1773. Carta de María Cipriana Hurtado de Mendoza para su hermano don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza.

Letter from María Cipriana Hurtado de Mendoza to her brother Diego Hurtado de Mendoza.

The author keeps her brother abreast of the news from Lima. Insisting on their mother´s death and the state of his hacienda, which prevents her from being able to help him.

In 1770 an action against Diego Hurtado de Mendoza was brought by the Hospital de San Juan de Dios on the grounds of lack of payment of some maravedis. Diego Hurtado became indebted with the aforementioned institution after staying there, together with a black slave, due to a venereal disease. The litigation includes not only the case files with the rejoinders and surrejoinders from the involved parties, but also a bundle of letters written between 1772 and 1773. After reading the letters and the medical reports, one can glimpse the health journey this young man from Lima went through. The proceedings continued in the Real Audiencia, where its president, Raimundo de Sobremonte, marquis of Sobremonte, assumed Diego´s care and managed his material and physical well-being. Diego moved to Arcos de la Frontera and to Cadiz, where slowly recovered in the care of Nicolás de Lanuza and the religious from a convent in Cadiz. Once he slightly recovered, he decided to go back to Lima, given that his mother had passed away and his inheritance and hacienda were being handled by his sister. The epistolary trace takes us to the previous moment before embarking to America, since the management of his departure is mentioned in the letters.