| Sumario: | In the early nineteenth century, Lima was a densely populated metropolis where men and women of various colours and classes came into close daily contact. As was true elsewhere, with this degree of proximity also came social conflicts that involved the use of verbal insults. While scholars have paid significant attention to the use and meaning of insults between members of similar social milieus, and those used by racial superiors to lower social orders, the subject of insults from racial subordinates to superiors remains comparatively understudied. This article examines three such incidents in order to consider how men and women of African, Indian and mixed-racial ancestry located themselves in relation to Spaniards in the region, and also how, in the process, they challenged Spaniards’ sense of racial and gender-based privilege.
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