Abstract
In 1570 the Spanish Crown decided to create, in the overseas spaces, the Holy Office of the Inquisition in order to control, effectively, the religious manifestations of the people and their social behaviors, bringing intolerance towards those who had different practices. However, initially it had only two district courts installed in the viceroyalties capitals of Mexico and Peru. The other places, captaincies and governorates, were controlled by commissioners dependent on Mexico or Lima, as appropriate. In the case of the Government of Chile, several police stations were deployed between the two dioceses. However, they were not efficient enough to achieve the objectives proposed in the inquisitorial ideology, on the one hand because of precarious material, and on the other hand because of the lack of ad-hoc officials to fill the positions. This led to the Chilean Governorate experience a more laxed control than other imperial territories. However, the climate of fear and prejudice among the inhabitants permeated the society generating intolerance and discrimination through other perspectives and through other social control devices, which survived in the republic and allow to understand —partway— the intolerance and discrimination in the current Chile. The present article will make a tour of the installation of the Holy Office in America, the historiographic status of the studies related to the Inquisition in Chile, the possible lines of investigation and the hypotheses to be tested. 
Highlights
In 1570 the Spanish Crown decided to create, in the overseas spaces, the Holy Office of the Inquisition in order to control, effectively, the religious manifestations of the people and their social behaviors, bringing intolerance towards those who had different practices
Tal hecho dejó en evidencia que parte de la sociedad chilena tiene una actitud no solo homofóbica, sino también xenófoba y de discriminación social y cultural hacia otros grupos que integran la nación
La privatización del poder: Inquisición y sociedad colonial en el Perú
Summary
El Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en España contó con una organización y estructura considerada —a juicio de Charles Lea— perfecta (1983). En el caso de la población rural, en tanto, buscó este control mediante las visitas de distrito que una vez al año realizaban los inquisidores de la jurisdicción correspondiente Evidentemente, se esperaba que mediante «la estructura y organización del Santo Oficio, [se] garantizaba un control y vigilancia sobre la población puesto que operaba como una barrera para elementos externos que pudiesen poner en jaque la ortodoxia [...]» Seguidamente, por expresa resolución real, la Inquisición americana careció de jurisdicción sobre los indígenas, por lo que la mayor parte de la población del Nuevo Mundo quedó exceptuada de ser juzgada por esta institución En los diversos espacios americanos, las autoridades eclesiásticas idearon sistemas alternativos para controlar las idolatrías o las malas prácticas de los indios, como, por ejemplo, las visitas de idolatrías en Lima (Cordero, 2016a; Duviols, 1971) o los juzgados de indios en México (Borah, 1996; Lara Cisneros, 2015)
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