The puquios of the Chancay Valley: Eighteenth-Century Legal Arguments (original) (raw)

In 1743 attorney M. Valdivieso y Torrejon prepared a printed legal brief on behalf of his client don Lorenzo Joseph de Aparicio the owner of the Chancaillo Hacenda in Peru's Chancay Valley. Don Lorenzo Joseph had brought suit in Peru's water court against his neighbor, don Jacino de Rojas, the owner of the Jequan Hacienda, also in the Chancay Valley. The water from two puquios or filtration galleries was in dispute. Who would get it depended on an important legal point. If the puquios had been built by Indians before the arrival of the Spaniards in Peru, then the landowners of the Chancay Valley were required to to share their water. If, however, a landowner had built the puquios after the conquest, he had exclusive rights. This paper examines the legal arguments advanced by Valdivieso y Torrejon and his client.