The tour operators enthusiastically touted travel to their country. “Peru is a beautiful, lush, and mountainous country in South America….” Describing adventures from coastal Lima to the heights of Machu Picchu, these twelve-year-olds were convincing. Having investigated the multicultural influences on the Americas from Indigenous, European, African, and Asian peoples, my students in small groups were “hired” by individual countries in Central and South America to promote tourism. Their cultural-historical immersion tours (introduced with video promos, brochures, and displays to sell their trips) were a traveler’s dream.
Changes in the Americas
Our sixth grade history course,
American
History I—Changes in the Americas, begins with
an introduction to geography and archaeology of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and
Europe. It continues with a study of pre-
and post-Columbian global exploration and exchange, Indigenous Americans,
European colonization of the Americas, African cultures and enslavement, and
the evolution of the English colonies. The course concludes with an examination
of the causes of the American Revolution and the human experience of the war.
During the course of the year, there are several small-group projects. Each student also conducts individual
research on a chosen topic in American history.
Students make history themselves as the year ends, developing Think-Care-Act Projects to change the
world.
Working closely and
cooperatively, numerous groups of sixth grade teachers have refined the course over
the years. In 2013-14 we redesigned an
existing group multimedia project, turning the project into an experiential
“campaign.” Colleagues Bert Howlin,
Steven Ramirez, Larry Henderson, and I assign young researchers to learn about
the geography and contributions of Indigenous Americans as well as European,
African and other peoples of assigned countries of the Americas. Then we “hire” these newly minted “experts,”
to create itineraries for trips focusing on the multicultural history of their
research countries. Student groups create
video promos, brochures, and displays to instruct their peers and “sell” their
trips to visitors to their tourism booths.
The Hill Fund for Faculty Enrichment & Overseas
Adventure Travel
As happens every fall
when we explore the world of the Incas of Peru, I get restless. While I love classroom exploration, I longed
to travel to Peru to see Cusco and Machu Picchu for myself and to tackle some
of the questions that arise year after year.
“Who built Machu Picchu on top of a mountain—and why?” “How did they accomplish so much in such a
short time?” “What happened to the
Incas?” With the generous support of the
Hill Fund for Faculty Enrichment, I finally made the trip to Machu Picchu,
enriching my first-hand knowledge of the vast civilizations that existed in the
Americas before European exploration. Of
particular relevance are three Hill Fund emphases: “Personal challenge/growth
experiences that will enhance one’s excellence and depth as a teacher,
colleague and member of the community; The culture of teachers teaching teachers;
A concern for global issues that extend beyond the syllabus.”
I had researched several tour companies offering trips to Peru and Machu Picchu, and Overseas Adventure Travel stood out. Online reviews and reviews from friends who had taken the trip confirmed its outstanding itinerary. Guides are of Incan heritage and have worked with the company for years. Several have master’s degrees. All have been rated as excellent guides by travelers on their trips. Most important, group sizes ranged from ten to sixteen.
Of particular relevance
to me were several aspects of this itinerary.
We’d visit Andean communities, where local guides would introduce modern
descendants of ancient Incan ancestors, whose lifestyles blend new and old. We would
visit Cusco, capital of the Incan world.
We’d have two days two explore Machu Picchu. We’d see Colonial European impact on the country. I would be able to examine first hand the
effects of ancient and modern globalization on the Incan people and on
Peru. The trip would be rigorous, with
multiple locations and five days at 7,000 to 12,500 feet of elevation. This would be a history teacher’s dream and a
personal challenge.
Blogging as Learning and Teaching: An Online Archaeological
Treasure Hunt
In past Think-Care-Act blogs, I have shared
topics promoting peace education, critical thinking, local and global empathy,
and social action in our classrooms.
This Peru blog relates to these themes in promoting a sense of global
connection and concern with today’s Peruvian highlanders (roughly half of
Peru’s population) along with appreciation for the contributions of their
ancient ancestors and how they can inform our lives today. In this blog I will share background
information, travel impressions, photos, and links for further research.
Readers
will see that I came away with more questions than I ever knew I had about
modern and ancient Peru. Since my
return, I continue to research these questions through books, websites, and
videos. I invite you to join me in an online
archaeological treasure hunt—and online course on the enduring influence of the
Incas on Peru. For each section of the
trip, I have posted links for videos, books, and websites. Find these below the
blog and use these resources for your own research. Add your comments, corrections, questions, and
insights as you travel and learn virtually.
Teachers will find these links and photos useful for classroom research
in language, history, literature, geography, arts, architecture, government, and
culture. Vámonos!
Meeting Corina Duran
A multilingual Andean
woman pursuing her doctorate in rural tourism while leading adventure travel
trips in the 11,000-foot highlands of her childhood is someone to admire. O.A.T.’s Corina Duran is a teachers’ teacher,
someone who can herd cats and teach passionately and effectively at the same
time. The cats in this case, were fourteen
Americans from twenties to sixties with a variety of backgrounds. Six were former Peace Corps volunteers in
Bolivia, Liberia, Micronesia, and Pakistan; all shared a love of global travel;
seven had just come off the Amazon.
Then she proceeded to lead
us on a non-stop, breathtaking march through Peru for the next ten days, from
sea level to 12,500 feet, from modern-day Lima to back-in-the-day Chinchero
near Cusco. And of course, to Machu
Picchu, enigmatic city in the clouds.
1. Lima
A city of extremes, tourist-path
Lima neighborhoods like suburban Miraflores and artsy Barranco resemble subdued,
posh, gentrifying neighborhoods in many colonial cities. However, the so-called pueblos juvenes (new towns) we glimpse on hillsides through side
streets indicate decades of rural-to-urban migration.
Unfortunately, we do not visit the communal settlement Villa El Salvador, a new town or barrio founded in 1971 by thousands of mountain people seeking safety in Lima after an earthquake. Mirroring Andean Inca family and community organization, community members created health centers, communal kitchens, sports grounds, and schools. Irrigation like that of the Incas has helped residents transform the Lima desert into cropland. Villa El Salvador is touted as an oasis for the city’s poor, and has earned a “Messenger of Peace” designation from the United Nations.
Unfortunately, we do not visit the communal settlement Villa El Salvador, a new town or barrio founded in 1971 by thousands of mountain people seeking safety in Lima after an earthquake. Mirroring Andean Inca family and community organization, community members created health centers, communal kitchens, sports grounds, and schools. Irrigation like that of the Incas has helped residents transform the Lima desert into cropland. Villa El Salvador is touted as an oasis for the city’s poor, and has earned a “Messenger of Peace” designation from the United Nations.
We hear tidbits from
locals about daily life in Lima. Overall,
corruption is a problem, but the entrance of women to the ranks of police and
garbage workers—at equal pay for equal work—has decreased the corruption and
increased productivity. We spot
countless buses from independent companies.
Drivers rent their buses, participating in the thriving informal
economy, but with no healthcare or pensions.
Locals explained that a bus driver who works from six A.M. to ten P.M.
earns about $50 (US) per day, a better rate than teachers, police, lawyers, or nurses. On our ride through the peaceful heart of the
city, we see riot police with shields up, awaiting marching doctors on strike
in the capital. While extremes of
poverty, wealth, protest, and peace are all around us, our focus is on extremes
of modernity versus antiquity.
The extreme on which we
focus on our first outing is of the modern city meeting the ancient city: a
former motocross playground under excavation to reveal Huaca Pucllana (Sacred Playground), one of one of an estimated 366 archaeological
sites in the city. Lima is clearly
visible all around this vast pyramidal structure, built by pre-Incan peoples
around 400 A.D. Imagine shelves of adobe-mud
“books” rising in pyramid fashion and you get a sense of this “bookshelf
construction” designed to sway, and thus withstand, earthquakes. Life-size figures dot the site, making adobe
bricks, making offerings, silently telling their story. 
Lima’s Lorca Museum houses
a stunning collection of pre-Columbian pottery, mummies, metalwork, and
textiles from various pre-Inca cultures.
Its website provides access to the collection and a virtual tour of
indigenous cultures of Peru.
The Northern
Peru Moche portrait-head pots, left as funerary offerings,
are as detailed as photographs, portraying men, women, diseases, animals, and minutiae
of ancient life.
The power of the
Catholic Church and the influence of the Spanish conquerors are evident
throughout Lima. The beautiful yellow Monasterio de San Francisco is under
slow renovation. It houses vast Colonial
libraries, the bones of 70,000 deceased Colonial Limans in its vast catacombs, and
a 1697 version of the Last Supper
with cuy, guinea pig, as the main
dish, a concession to Andean culture.
2. Who Were the Inca?
Finding Answers in Cusco and Beyond
The Inca, or Tawantinsuyu (Land of the Four Quarters),
were just another civilized group, but their rapid conquest and absorption of
other societies made their civilization the largest in South America from the
1400s-1500s. While a conquest-based,
hierarchical society, the Inca were also a sharing-based culture. The tight control held by Incan rulers, their
nobles, and their administrators kept the hierarchy in power, but also ensured
that all members of society had food, clothing, housing, and care from
childhood to old age.
Everyone worked. Community work was mandated through an elaborate
mit’a tax system, and shares of the
fruits of one’s labors were portioned out to the state, the community, and the
family. Men and women had equal status in some areas, while men were favored in
most. There was no money; they had a
barter society of services and goods.
Family groups were organized into ayllus,
which owned property on behalf of the group.
Through this highly organized society, everyone—noble and commoner, male
and female, young and old—had specific obligations to the family, community,
and state. Men devoted time for the
empire in the army and massive road and building projects. Women developed the weaving still practiced and
valued in the area today.
While each ayllu had religious traditions, the
state’s spiritual energies were focused on the Creator, Viracocha, as well as Inti,
the Sun god. They held sacred Pachamama (Mother Earth), as well as the
moon and gods of thunder, rainbows, and the mountain spirits, or Apus.
Indeed, as the ruler or Sapa Inca
began to be identified with Inti, the
Sun god, the state religion supported his conquests as head of state. Imperialists, the Incas folded competing
peoples into the swiftly expanding empire using a carrot and stick approach of
negotiation, gifts, and intermarriage or military attack, defeat, and massive resettlement.
3. Pachacuti’s Projects
How is it possible that
the Incan empire was so short-lived (1438-1532), yet its architectural remains
are so massive and long lasting? In a
society where work and stone are sacred, perhaps massive building projects
should be expected. But they were not
undertaken until the ascendance of the ninth Inca, or leader, Tupac Inca in 1438. Assuming power after conquering the Chancha
people, he changed his name to Pachacuti.
His name means “earth-shaker,” in the Quechua language he imposed, and
that’s just what he did.
4. Pisac and the Sacred Valley
Our stop in Cusco is
just a tease for a longer stay later. We
board a bus and twist and turn our way twenty miles over the mountains
surrounding Cusco to Pisac. Military
fort, religious retreat, and agricultural area, the setting leaves me
speechless—and breathless. This is our
first stop, but I agree with archaeologist John Hemmer who called this “one of
most spectacular views in the Inca empire.”
Looking over the Urubamba River Valley, known as the Sacred Valley, whose
climate allows farming all year, Pisac’s concave agricultural terraces allow
the sun to heat the stones and warm the earth.
The Incas irrigated the entire farming complex. Restoration workers are the only other people
here, and we watch them painstakingly restore terraces and buildings.
After having this picture taken, I was too winded to catch up to the rest of
the group. Slow and steady was the pace
on this first day at 11,000 feet.
In Urubamba Province,
with a population of about 15,000, from Pisac to Yucay through the Urubamba
River Valley, each town has an economic niche.
Corina points out specific towns that serve barbecued guinea pigs, make
adobe bricks, serve Chicha (corn beer), farm, etc. Kids play soccer near Inca farming
terraces. Informal transportation is
evident throughout the area.
Near the Urubamba River,
there are salt flats where the sea floor rose, trapping sea water. These have been used since ancient times for
salt pans. Red cliffs indicate the
presence of iron oxides—good clay for pottery.
Other areas are good for farming barley and one of Peru’s top exports: quinoa.
Cochineal beetles provide the bright red dye so
beautiful in Andean weavings (and so prized by North American colonists who
used Cochineal to color wall paint and cloth to show their wealth). Stopping by the side of the road, we
sacrifice some beetles to science, harvesting them from the cactus plants on
which they thrive, and squashing them in my palm for the edification of the
group.
5. Rafting the Urubamba River and Touring Ollantaytambo
This trip is one example of how the tourism industry is transforming the Urubamba River Valley. Our hotel is another. One of a number of eco-tourism and hostel sites along the Inca Trail (in this area, a stone path between villages), it was a beautiful lodge with views that could keep visitors happy for a week. However we are soon off to a new adventure: touring the archaeological site at Ollantaytambo.
Architects and archaeologists can give more detailed accounts of the sites we visit than I will do here as a first-time visitor, and I have listed good resources below for further investigation. It is hard to say where the town of Ollantaytambo ends and where the archaeological site begins—until the Ollantaytambo complex comes into full view.
Breathtaking in a different way than Pisac (and we are getting acclimated to altitude by now), the site’s scale and sizes of the stones are overwhelming. Archaeologists are still trying to learn how the Inca quarried granite not found in this valley, moved it to the site, and built on this huge scale.
Can the visiting school
children imagine the rebel emperor Manco Inca riding his stolen Spanish horse,
leading the final rebellion against the Spanish conquistadors atop the steep
terraces? He and his forces surprised
the Spanish here in 1536, diverting the Urubamba River through the complex
canal system to flood the plain on which the Spanish rode on horseback—the same
plain on which we now stand. Do they
wonder if the empire would have survived had Manco Inca succeeded in routing
the Spanish? Or do they, as I do, stare
at the walls, terraces, carved fountains, and hillside fortresses and wonder,
“How did they do that?”
Inca homes in the
traditional part of town are still much the same as they were in the 1500s: one-room
adobe shells. They are laid out in a
grid pattern, with irrigation systems that still work. Some of today’s town residents open their
homes to tourists, and here one can imagine life for an Incan family “back in
the day.” Once our eyes adjust to the
dim light, we first notice the guinea pigs, thirty of them, scurrying to nibble
the barley grass Corina drops at her feet.
“This was my job as a kid—to feed the guinea pigs.” Looking up and on a stone altar, we see
offerings of a dried llama, potatoes, grains, and the sacred coca leaf. An open fire is used for cooking. Aside from the few touristic additions, we
could be living in the early 1500s, under the watchful skull of a beloved
ancestor in a niche above the altar.
Likely, due to its careful layout, this town provided residence to select
members of the Incan hierarchy. 
We join Corina and two of the daughters in the outdoor clay-fire kitchen to help prepare an appetizer. Knowing many of us are vegetarian, our hosts have graciously prepared lentils as an alternative to the Peruvian specialty cuy (roasted guinea pig). The meat-eaters’ assessment was vague, “Cuy doesn’t taste like chicken, and it doesn’t taste like rabbit. It’s sort of gamey.” We all enjoy avocado, corn, sweet purple corn beer (unfermented chicha), and conversation over our potatoes and Peru tortillas before thanking our hosts and departing.
- Corina’s Peru Tortilla Recipe (for 15 people). Use other ingredients as desired. This is a flexible, home-cooking recipe that yields something more like a fritter than flat tortilla. Yummy!
1 pound corn meal
2 eggs
½ tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Chop/dice green onion and chili pepper.
Mash 3-4 cooked potatoes.
Combine and mix all ingredients.
Deep fry by tablespoonful in oil until golden brown.
A hop-scotch tournament
complete with announcer and area village women cheering for their players is
our after-lunch surprise. The announcer
shouts with triumph as a woman completes the cycle. He wails with dismay as a woman from another
village misses her mark and has to start over.
The crowd roars either way. Who
knew hop-scotch could be so exciting?
Wandering the streets of
Ollantaytambo we see the intermingling of festival and daily-life
atmosphere. Rural visitors are decked
out in regional dress, while local vendors and shops offer everything from
coffins to brooms, barley grass for guinea pigs to packaged pet food, chickens
to school uniforms. Of course touristic
offerings are evident, as is the high-production pottery studio of Paulo
Seminario. The town is friendly, interesting,
and welcoming, but Machu Picchu is calling.
6. Machu Picchu, Sacred
City in the Clouds
“What was man? Where in
his simple talk
amid shops and whistles, in which of his metallic motions
lived the indestructible, the imperishable—life?”
amid shops and whistles, in which of his metallic motions
lived the indestructible, the imperishable—life?”
In The Heights of Macchu Picchu, Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda
wrote these words as he pondered his visit to Machu Picchu. Is that what we are looking for—the
imperishable? We seem to be finding it
here. The light. The ring of
mountains. The blue sky. The green grass. The stone work. The sheer slopes. The Urubamba River roaring below. The massive scale. Machu Picchu is stunning. We don’t know where to begin.
Corina affirms this
observation with her introduction. It
was a sacred place for the Incas, close to the Apus (sacred mountains), near the Sun, with the Urubamba River
curving in a horseshoe at the base of the mountain. “It’s a sacred place. Like Mecca or Jerusalem,” she says. She shares speculation about why it was
abandoned before the Spanish could get wind of it and sack it. Built on two fault lines, was it
earthquake? Flood? Disease?
Bingham gave sections of
the city names: agricultural group, temple complex, and manufacturing
complex. We make our way among them,
Corina pointing out angles in the way the light comes through a typical trapezoidal
window, two reflecting pools ready to catch the first sunlight on the solstice,
and the one temple building whose foundation has shifted after all the centuries
since it was constructed.
Llamas,
remaining from a movie shoot, Corina says, meander over to see if we have food
in our backpacks. Workers weed-whack
terraces and flatten the paths. A UNESCO
World Heritage Site, soft-spoken guards are ready to restore order if visitors
act in a way “disrespectful to the national identity.” There is no need in our case. Corina worked on site at Machu Picchu for
years and greets fellow guides and guards alike. The fourteen of us are reverent visitors. Pretty soon, except for the llamas and
employees, we are the only ones here.
Along with the light, the silence is magical.
We stay overnight in
noisy Aguas Calientes, across from a soccer stadium whose competitors and
crowds want soccer live rather than to glue themselves to TV screens to watch
the ever-present World Cup matches. We
realize that the numbers of South American tourists are down at Machu Picchu,
because so many have gone to Brazil. We
have the best of both worlds: silence at Machu Picchu, and great fútbol
matches on TV everywhere we look. We retire
early to sleep—those of us lucky enough to have rooms away from the street’s
endless bar noise. We are returning to
Machu Picchu before dawn to watch the sunrise at the winter solstice.
“Then on the ladder of
the earth I climbed
through the lost jungle’s tortured thicket
up to you, Macchu Picchu.
High city of laddered stones,
at last the dwelling of what earth
never covered in vestments of sleep….”
through the lost jungle’s tortured thicket
up to you, Macchu Picchu.
High city of laddered stones,
at last the dwelling of what earth
never covered in vestments of sleep….”
“You’re no more now,
spidery hands, frail
fibers, entangled web—
whatever you were fell away: customs, frayed syllables, masks of dazzling light.
Yet a permanence of stone and word,
the city like a bowl, rose up in the hands
of all, living, dead, silenced, sustained,
a wall out of so much death, out of so much life a shock
of stone petals: the permanent rose, the dwelling place:
the glacial outpost on this Andean reef….”
fibers, entangled web—
whatever you were fell away: customs, frayed syllables, masks of dazzling light.
Yet a permanence of stone and word,
the city like a bowl, rose up in the hands
of all, living, dead, silenced, sustained,
a wall out of so much death, out of so much life a shock
of stone petals: the permanent rose, the dwelling place:
the glacial outpost on this Andean reef….”
7. Worshipping with Incans and Dominicans: The Qoricancha
Soon thereafter, Atahualpa,
the twelfth Inca, lost the empire. Feeling
invulnerable perhaps against a small force of bearded strangers and their
enslaved African and Indian companions, Atahualpa agreed to meet Pizzaro, who
promptly kidnapped him. Atahualpa
offered a huge ransom of silver and gold, which the Spanish soon stripped from
such places as Qoricancha. Spanish
sources described 700 sheets of gold, adorned with precious stones. Life-size gold and silver statues of llamas,
sheet, humans, and plants were removed.
The treasures of the
kingdom were melted down and shipped to Spain, Atahualpa was executed anyway,
and the warring tribes grudgingly under Inca dominance were all too happy to
help the Spanish exterminate their now-weakened foes. It is estimated that the indigenous
population may have been twelve million before 1532. After the ensuing wars, forced mining, and
epidemics, one hundred years later a census estimated 600 thousand.
We hike uphill through
Cusco’s famous stone streets, to the San Blas neighborhood for a snack at Pachapapa’s and some browsing at the
local craft fair. Shopping is
overwhelming, as everything is beautiful, from the painted pottery plates, to
the carved gourds, to the omnipresent weaving.
We buy a few gifts, exchange some sign language with vendors about our
respective children, and head back downhill.
In Plaza de Armas the party continues.
It’s been days now! Floats are
fully assembled and community groups parade them past the judging stand, some
accompanied by small bands. As a Philly
girl, I am reminded of my home-town Mummers’ Parade. There, too, neighborhood groups create
costumes, floats, and music and compete for the judges’ (and crowd’s)
affections. We climb onto the balcony of
an English-style pub, glancing at the ceiling of world flags. The patrons are oblivious to the party on the
street; most are screaming for Argentina in the World Cup game. Looking onto the joyous scene below,
listening to energetic flutes and drums—punctuated with shrieks from the pub
crowd as the goalie saves the day: again we enjoy the best of both worlds.
Food. We’ve been eating tasty restaurant food with
beautiful presentation. Ceviche, almost a Peruvian national
dish, is one new discovery: raw fish marinated in a mixture of lemon juice,
onion, peppers, and salt. Often our
hosts are at a loss to serve vegetarians.
A common solution is vegetable kabobs.
Delicious quinoa soup with a matzo-ball-like
potato is hearty meal. Avocado—in
salad—or alone is a delight. Always there is corn, or several varieties of potatoes, or both. Aji, flavorful peppery hot sauce, is to die for. Sometimes there is a delicious snack of cancha, fried corn kernels, or choclo, boiled chunks of large-kernel corn.
Many of us don’t drink alcohol, so the ubiquitous pisco sour offerings are lost on us. The unfermented corn beer, chicha morada, is very sweet and very purple. Another sweet offering is Inca Kola, in vending machines and street corners everywhere. The coffee is strong and delicious, and Corina was right: mate de coca, coca tea, is everywhere. I’ve been drinking it everyday, and it tastes like the herbal remedy it is. Always we drink agua, water, either con gas, carbonated, or sin gas, uncarbonated.
Many of us don’t drink alcohol, so the ubiquitous pisco sour offerings are lost on us. The unfermented corn beer, chicha morada, is very sweet and very purple. Another sweet offering is Inca Kola, in vending machines and street corners everywhere. The coffee is strong and delicious, and Corina was right: mate de coca, coca tea, is everywhere. I’ve been drinking it everyday, and it tastes like the herbal remedy it is. Always we drink agua, water, either con gas, carbonated, or sin gas, uncarbonated.
It’s the meat aisle that
gives me pause. Hooves, hearts, and
intestines are on display, and the typical sheep’s head soup is for sale in
booths with benches for diners. I turn
into another aisle and find flour, beans, vegetables, chocolate, and coca
leaves, chewed by Andean locals and used as offerings in ceremonies. Breads in huge round loaves mingle with
smaller flat breads. We buy a loaf to
eat on the bus and exit to see a festival set up for the kids. And guess what—there’s a parade going on in
the street. One costumed community group
marches by with a band. Another practices
the dances it will perform later in the day.
9. Rehearsing in Sacsayhuaman
How would you go about
moving a boulder twelve miles uphill?
Would its size of sixteen-by-fifteen-by-eight feet, and its weight of
ninety metric tons intimidate you? From
Hemming and Ranney’s Monuments of the Incas, here’s how the Incas moved mountains on the hill above Cusco at Sacsayhuaman,
according to chronicler (and grandson of Incas) Garcilaso de la Vega, writing
in 1609:
“Learned Indians…affirm
that over twenty thousand Indians brought up [the largest] stone, dragging it
with great cables. Their progress was
very slow, for the road up which they came is rough and has many steep slopes
to climb and descend. Half the laborers
pulled at the ropes from in front, while the rest kept the rock steady with
other cables attached behind lest it should roll downhill.”
Taking our obligatory
photos with the extraordinary boulders, we move into another spiritual realm
nearby, a visit with a traditional healer or curandero. Our new spiritual
brother assembles various offerings of such items as sweets, grains, corn beer,
and coca leaves to Pachamama. He invites us to make intentions and prayers
with the offerings of three coca leaves each, blesses us with them, and burns
the package of offerings in solemnity.
Meanwhile, families set
up tents and what Corina affectionately calls “Peruvian microwaves” on the
hillside park above Cusco. They dig a
hole, build a fire, put in potatoes to roast, and cover with dirt. While they wait for their potatoes to roast,
they play volleyball, chase dogs, buy snacks, and relax as they await Inti Raymi and the new year. The white statue of Jesus on the hillside
presiding over the scene? It was a gift
from Palestinian Christians, who were granted refuge in Peru in 1945.
10. Controversies in Chinchero and Going to School
Peruvian foods—mainly some of the 4000 varieties of potatoes developed by Andean peoples—changed the world during the Columbian exchange. Read Charles Mann’s 1493 to see how potatoes stopped starvation in Europe and led to European population booms and global ascendance from the 1600s to 1800s. In 1493, you can also read about the effect of Peruvian silver and guano (nitrate-filled bird droppings used as fertilizer) on the Columbian-exchange world as well.
Peru imports rice from
China, sugar from Bolivia, oil from Ecuador and Venezuela, cars from Japan and
Korea. Exports—especially to Europe and
the U.S., are headed by Peru’s organic agriculture products, mainly tomatoes,
potatoes, artichokes, asparagus, and recently, blueberries. Despite numerous mineral resources, Peru is still
developing economically, and great class disparities exist. They are evident as we contrast suburban
Miraflores with “suburban” Chinchero.
The air is clear and the high lake, surrounded by mountains, blue sky,
and brown, tan, and green fields is an inviting place to stretch our legs. I imagine life here as I look longingly at
the three canoes tied near shore.
We approach Chinchero,
where high farmland farmers are burning fields.
There are few cars, hundreds of varieties of potatoes, and lots of fava
beans. Amidst the quilt work of fields,
the government is building a new international airport. There is much corruption as the government
pays farmers far less for land than is recorded. I wonder how families accustomed to open
spaces and proximity to Pachamama
will fare in the new concrete apartments under construction.
Those of us old enough
to remember have heard of the neo-Maoist Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso. Amidst the
discontent during the economic and agrarian crises of the 1980s, college
professor Abimael Guzmán tried to revolutionize Peruvian society, aiming to
abolish the divisions of rich and poor. He
formed Shining Path, but the group’s violent techniques terrorized rich city-dwellers
and poor village people alike. Corina
remembers from her village days the fear that Senderistas would kidnap young boys, steal sheep, and use other
violent means to coerce cooperation from villagers. Car bombs and attacks on bridges,
hydro-electric plants, and international investment projects followed. The ensuing years saw thousands of Andean
villagers die as they were caught between the violence perpetrated by the Peruvian
military and Sendero Luminoso
guerillas. The crisis was compounded when
another revolutionary group, Tupac Amaru,
came on the scene.
Those of us who followed
these developments from afar remember when Alberto Fujimori came into power in
1990. During his first term he captured Guzmán,
breaking the back of Shining Path. In
his second term he undermined Tupac Amaru, ending their 126-day hostage-taking
occupation of the Japanese ambassador’s home in Lima. Fujimori promoted education and cut
illiteracy. He built healthcare and road
infrastructures. Everyone loved
him. Until they discovered the
dictatorial policies he was also undertaking.
Locals among the farming
communities through which we are driving long remember. During a 1997 “family planning” drive, for
example, women had their fallopian tubes tied against their wills. They are known as the Women of Anta. Fujimori forces killed one of Corina’s
college professors in front of her class.
She left the country shortly thereafter.
Fujimori fled the country too, although he has since been returned and
is serving a forty-year term for human rights abuses.
We have a short
question-and-answer session. We ask
their daily schedule. “Get up, wash,
brush teeth, go to school, and then help our parents in the store or farm.” They ask, “Who is taking care of your animals
while you’re traveling?” We have to
explain that we have no sheep or llamas at home, only cats and dogs the
neighbors care for.
Education is mandatory
in Peru, from ages six to eleven. In the
highlands, students start learning in Quechua, continuing in Spanish. Primary school, for ages six to eleven, is followed
by five years of secondary, and at ages fourteen to sixteen, an exam to gain
entrance to college or technical track. UNESCO
2007 statistics indicate adult literacy in Peru is 89.6%, while youth literacy
(ages 15-24) is 97.4%. In rural areas, thirty
percent of students might go to technical school, ten percent to college. Like Canadians, Peru’s students attend
college for five years. After college,
will they return to the highlands as adults as these teachers and principal and
our tour guide have?
Every student in school
lines up to receive gifts of oranges and bananas, a treat to a highland child,
Corina tells us. The principal is beaming. The children perform
for us, their honored guests. One girl,
a future valedictorian, declaims dramatically in Spanish her love for education. Two boys sing a song. The group dances a traditional dance, with
their teachers playing spiritedly on traditional drums and flutes. Their education, in Spanish and Quechua,
clearly encompasses both histories.
I have brought a gift
from my students who wrote poems of peace for their unseen friends in
Peru. We have created them on cloth, similar
to the prayer flags of Nepal, and inspired by Jeff Harlan and Sandy Crowe’s
Dream Flag Project, connecting the hopes and dreams of children all over the
world. The children will create their
own poems to send back to my students, and Corina will pick these up on her
next visit. We take one last photo with
flags of peace unfurled, the snow-capped Andes Mountains behind us. We hug the energetic principal and our small
hosts and depart, leaving this 12,500-foot literal and figurative highpoint of
our trip.
11. Weaving: Better than Gold
Readers may be
wondering, “How can she write about the Incas and their descendants without
writing about weaving?” I have saved the
best for last. Stonework, temples,
forts, cities, roads may be the lasting creation of Incan men, but weaving
remains the lasting legacy of Incan women. 
Two stops at weavers’
cooperatives show us the mastery of Andean weavers: one at the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales de Cusco,
and the other in Chinchero. In Cusco,
male and female master weavers from surrounding rural areas spend a week living
in the museum, demonstrating their techniques to visitors, sharing their
designs with each other, and honoring the weaving tradition. Next to the showroom an informative museum displays
the woven clothes that accompany each milestone in a highlander’s
lifespan. 
In the Inca time, in addition
to running the household and weaving clothes for her family and herself, every
woman’s mit-a (required work), was to
produce one piece of woven clothing for the state’s storage. The Spaniards valued gold, but the Incas
valued fine weaving above gold, according to such chroniclers as the part-Incan
Garcilaso de la Vega. Cloth-production
was second only to agriculture as an industry.
Textiles were used as offerings to the gods, as payment to soldiers, as
gifts to nobles, and as indication of rank.
Peru was a cotton
culture for thousands of years prior to Incan ascendancy, and Garcilaso reminds
us that women were weaving both cotton and wool in Inca times, depending on
their climate. He also describes
fifteenth century multi-tasking among women, as they were “so reluctant to
waste even a short time that as they came or went from the village to the
city…, they carried equipment for the two operations of spinning and
twisting….” On the streets of Chinchero, we saw women doing the same thing in
2014.
12. Reflections
“The dead realm lives on
still.
And across the Sundial like a black ship
the ravening shadow of the condor cruises….”
And across the Sundial like a black ship
the ravening shadow of the condor cruises….”
We are about to board our bus back to Cusco, to fly to Lima and modernity, so we take one last look at the beauty of Chinchero. How will it fare when the international airport opens? How will traditional values that have lasted hundreds of years continue in competition with encroachments of tourists, and television, and technology? “The old must make way for the new,” a Chinese proverb proclaims. Will this hold true in twenty-first century Peru as it did when the Spanish arrived?
Or did it? Does the survival of Andean arts, beliefs,
farming techniques, family warmth, sharing and bartering, and strong community
values bring the old ways along with the new?
Other lingering questions
involve my quandary in admiring great work produced by forced labor. Like the Great Wall of China, or the U.S.
White House, for that matter, most of the archaeological wonders I admire in
Peru were envisioned by powerful leaders and brought to life by captive, enslaved,
or mandatory labor.
My visit to Machu Picchu
and my trip to Peru’s highlands make me question my assumptions—and my
teaching—about those who lived and worked long ago: emperor, noble, commoner,
and slave. Neruda’s words echo my mental
pictures and wordless queries:
Macchu Picchu, did you
set
stone upon stone on a base of rags?
Coal over coal and at bottom, tears?
Fire on the gold and within it, trembling, the red
splash of blood?
Give me back the slave you buried!
Shake from the earth the hard bread
of the poor, show me the servant’s
clothes and his window.
Tell me how he slept when he lived….”
stone upon stone on a base of rags?
Coal over coal and at bottom, tears?
Fire on the gold and within it, trembling, the red
splash of blood?
Give me back the slave you buried!
Shake from the earth the hard bread
of the poor, show me the servant’s
clothes and his window.
Tell me how he slept when he lived….”
My unease leads me to
ask, “What is a great civilization? Is
it its rulers? Or is it its people?” Recognizing the sacrifices of the past “unknowns,”
can we bring them to life by remembering them?
Can we recover the best of the past to shape the best of the future? In admiring Machu Picchu and the stone
constructions of the Incas, can I remember and nurture the resilience of the
human spirit? Can I accept the fact that
the Incan empire was mercilessly imperialist and also appreciate and rekindle
the spirit of sharing, cooperation, and concern for each member of society its
people engendered?
Neruda remembers the
unknown, unnamed, shadow builders of history and offers to speak for them:
“Jack Stonebreaker, son
of Wiracocha,
Jack Coldbiter, son of the green star,
Jack Barefoot, grandson of the turquoise,
Rise to be born with me, brother….
Jack Coldbiter, son of the green star,
Jack Barefoot, grandson of the turquoise,
Rise to be born with me, brother….
Look at me from the
bottom of earth,
plowman, weaver, voiceless shepherd….
I come to speak through your dead mouth….”
plowman, weaver, voiceless shepherd….
I come to speak through your dead mouth….”
Long after the Incan
empire fell, historians recognize the enduring reminders of Incan society. Archaeologist Michael Malpass observes, “The
sense of common culture that millions of Andean people share today is more the
result of the Incas’ policies than those of the Spaniards…. Thus it is difficult
to say that the Incas no longer exist….” When I ask my new friend Corina Duran
what she most wants my students to know about her people she immediately
replies, “We are not dead. We are very
much alive.” And that, along with a continuing
series of questions, a sense of wonder at the accomplishments of human beings,
and appreciation for the resilience of the Andean people is the resounding
message from my trip to Peru.
—Susan Gelber Cannon, August 2014
—Susan Gelber Cannon, August 2014
LINKS & RESOURCES:
I. General
Introduction to New World/Old World Contact and Introduction to Peru
Websites and Books:
Websites and Books:
1. WEBSITE: LIMA EASY Travel info and tourist/cultural site info, deeply-linked site. http://www.limaeasy.com
2. WEBSITE:
BBC News Country Profiles: Peru http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1224656.stm
3. BOOK: Insight Guide Peru: http://www.insightguides.com/product/insight-guides-peru/9781780050973
4.
BOOK: DK Eyewitness Travel Peru: http://www.dk.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781409385790,00.html?strSrchSql=travel/DK_Eyewitness_Travel_Guide:_Peru
5. BOOK/PDF: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas
Before Columbus, (Charles C. Mann, 2006) http://www.charlesmann.org/articles/1491-Atlantic.pdf
6. BOOK: 1493:
Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (Charles C. Mann, 2011)
7. BOOK/WEBSITE: Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond, 1997) Website of documentary: http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/
8.
WEBSITE:
ZinnEd Project: Countless resources for
teaching U.S. history emphasizing the participation of those usually left out
of textbooks: http://zinnedproject.org
9.
WEBSITE:
Rethinking Columbus: Classroom
readings and resources for teaching about the Columbian Exchange: http://zinnedproject.org/2011/10/rethinking-columbus-day/
II. Lima
1.WEBSITE:
Villa El Salvador: City Traveler article on Villa El Salvador, Lima, Peru:http://www.thecitytraveler.com/2009/11/lima/
2. VIDEO:
Huaca Pucllana three minute video tour in English and Spanish with subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToqaSz8GSZ8
3.
WEBSITE:
Lorca Museum AWESOME online catalogue and exhibit of pre-Inca: http://www.museolarco.org/en/ AND via Google Plus: http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/collection/museo-larco?projectId=art-project
4.WEBSITE:
Monasterio de San Francisco: http://www.museocatacumbas.com/english/index_en.html
III.
Who Were the Inca? Pachacuti’s Projects
1. BOOK:
Monuments of the Incas (John Hemming
& Edward Ranney, 2010) Beautifully photographed, numerous Incan
architectural/archaeological sites are described and explained. You will understand more about Incan design,
construction, and belief than you thought possible after reading this book and
studying the photos and site plans.http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=NT279
2. BOOK:
The Way People Live: Life Among the Inca (James
A. Corrick, 2004) Basic explanations of daily life.
3. BOOK:
Daily Life in the Inca Empire
(Michael A. Malpass, 2009) Detailed explanations of daily life and ancient and
modern impact of the Incas.
4. WEBSITE:
National Geographic Article on Incas (with links to a photo gallery, simulated
flyover, 1913 Hiram Bingham article and photos, etc.) http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/inca-empire/pringle-text
5. WEBSITE:
National Geographic Interactive Map of Inca Empire 1500s: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/inca-empire/interactive-map
6.
WEBSITE:
Interactive information game about the Incas: www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/games/brainteaser/inca/inca.html
7. PDF:
Quipus Cracking the Khipu Code—Charles
Mann article from Science Magazine: http://www.charlesmann.org/articles/Khipu-Science.pdf
IV. Cusco, Pisac, Urubamba
River, Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo
1.
VIDEO:
Young dancers in Cusco as part of New Years festivities 2012: (3:30 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjGSeM4Nhf0
2. VIDEO: Knowledge, skills and
rituals related to the annual renewal of the Q'eswachaka bridge
The Q'eswachaka rope suspension bridge crosses a gorge of the
Apurimac River in the southern Andes. Four Quechua-speaking peasant communities
assemble annually to renew it, using traditional Inca techniques and materials.
(Ten-minute video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xCpAy_8p3U
3. VIDEO: (Five-minute
video) NOVA: GRASS BRIDGE building with background on suspension bridges, questions,
and active teaching activity (excerpt from Nova’s
Secrets of Lost Empires: Inca) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/education/ancient/grass-bridge.html
4.WEBSITE: Inca stone moving Nova program question and answer: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/inca1/qanda.html
V. Machu
Picchu
1. WEBSITE: NOVA-Machu
Picchu: A Marvel of Inca Engineering Interview with civil engineer
Ken Wright. Also has informative
interactive links on Inca/Spanish warfare, rise of the Inca, etc. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/wright-inca-engineering.html
2. VIDEO:
NOVA-Ghosts
of Machu Picchu: Why did the Incas abandon their city in the clouds?
(One-hour video program with transcript) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/ghosts-machu-picchu.html
3. PREZI: World Heritage Site Project MACHU PICCHU, Peru: Informative Prezi intro to Machu Picchu by seventh grader. Great information on UNESCO World Heritage (definition/criteria), description of Machu Picchu, and embedded short NHK video on MP. Transcript is viewable and useful. http://prezi.com/_vdlcwrddjsq/machu-picchuperu/
4. BOOK: Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering
the Lost City One Step at a Time (Mark Adams, 2012) Readable, hilarious,
and fact-filled, this is one of the books that will help you put all the pieces
together. (The other is Monuments of the Incas.) Why are all the roads connected to
Cusco? Why was Machu Picchu sited where
it is? How are the sacred mountains
utilized in Incan architecture and worship?
5. BOOK: Monuments of the Incas (John Hemming
& Edward Ranney, 2010) See link above.
6. PDF: The Heights of Macchu Picchu, by Pablo
Neruda (Translated by John Felstiner, first published in Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu, John Felstiner,
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1980.
Use this literary masterpiece to understand the impact of ancient work
on modern humans, to provoke sensory appreciation of the site, or prompt
writing.) http://www.janushead.org/10-1/Neruda.pdf
VI. Partying in Cusco, Shopping in San Pedro,
Rehearsing in Sacsayhuaman
1.
VIDEO:
Inca Creation to Inti Raymi Celebration:
Peruvian Animation Five-minute
animated video by Peruvian animators traces origin of Inca from Lake Titicaca
to current celebration of Inti Raymi and Andean New Year in Cusco today. Very informative for the careful viewer (who
also use other sources), part of the cartoon series
"Patrimonito's World Heritage Adventures" http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/index.php?s=films_details&pg=33&id=2886#.U8f5D8ZQy18
2. VIDEO:
Inti-Raymi: Five-minute travel agency video of reenactment of Inti Raymi with
good close-ups of ceremony from vantage point of Inca and royal actors
(5:30 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWezJ08c8KU
(5:30 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWezJ08c8KU
3. VIDEO:
Inti Raymi: Five-minute video of Inti Raymi re-enactment of university student
dance troupes and soldier-performers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TZI4gj3zs
VII. Appreciating
Food & Controversies & School
1. VIDEO:
Pisac Market: Two-minute colorful video: (2:24 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWXBToOQxtY
2. WEBSITE:
Peru current events articles about potatoes, bridges, etc. (NOTE, good for
perusing, but many links get error message) http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs194/1103180195259/archive/1117590838021.html
3.
WEBSITE/NPR
RADIO: Quinoa: Can Quinoa Farming Go
Global…? Pros and cons (and links to other articles) on globalization of
quinoa farming and effects on Andean people who have domesticated the plant
over centuries. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/08/15/212342707/can-quinoa-farming-go-global-without-leaving-andeans-behind
4. WEBSITE:
Monterrey Institute of International studies: Introduction to Education in
Peru: Statistics, issues, and interviews. http://sites.miis.edu/educationperu/
5. WEBSITE:
Dream Flag Project: Connect poetic dreams of your students with others all over
the world. http://dreamflags.org
6. PDF/COOKBOOK: Traditional High Andean Cuisine, by Allin Mikuy and Sumak Mikuy. The introduction of this book produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is helpful in understanding the evolution of agricultural practices in the Andes region from the Incas, through Spanish conquest, to today. Scrolling past the list of recipes from several countries in the region, one finds explanations of the major food crops and their role in Incan history, reactions of the Spanish, and each crop's role in Andean agriculture and diet today. Authentic recipes! Excellent resource! Traditional High Andean Cuisine
6. PDF/COOKBOOK: Traditional High Andean Cuisine, by Allin Mikuy and Sumak Mikuy. The introduction of this book produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is helpful in understanding the evolution of agricultural practices in the Andes region from the Incas, through Spanish conquest, to today. Scrolling past the list of recipes from several countries in the region, one finds explanations of the major food crops and their role in Incan history, reactions of the Spanish, and each crop's role in Andean agriculture and diet today. Authentic recipes! Excellent resource! Traditional High Andean Cuisine
VIII. Weaving
1.
WEBSITE:
Weaving info from National Geographic about Chinchero coop: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0430_020430_TVincatextiles.html
2. VIDEO:
University of New England visitors interview Chinchero weavers (in Spanish and
Quechua with subtitles) about the designs of their weaving. (Informative
five-minute video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lAnD6N21TI
3. VIDEO:
Chinchero weavers pick flowers, wash wool, weave, and knit in this
four-and-a-half minute video without narration. We visited this cooperative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeSimBMBqk4
4. WEBSITE
& VIDEOS: Chinchero Weaving Cooperative: http://www.gypsynester.com/peruvian-weaving.htm
6. VIDEO: Demonstration how to wrap baby in an awayu, woven cloth worn by Andean women, used to carry everything
from harvest to children. (Rambling, but informative video in Spanish) http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1005063/pg1
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