Fiestas and work in Colca Canyon

by Mauricio de Romaña.

The text of this chapter has been summarized from an article by María A. Benavides. 1987 (see bibliography).

Simón Bernal Malaga, an anthropologist born in Coporaque, the oldest village of the Colca, did an interesting study of the agricultural work and the fiestas of the region, and it is to this material which we turn in the present chapter.
The most important agricultural task carried out in the Colca occurs at the beginning of the Agricultural season and consists of scraping and cleaning the canals. Some of the canals require several days work in the high plateau where they originate. The canals are, naturally, blocked during the cleaning, and when the water begins to flow again the first rush of it is greeted with great celebration and devotion. The people kiss the water, cross themselves with it and bathe in it. Everyone is full of joy: the workers who proudly show their tools and the straw and flowers with which they have bedecked their hats and clothes; and the women, children and old people who have come to meet them with "chicha", food and band of musicians. In some cases they celebrate a mass of tanksgiving at the highest point accessible to the priest with his paraphernalia. The national flag floats on the breeze, along with the standard of the village, and hundreds of smaller flags adorn the hills so that the joy of the fiesta can be seen at a great distance.
The "barbecho", or plowing, takes place immediately before or after the first water flows. It is accompanied with great solemnity and offerings of "chicha" and food to the "Pacha Mama" or "Santa Tierra". The earth is considered a fertile woman and the time when she will give birth must be prepared for with care and attention. The water is considered the masculine element which fecundates the earth. Then, the men plow with a team in furrows, or with a "wiso", a kind of hoe, with which they make a hole in the ground. The women, symbol of the reproductive forces, come after them, placing the seeds in the earth and covering them carefully.
The "mishka" or early sowing of corn and beans takes place in August. In September and October the rest of the land is sown. Some fields are left fallow, depending on the water supply. October, November and December are the months which are the period of gestation for the earth. It is necessary to irrigate and hoe around the corn. The fiestas at this season are related to ceremonies to protect the crops from drought and frosts.
The first of January is the presenting of the staffs, when those who will wield the authority in the villages during the coming year receive the symbol of its investment. This occurs in the atriums of the churches which were cemeteries before the constructions of the mausoleums on the outskirts of every village during the second half of the 19th century. The rods are symbols of authority in the Incan tradition as well as in the Spanish.
The second of February is the fiesta of the Virgen of the "Candelaria", the patron of single women. The women adorn the image and carry it to the fields, where they make sure that the Virgen looks in all directions to insure a good harvest. This ceremony begins the period called the "verde", when they begin to harvest the first fruits of the "mishka", the August sowing.
At the end of February or the beginning of March they celebrate a movable fiesta, the fiesta of Pujllay, known in modern times as carnaval. Pujllay is a mysterious person, perhaps a Spaniard, who comes into the village like a whirlwind causing quarrels and upsets, catalyzing, indeed, all the aggression accumulated during the year. This is expressed in fights and acts of vengeance, especially between the two factions of the village. The Pujllay stays in the village a week, then he leaves and the tranquility and spirit of cooperation returns.
The Saturday of Pujllay, or carnaval, work is concerned with repairing the roads and bridges, or else the "tinka", the branding of livestock. The llamas and alpacas are gaily decorated with colored ribbons around their ears and collars of fruit and flowers around their necks. The bulls and oxen are adorned with bread and fruit as a symbol of appreciation for the aid they have given in the sowing.
The Tuesday of carnaval begins the fiesta proper, which lasts a week. This is considered the day of the year when there is no justice and one can take revenge for grievances suffered during the year. Until the decade of 1960 the authorities refrained from interfering, but after that acts of violence were no longer permitted.
The week of Pujllay is also a time of complete sexual freedom for single women. They can have sexual relations with whom they wish, be it men of their own faction or strangers. This week of sexual liberty results in an increase in the birth rate during the month of November.
Until a few decades ago the dance of "witite" was traditional at carnaval time. This is a dance in which the young men disguise themselves as women, wearing skirts, blouses, or a white shirt and a cloth hat or simply a black cloth on their heads. This is adorned with hanging decorations which hide their faces. They wear on their backs two "llicllas" or little blankets in which they put their ammunition: quinces, dahlia roots and pieces of cactus trunk. They carry "huaracas" or slings in their hands with which to hurl the ammunition. The "witite" is danced with the two factions of the village forming lines with a little lane between. They then sling things at their rivals in the opposite line, aiming at the head. There used to be frequent injuries and occasional deaths.
In the 60's the dance was modified and women were permitted to join in. Today they dance with a "witite" or with a young man without a disguise. The slings are now no more than adornment in their hands as the couples parade through the streets of the village to the sound of bands of wind instruments and percussion. Competition between factions has been transformed into a competition to see who can dance the longest and which musicians can play the longest. The "witite" is danced at Pujllay, or carnaval, in all the villages. It is also danced in the villages at the festival of the patron. The rhythm of the music is gay and rapid, different from the "huayno" and other more well known Andean dances.
After the fiesta of Pujllay the young single people of the village must clean it, and the atrium and interior of the church as well, in preparation for Holy Week when they celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Starting with the Friday before Palm Sunday, they have many nightly processions which they perform with devotion. They carry the traditional images on litters: the "Virgen de los Dolores", Christ carrying the cross, and on Holy Friday, the glass coffin with the dead Christ. Holy Week culminates with the great fiesta of Resurrection Sunday which begins, according to the Catholic liturgy, in the church before dawn. At the first rays of light the resurrected Christ, along with other saints, is carried out to the sound of bands and the tolling of bells. This brief procession around the plaza symbolizes the joy of the resurrection of Christ and the approaching harvest, which promises abundant food and corn to make "chicha".
A little known ceremony is celebrated in Yanque on Resurrection Monday. This is the decoration of the "tombolas" or altars set up inside the church in honor of the pleople who have died during the year. Each altar is decorated with flowers and fruits of the first harvest. These are later given to the priest as a symbol of the tithes and first fruits which were paid to the church in the 18th and 19th centuries.
April and May are the harvest months, and June and July are the months for repairing roofs, walls of mud and stone, and the deteriorated terraces. This is also the time when the majority of the patron saint festivals are celebrated in the villages. The fiesta of "Santiago Apostol", celebrated the 25 of July in Coporaque and Madrigal and the fiesta of the "Virgen Santa Ana", celebrated in Maca the 2 of August are especially important. In these fiestas the litters with the images are accompanied by people in disguise. There are two Turks with masks, pointed hats and swords who symbolize a duel between the two factions. Another person is disguised as "Inti", or the sun of the Incas, and another as the moon. The sun and the moon are elements which frequently appear in the decoration of the churches, for example in the towers at Cabanaconde and in the pavement of the atrium at Yanque. The patron festival of Chivay is the "Virgen de la Asunta", the 15 of August, and that of Yanque the "Purísima Concebida", the 8 of December.
All the fiestas are celebrated with processions and dances. The most characteristic dance of the region is the "witite" which symbolizes the mythical "women warriors", a tradition equivalent to the Amazons of the jungle. Other traditional dances are the "wifalita", the "huaylacha", the "kjamile" and the "lanlaco". Some symbolize the mating of animals, others mule driving or mythical aspects of magic and healing. In general the symbolic dances are losing force in the region. They were repressed by the priests during the colonial and republican periods as obscene and idolatrous. Today they are little encouraged by the inhabitants of the villages because they represent too much expense for the "mayordomo" responsible for their organization.

The realm of corn and the alpaca

by Mauricio de Romaña

The prehistoric tribes hunted guanacos, llamas, alpacas and vicunas which they used both for food and clothing. The North American authority Jane Wheeler estimates that the domestic use of the camelidae goes back 8 or 10 thousand years. It is very common to find obsidian arrow heads in the valley and bordering areas. Furthermore, the majority of rupestrine paintings, such as those on the walls of the caves of cCollpa in Sumbay and Mollepunku in Pulpera, represent camelidae.
The first chronicles of the Spaniards tell of the "cattle of the land" or "the sheep with the long neck". The Inca Garcilaso de la Vega talks about the organization of the flocks of llamas and alpacas during the Incan Empire. The produce was distributed by quality in accord with rank. Thus when a vicuna was taken on a hunt it was clipped and its wool or fiber offered to the Inca. The fiber of the alpaca was destined for the nobles and high officials, while the llama served to cloth the common people.
The high part of the Colca valley, from the slopes up-water from Chivay to the snow line or the great high plateau, was and is used for the, breeding of llamas and alpacas.

The sheep with the long neck

Although less prized in the colonial period, the alpaca has recently come into its own. In the middle of the 19th century the industrial processing of alpaca began and since then has been an important source of economic activity with very positive prospects for the future. Today an important textile industry exists, primarily for exportation. It is estimated that 4 million alpacas exist in Peru along the Andean range. The majority of the population is dispersed in small groups of from 100 to 500 head and there are probably about 35,000 breeders. The alpaca is the major source of economic gain in the Colca region. Since the initiation of exportation in the middle of the last century "mistis", as the Arequipan creoles are called, have been established in the villages to collect the fiber and supply the exporters. This has a marked social and economic influence on the peaceful region.
The fiber of the alpaca is obtained by shearing the animal, which is normally done every two years with an average yield of 6.7 lbs for each animal. The alpaca, unlike the vicuna, is domesticated. Thus they are cared for by shepherds, either the owners or employees of the owners, and sheltered in huts on lands with natural fodder. Rotation of the fields is practiced in accord with the conditions of water and pasture.
The most important characteristic of the alpaca, aside from its finess, softness and natural thermoregulation, is the great variety of natural colors from black to white, with a wide range of coffees. There are altogether more than 30 commercial colors.
In some breeding centers modern technology is applied which has resulted in genetic improvement of the flocks, with higher quality and greater production of fiber. Research is sometimes carried on privately as is the case with Francis Patthey, a visionary merchant and prosperous industrialist of alpaca fiber who is at present sponsoring, under the auspices of the "Inca Pro-Alpaca" Foundation, the formation of a center for the promotion and research of alpacas at the foot of Ampato in the high country of the Colca.

Terraces and corn

In the course of their evolution primitive tribes passed from being hunters and gatherers to being farmers. They settled in valleys where the water supply and auspicious climate enhanced the production of food. Thus it was that the cultivation of potatoes, corn, "quinua", an edible plant, "cañahua", a kind of millet and other native species began in the Colca region, down water from Chivay. Corn was the most important crop produced. Even today the corn produced at Cabanaconde is famous.
We can not be precise about the arrival of the Collaguas, but it was they who developed the agriculture and constructed the terraces, which are so impressive for the enormous amount of labor which they represent. There are more than 6 thousand hectars worked into the slopes of the great canyon in order to obtain enough flat surface to sow without fear of losing the fertil soil by erosion. Irrigation is carried out through an ingenious system of canals from the streams and springs coming from the snow peaks on each side of the river.
Once settled, the Collaguas built their villages. The ruins of these indicate an advanced level of engineering, as can be observed at Jaucallacta, Pumunuta and Uyu Uyu. In some cases we find special structures which were built for the storage of corn which are called "colcas".
Corn was and is the most important element in the native diet. It was also much used in rituals and ceremonies and in the brewing of "chicha", a slightly alcoholic drink. Recent studies by a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin, directed by Professor Denevan have placed the age of some of the terraces at 1,450 years, which makes them older than the Incan Empire.

Barter

Following ancient tradition, the alpaca and llama breeders who live on the heights descend to the agricultural region in the valley to exchange their products, fiber and "charqui" (meat dried in the sun and salted) for agricultural products such as potatoes, "quinua", corn and beans. To this day they carry out all their commercial transactions using the ancient system of barter.
The system of barter, which seems to have been established in the early days of the Collaguas, that is to say in the pre-Incan period, allows the exchange of products from the different ecological niches. Thus the mountain people supply the inhabitants of the valley with fiber for clothing and meat for food. These, in exchange, supplement the diet of the shepherds with agricultural products.
This type of exchange is made for products of the warmer valleys such as Majes, Siguas and Vítor too. Products from the high country are supplied in exchange for fruits such as figs and chili. This chain of barter reaches all the way to the coast where they trade for fish and shellfish. According to documents of the time the Collaguas have concessions and lands in these valleys, coves and beaches, such as those at Arantas and Quilca.
This system of exchange would surely not have been possible if it had not been for the noble llama, the extremely useful species of South American camelidae which has been domesticated for so many centuries. They are excellent beasts of burden since they can travel through steep, rocky, desert landscapes for long distances without being shod. Nor does the llama need much in the way of food and water, since it can survive on sparse fodder and go for days without drinking. These "alquilas" or pack trains of llamas are still common in the Colca, where they travel for weeks with their drivers in order to obtain the products necessary to complement the diet of the people in the high country.

"Cochinilla" and "ayrampo"

These are two natural colorants which have been used by the natives since pre-Columbian times to dye their cloth. They also have medicinal properties. The cochineal is a parasitic insect which lives on a cactus, the tuna, or nopal in Mexico, and contains a red colorant, carmic acid.
The conquistadors found it in Mexico where it was used by the Aztecs. Hernán Cortés took the tuna to Spain, where it acclimated well, especially in the Canary Islands. At that time only some cotton like spots could be observed on the "pencas" or fleshy "leaves" of the cactus, from which the colorant was extracted. But in 1703, after the invention of the microscope the parasitic insect itself, cochineal, was discovered. The colorant is extracted by scraping the "pencas" and gathering the insects which fall. They are then put to dry. It is the female insect which contains the colorant and the concentration is greatest during the egg laying phase.
This colorant is in great demand today in the production of cosmetics, drinks and foods which are normally tinted, because it is not carcinogenic. Although the conchineal has a wide geographic distribution, Peru is the major producer of the colorant and the Colca one of the most important regions in its production.
The tuna, or cactus apple, is a much prized, nourishing fruit which is collected from natural plantations which are found especially in the ravines of the canyon. The "ayrampo" is also a colorant found in the fruit of a small cactus of the same family as the tuna. It is used to color textiles and foods, though not yet industrially. It is also widely used for its medicinal properties.