San Luis de Alba

Colonial mining settlement near Puno, Peru

San Luis de Alba de Laicacota was a colonial mining settlement located near the city of Puno, Peru, on the shores of Lake Titicaca.[1][2] Referred to usually as "San Luis de Alba" or just "Laicacota", the settlement was first recognized by the Spanish Crown as an official asiento mining settlement in AD 1665, when it was given ecclesiastical authority and its own priest.[1] San Luis de Alba was built near silver mines on the banks of the mountains Cerro Negro Peque and Cerro Cancharani.[1][3] The most famous of these colonial mines were Laicacota and Cancharani.[1]

The settlement was abandoned in AD 1668 following a series of uprising and executions that became known as the Laicacota Rebellion, or the Laicacota Conflict, and the majority of the population was moved to Puno.[1][4][5]

## San Luis de Alba Settlement[edit]

After its official founding in AD 1665, San Luis de Alba quickly grew into a large mining community. The population increased dramatically around AD 1667, when the rich silver vein at Laicacota was officially registered. Historian Meredith Dodge describes San Luis de Alba as having over 3,000 houses by AD 1667 (Dodge 1984). However, scholars have recently reinterpreted this number to mean the entire population of the Puno Bay, not just San Luis de Alba.[1][4] Dodge describes San Luis de Alba as having three separate churches: the Iglesia de San Francisco, the Capilla del Señor Obispo (also known as the Capilla de los Santos Lugares), and the Capilla de las Animas.[2] She also describes a central plaza lined with large houses belonging to important mine owners. Apparently, there were no official town halls or government buildings at San Luis de Alba, as it was not recognized as an official town, only a mining seat (asiento de mina).[1]

## Confusion with Nearby Silver Refineries[edit]

The name of San Luis de Alba has sometimes been erroneously attributed to other colonial period silver processing sites in the region. For example, a large silver refinery and processing site, known as Chorrillos Itapalluni,[6][7] has been incorrectly labeled as "San Luis de Alba" and the "Fuerte de San Luis de Alba".[8] In reality, Chorrillos was located 2 km west of San Luis de Alba and was an industrial processing site, not a mining camp.

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g Domínguez, Nicanor (2016). Rebels of Laicacota: Spaniards, Indians, and Andean Mestizos in Southern Peru During the Mid-Colonial Crisis of 1650-1680. Urbana-Champaign: PhD Dissertation. University of Indiana.
2. ^ a b Dodge, Meredith (1984). Silver Mining and Social Conflict in Seventeenth- Century Peru: The War of the Nations in Laicacota, 1665-1667. Albuquerque, NM: PhD Dissertation, University of New Mexico.
3. ^ Domínguez, Nicanor (2017). Aproximaciones a la Historia de Puno y del Altiplano (in Spanish). Puno, Peru: Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección Desconcentrada de Cultura de Puno.
4. ^ a b Parodi Isolabella, Alberto (1995). El Lago Titicaca: Sus Características Físicas y Sus Riquezas Naturales, Arqueológicas y Arquitectónicas (in Spanish). Arequipa, Peru: Regentus.
5. ^ Basadre, Jorge (1945). El Conde de Lemos y Su Tiempo: Bosquejo de una Evocación y una Interpretación del Perú́ a Fines del Siglo 17 (in Spanish). Lima, Peru.
6. ^ Lechtman, Heather (1976). "A Metallurgical Site Survey in the Peruvian Andes". Journal of Field Archaeology. 3: 1–42.
7. ^ Schultze, Carol (2008). The Role of Silver Ore Reduction in Tiwanaku State Expansion into Puno Bay, Peru. Los Angeles: PhD Dissertation, UCLA.
8. ^ CTAR (1999). Puesta en Valor del Centro Histórico Colonial San Luis del Alba. Estudio Realizado Por El Consejo De Administración Regional Puno (in Spanish). Puno, Peru: Publicación de Proyecto Especial Binacional Lago Titicaca (PELT).