Abogados

When the Spanish Conquistadors found these things in the temples and imperial palaces of Cusco, the capital city of the Incas which they sacked and destroyed, they stole all of the gold, all of the ornamentation, all of the grain stored for the people, all of the valued possessions. As Pisaro describes in his letter to the king of Spain, the artwork was some of the finest in the world, and the Incan goldsmiths were able to create statues and ornate sculptures more finely wrought than anything seen in Europe. And so, Pisaro wrote, he melted them all down into gold squares and sent them to the king, as a gift. The conquistadors not only robbed the Incas, but they also robbed history of an artistic heritage. It is a violation similar, perhaps, to how the Taliban used dynamite to rob the world of some of the Afghanistan’s ancient Buddhist statues. (Not unlike the Taliban, the Conquistadors claimed to be doing so in the name of God.)

What is most interesting is that the Spaniards never knew about the existence of and never found Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was abandoned well before the final Incan emperor died. No human remains were found in Machu Picchu, suggesting that the whole town, all of its inhabitant caretakers, craftsmen, artisans, priests, and virgins, left the city en masse. The Incan storehouses, repositories commonly seen in all Incan cities, which were filled with gold, silver, corn, potatoes, and weapons were empty when the city was rediscovered by Hiram Bingham in the early part of the 20th century. There was no gold adornment on the walls and no garbage or household items found. All that was found were some immovable stone buildings and, in underground cellar, some bones of guinea pigs, considered then (and now) a delicacy.

What this suggests, of course, is that somewhere in the mountains of Peru, there is a cache of treasure, of gold, silver, feathers, grain, art, and possibly even recorded history (the Incans recorded history on Kipu’s, knotted strings presumed to be interpreted much the same way as digital code). It makes the imagination stir as you walk or drive or take a train through the enormous mountains of Peru, wondering at all that we could learn about the ancient Incans if we could only find their lost artwork, ornamentation, and recorded history.

And yet, to me, an even greater treasure is being squandered, ignored, and lost in Peru. The people of the mountains speak an ancient Incan language, dress in characteristically colorful attire, and work the fields and terraces of the high mountains to grow hundreds of different varieties of potatoes (indeed if it weren’t for the people of the high mountains of Peru, potatoes would have never been introduced into Europe). The people are extremely poor and undernourished. They have poor medical care, dirty water supply, and little access to education. They are considered backwards, dirty, unhealthy and easily ignored. Their valid medical complaints are often dismissed because they are considered dirty “cholos” (a terribly derogatory term for a person of indigenous decent who speaks Quechua).

Indeed they are quite unlikely to create social unrest as they are far too busy with the mundane tasks of working their fields to produce enough food. In large Quechua families, it is not uncommon that the stronger, working members of the family are preferentially fed before the little children, for these are the ones who are able to work in the “chakra”, (Quechua for fields) to produce more food for the family, and the ones who are able to walk the 3 hour hike down the mountain, carrying produce on their back to sell in the markets of the “cities” along the Urubamba River like Calca, Lamay, Urubamba, and Pisac. The smallest ones, the babies and children, are often short and underweight, as there may not be enough food that day to feed everyone and the stronger ones need to be fed so they can go back to the fields.

They are generally nice people who are giving and sweet, but they are also suspicious of outsiders and very shy. Few of them speak Spanish. In the remotest towns, the ones I have talked to (through interpreters from Quechua to Spanish) seem to see little difference between the people who live in the city of Cusco and the people who live in the city of New London or New York. Foreigners all, these outsiders don’t speak their language and are, for the most part, indifferent to their daily struggle to fill their bellies to feed their children.

In the mountains of Peru there is still undiscovered treasure. There is love, and family, and dancing and festivals. There is an ancient language that few outsiders speak. Children laugh and play games with their parents. They also see how poverty makes their parents argue and fight. There are births and deaths and anguish and joy. Fighting and laughing. Hunger and drunkenness, satisfaction and thirst. In the mountains above the Sacred Valley of Peru I have found treasures.

The Cusco Machu Picchu Train Ride Orient Express

The History of Cusco Peru
Discovery of Machu Picchu
Travel Machu Picchu Peru
Peru Historical Sanctuary
Machu Picchu Discoveries
Machu Picchu Construction
Machu Picchu Architecture
Machu Picchu Tourism
Machu Picchu Artifact Dispute