Trasferimenti culturali e simbologia del potere nel mondo andino: il caso della Villa Imperial di Potosì

In the multi-ethnical society of viceregal peru, the discursive and iconographic representation of the primacy of Potosi, founded on the immense silver production of Cerro Rico, can be read as an emblematic example of an interesting process of cultural empowerment and reinterpretation of subjects and symbols found in the Catholic Monarchy's rethoric, and reproduced by both the creole elite and the Andean world, which was presented as heir of the Inca tradition. This representation shows a double strategy of symbolic elaboration that, moving from the conceptual elements of Christian identity of Spain and its own imperial destiny, permitted the creole and the indigenous vindication of their own and special primacy in the destinies of the Spanish monarchic universalism.