Today, Roman Catholicism and Inca tradition blend to create an interesting marriage custom in the Andes. The contemporary Quechua couple eventually has a Catholic marriage ceremony and is registered in the church records. Before that ceremony takes place, however, courtship and engagement are strictly in the Inca tradition.
The couple becomes engaged after speaking to both sets of parents. At that point, they enter a period of service to each other, called sirvinakuy. During this time, the prospective bride works for the groom's family and the groom works for the bride's family, to demonstrate to their future in-laws their willingness to meet the demands of married life. This closely follows the Inca pattern of life in which
A new couple became members of the groom's ayllu and worked within the community. Today, the engaged couple lives together in the home of whichever set of parents has the means and space to house them. A marriage will not take place until the union has produced a child and shown that the marriage will be fruitful—and even then, weddings can be postponed for several years.
A wedding ceremony costs a great deal and parents and godparents save for years to provide an extravagant event. By the time the new couple reaches the church altar, they may already have two or three children—a fact ignored by the local Catholic priest. Once the couple is married, their children can be baptized and officially become Catholics.
Sayri Tupac established an Inca state in the city of Vilcabamba, a refuge in the rainforest.
In 1552, Sayri Tupac (1535-1561) received a full pardon for any “crimes” committed against the Spanish. The young emperor of a defunct empire accepted the opportunity to leave Vilcabamba and return to Cuzco. Sayri Tupac remained in Cuzco for nine years, where he converted to Christianity and had his marriage consecrated by the Catholic Church. In 1561, Sayri Tupac was poisoned, and the new Inca leader who replaced Tupac declared Vilcabamba to once again be a rebel state.
Titu Cusi (1530-1570) seized the throne from the rightful heir, Tupac Amaru (1544-1572). Titu Cusi became a rebel as well, attacking Christian travelers and raiding Spanish settlements. The self-proclaimed emperor had good reason to despise the Spanish: They had killed his father and brothers, and raped his aunts, sister, and cousin. He himself had been imprisoned and treated badly by his Spanish captors. As he aged, Titu Cusi
Became less interested in resistance and negotiated peace. He vowed allegiance to the Spanish king and became a Catholic. He died in 1570, and Tupac Amaru, the last true Inca, assumed the throne. Again, the Incas rose up against the Spanish.
On June 1, 1572, the first battle for control of the Vilcabamba valley took place. Within three weeks the Spanish had advanced into the heart of Vilcabamba, a city that lay in ruins. The people were gone, the buildings burned, and food stores destroyed. Tupac Amaru and his followers had disappeared into the jungle.
Three months later Tupac Amaru was captured and marched into Cuzco. The Spanish tried to convert him to Christianity while, at the same time, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang. The Spanish tortured several of Tupac Amaru’s followers to death, then hanged their corpses as a display of their power and ruthlessness.
The Inca’s execution became a spectacle with thousands of Incas around the gallows, wailing over the impending death of their leader. The Spanish viceroy, seeing the crush of the crowd, declared that Tupac Amaru should be immediately beheaded. James Q. Jacobs, in his article, “Tupac Amaru, The Lie, Times and Execution of the Last Inca,” says, “The Inca’s last words were, ‘Collanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacuna yahuarniy hichcascancuta.’ Mother Earth, witness how my enemies shed my blood.
“By one account Tupac Amaru placed his head on the block. The executioner took Tupac’s hair in one hand and severed his head in a single blow. He raised his [Tupac’s] head in the air for the crowd to view. At the same time all the bells of the many churches and monasteries of the city were rung. A great sorrow and tears were brought to all the native peoples present.”
From 1742 to 1761, Juan Santos Atahuallpa attempted a rebellion against Spanish rule. The Neo-Inca movement arose because the Spanish treated Peruvians as enslaved people. The economic circumstances resembled sharecropping in the southern United States after the Civil War. The Peruvians farmed land that they did not own and paid heavily for the privilege. There was no way to escape the grinding cycle of poverty that subjugated the Peruvians and made the Spanish wealthy.
Following Juan Santos Atahuallpa, the Peruvian rebels threw a Spanish corregidor (royal administrator) and his brother-in-law off a cliff-the time-honored Inca method of punishment. The English, seeking a way to reduce Spanish influence worldwide, provided financial support for the Neo-Inca movement. However, the Spanish were too deeply en-
Trenched in Peru and could not be ousted. The Neo-Inca effort waned, and the Spanish maintained iron-fisted control.
In 1780, Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui (c. 1738-1781), who claimed to be a direct descendant of Tupac Amaru, emerged as the leader of a rebel army numbering nearly 80,000. Their goals were to achieve social reforms in mining and forced labor, and to remove corrupt corregidores. Condorcanqui took the name Tupac Amaru II in 1771, and led his followers in repeated attacks against Spanish leaders and mine and plantation owners. Within a year, the Spanish military arrested Tupac Amaru II, held a mock trial and tortured the rebel leader.
The Spanish revenge against Tupac Amaru II was remarkable for its brutality. The Inca leader watched his wife, son, and colleagues executed. On May 18, 1781, Tupac Amaru II spoke his final words to the Spanish viceroy: “There are no accomplices here but you and I. You, the oppressor and I, the liberator. Both of us deserve death!”(as quoted on the web site “Tupac Amaru II”).
The Spanish cut out his tongue then tied him to four horses to tear his body apart. This proved unsuccessful, so the Spanish cut off his head and dismembered the body. They displayed the Inca’s severed limbs in the main strongholds of Inca rebellion. Their revenge incomplete, the Spanish hunted and murdered every relative of Tupac Amaru II down to his fourth cousins. There would be no more rebellions against the Spanish, no more uprisings to reinstate Inca rule.
World History
