Jubilant devils. Cultural hybridisation in the diabladas in honour of Baroque Saints in the Colonial Andes

Abstract

This essay examines diabladas performed in honour of Counter-Reformation saints in the colonial Andes, with a particular focus on the cult of Isidro Labrador in Ichocán, Peru. Moving beyond the traditional anthropological emphasis on pre-Columbian influences and the historical analysis of the ‘demonisation’ of indigenous beliefs during the viceregal period, I argue that the diabladas served as a bridge between the preservation of indigenous religious identities and the colonial acculturation campaigns of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By analysing the Andean adaptation of a cult closely associated with Spanish colonialism, the article demonstrates that indigenous agency was not limited to overt acts of rebellion but was often expressed through subtle and sophisticated strategies of cultural intermediation. Finally, the article illustrates how Andean communities, by joyfully embracing the cults of new saints canonised in Baroque Rome, managed to sustain their ritual traditions—especially dances connected to agricultural life—despite the strict oversight imposed during the campaigns to ‘extirpate’ idolatry in colonial Peru.