The “scattered” and their “disordered lives”. Daily life in the “rochelas” of the province of Cartagena in the 18th century

Abstract

In the viceroyalty of New Granada and in the province of Cartagena in the late colonial period, a policy of border integration and subjugation of scattered populations was put forward in accordance with the criteria of social, political and economic reorganization of the empire promoted by Bourbon reformism. These inhabitants, mostly gathered within the class of the “free of all colors”, congregated in remote hamlets, known as “rochelas”, and opposed the projects to destroy their traditional ways of existence. From a cultural history perspective, this article therefore seeks to uncover unknown facets of their daily lives (sexuality, love, formation of couples, families, or their clothing, parties and rituals) and analyses various forms of bloodless cultural resistance - surreptitious and more effective than armed opposition - such as sabotage, disobedience, flight, rumor, threats or silence in order to preserve an alternative model of society to that ordered by the representatives of the colonial system.