Adriana is a PhD candidate at Harvard’s History department, where she studies colonial Latin America. Her dissertation asks how the colonial situation influenced the way 17th century indigenous and Afro-Andeans recalled the pre-columbian and early colonial past. That is, how did subaltern people’s interactions with other colonial subjects shape their notions of the past? Why were indigenous and Afro-Andeans’ interpretations of the past important to the way they carved out a space for themselves in colonial society? In order to answer these questions, Adriana explores judicial, ecclesiastical, literary and material sources to identify a wide array of practices and beliefs—such as origin stories, oral histories and religious customs—that functioned as vehicles of collective and individual memories within native and Afro-Andean communities. Adriana hopes this analysis will shed light on how subaltern people in the Andes viewed and experienced colonialism.