only partially applied during the colonial period, some of their features continued to exert influence into republican times. As in Mexico, the independent Peruvian regime assumed some features of the Bourbon programme. 82 In Lima, the link was the regime of the Argentinian general José de San Martín who presented the Peruvian declaration of independence from Spain in 1821. While extirpating all colonial symbols from Lima's public space, San Martín also put into practice some of the plans of the later viceroys. His decree of June 1822 described the situation of the urban markets. First, it did not mention the central square as a marketplace, instead locating the market in the plazuela of the extinct Inquisition. Second, it issued notification that the food sellers located in the Inquisition plazuela would be distributed in 100 'mobile kiosks' to be placed in the plazuelas of Santa Ana (30), San Agustín (20), Baratillo (20), San Francisco (15), and San Juan de Dios (15) (see Figure 1). Third, this modification was only a temporary plan, while a more major reform was carried out: 'While the project of a new market corresponding in its utility and magnificence to the ideas of the government and the people's necessities is carried out.' San Martín was actually following viceroy O' Higgins' proposal (1799), relocating the market function to different parts of the city. 83 The collapse of the colonial regime occasioned the extinction of the Cabildo, which facilitated direct state intervention in Lima's urban affairs. The subordination of the church to the new republican state eased these changes. Many ecclesiastical urban properties became national possessions, leaving room for the reforms: it is not accidental that some of the first republican institutions, like the National Library, the Parliament and the National Museum occupied former religious properties. By the late 1840s, when guano exports began to impact the national budget, a new cycle of construction commenced, and the interest in concentrating sellers in an enclosed space outside the plaza was renewed. The monastery of La Concepcí on was partially expropriated by the government, dissected and modified to house the central market of Lima (1852). In this manner, viceroy Abascal's proposal (1808) was finally implemented: the market function was concentrated in an enormous peripheral structure and the Plaza Mayor model was left behind. This huge market was part of a series of buildings and regulations that transformed Lima, resulting in a different kind of urban centrality. ...