Page 271 - Perú indígena y virreinal

discovery and conquest came to a close and the colonization of the vast territories under Spanish dominion was initiated. In Peru the heyday of the new order was reached in 1569 when Philip II sent the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo to Lima, who promoted the settlement of converted Indians and imposed the drafting and forced labour of natives in the mines of Potosí. The territory and society of the Viceroyalty that was established as of this period, along with the cities and towns and their architecture, and in spite of the changes they underwent as a result of repeated earthquakes and successive reconstruction, assumed the unmistakable cross-cultural image that characterizes Peru in the Modern Age.
The expression “Vive Dios, vale un Perú” or “Long Live God, Worthy is Peru”, used as a battle cry for the conquering armies, as recalled by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, is an indication of the reputation of the immense wealth of the former Inca Empire. The vast territory known as Tawantisuyo, that is to say “the joining of the ways” of the pre-Hispanic kings, aroused the Spaniards’ craving for gold and the spoils of war. The fabulous treasures of the Peruvians constituted a legend that soon became familiar the world over, lighting up the imagination of chroniclers and historians. The fame of Ancient and Modern Peru lasted for several centuries. It should not surprise us that The New Atlantis by the English philosopher Francis Bacon, published in 1627, should begin its first line with the following words “We sailed from Peru ...”. The journey to utopia, located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, originated in the dream of a world featuring a perfect order inspired by the absolute power of the Inca Empire. The origins of the idea for a State that would not have seemed to have existed in any part of the world to a European of the 16th and 17th Centuries, is nevertheless found in the book Primera Parte de los Comentarios Reales (“First Part of the Royal Commentaries”), published in 1609 by the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. The idea of an Inca utopia was born with the first text written by this descendent of the former empire, where Cusco, his native city, served as the focal point, the ancient and legendary “Navel of the World”.
The earliest historians, along with the accounts of subsequent travellers during the Baroque Period and the Enlightenment, set their sights not only on Peru’s rich gold—and silver-mines, but also highlighted the fertility of the country’s soil and the variety of its produce and landscapes. In 1553, the chronicler Pedro Cieza de León wrote that: “In order to describe all the admirable things that exist and have existed in this kingdom of Peru, only the quills of Livy or Valerius Maximus or other of the world’s great writers would suffice, and even they would have their work cut out to relate all there was to tell. Because “who could relate all the great and different things that there are, the high mountain ranges and deep valleys that were gradually discovered and conquered, rivers so many and so big and of such great depth, such a variety of provinces, of such different character, the different towns and peoples with their diverse customs, rituals and strange ceremonies, so many birds and animals, trees and fish, so different and unknown. It would be difficult to say more in fewer words”.
The irregular and varied geographical terrain of Peru, that according to the account penned by Francisco de Jerez in 1534 was conquered by the Spanish “with many efforts, much hunger and cold” is one of the most surprising and complex on the American Continent. The imposing chain of mountains formed by the Andes and the Altiplano contrast with the long and narrow coastal strip, whose flatlands run from north to south. When Pizarro’s armies reached as far as Cajamarca and Cusco they were forced to cross the high lands of the Sierra with its deep valleys, which is where the Inca Empire had established its centre, whilst the lowlands, consisting of Amazonian jungle, featured rather less populous and less developed settlements. Only a few adventurers such as Lope de Aguirre took up the challenge of exploring this intricate terrain plagued by a hot climate, where El Dorado was believed to be located.
The Spanish who admired the architecture of the temples and palaces, fortresses and houses in Cusco under the Incas, a city that, according to Garcilaso de la Vega, “was a Rome in its own way”, immediately understood the symbolic significance of a capital that was considered to be the centre of the pre-Hispanic universe of South America. The idea of a metropolis “full of lordly palaces” and in which “no poor people live”, according to the first description of the city offered by Pedro Sancho in his Relación de la Conquista de Peru (“An Account of the Conquest of Peru”) published in 1534, comparing the Fortress of Sacsayhuaman to “the Segovia Bridge, the walls of Tarragona, the castles of Lombardy and the Trials of Hercules”, continued in subsequent accounts. The Cusco built by the Incas
always lived up to the prestigious image of its magnificent and rock-solid pre-Hispanic architecture. Dr. Vasco de Contreras y Valverde, who, in 1650, wrote a description of the bishopric of Cusco in order to provide details for the publication entitled Teatro Eclesiástico de las Iglesias del Peru (“Ecclesiastical Review of the Churches of Peru”) that was being prepared by Maestro Gil González Dávila on the orders of Philip IV, praised the sumptuous buildings raised by the Spanish and stated that “in those that preserve something of the former buildings, we can admire their construction, their extremely beautiful dark blue stones, laid one on top of the other without pitch or any other kind of mixture, and of such stones is made the greater part of the city”. His words could not be more precise. The enormous ashlar stones of the colossal Inca walls were so well laid that, in the words of the 20th Century poet Agustín de Foxá, the fine blade of a Toledan sword could not penetrate the gaps between them. As “The Navel of the World”, Cusco was a city that Cieza de León believed, “must have been founded by a great people”. Proud of its past, the city never tolerated having been stripped of its status as capital by Lima in the 16th Century. The inhabitants of Cusco, as highlighted by Juan Mogrovejo de la Cerda in the manuscript Memorias de la gran ciudad del Cusco, cabeza de los Reinos del Peru (“Recollections of the Great City of Cusco, Capital of the Kingdoms of Peru”) that he attempted to publish in Madrid in 1690, claimed back the title of capital in vain that had been snatched by the City of the Kings. A series of suits were presented in Madrid against Lima that never brought a satisfactory response to the demands of Cusco’s inhabitants. Only pride and a certain historical ancestry constituted the moral legacy of a city that always considered itself imperial.
The title of capital of Peru was held by Lima as of the 16th Century. Founded by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro in January 1535, Lima was given the name of “The City of the Kings”, due to the fact that it was Epiphany, and the city developed very rapidly. In 1543 it became the capital of the Viceroyalty. In conjunction with Mexico City, the capital of the Viceroyalty of the New Spain, it constituted the essential axis on which the entire Spanish Empire in the Americas revolved. Located on a plain between hills, with a river and over two leagues from the sea, its mild climate, calm skies and humid atmosphere made this city a kind of oasis in the dry coastal region in which it was set. The proximity of the Bay of El Callao, with its good and safe harbour, was one of the advantages of placing the new capital here, given that galleys could be anchored in the bay and a maritime trade set up with this metropolis and the rest of the ports in the Americas. It was from El Callao that the fleets departed for Seville carrying shipments of gold and silver extracted from the country’s inland mines, whilst products from Spain and the rest of the countries on the New Continent entered Peru at this point. As the seat of political power and location for the Audiencia, the Court of the Inquisition, the University, the Archbishop’s See and other state and ecclesiastical bodies, Lima played a governing role in the life of the vast Viceroyalty of Peru, a territory that far exceeded the borders of the current Republic. In a certain sense, Lima was an artificial capital, given that its political structure preceded its economic structure and the largest concentrations of inhabitants and wealth in the 16th Century were found in the Sierra or mountain ranges. Nevertheless, the city’s strategic location ensured that it would be able to fulfil its role as the capital of the kingdom. As Jorge Basadre quite rightly pointed out in his study La multitud, la ciudad y el campo en la Historia del Peru (“Multitude, City and Countryside in the History of Peru”) (Lima, 1929), up until that time Cusco had enjoyed much greater contact with all the regions of the country. However, city-capitals or metropoli are born and develop hand in hand with political power, and this can lead to greatness, although it can also generate both demographic and urban ecological problems of a social and economic nature.
The splendour and legendary image of Lima began from the moment the city was founded. In the words of Cieza de León, “to live your life, without scandals and disturbances and war”, Lima was truly “one of the best places in the world, since we find that here there is no hunger or pestilence, there is no rain or lightning nor do we ever hear thunder, but the skies are ever calm and wonderful to behold”. Furthermore, he found that the Spanish had built “very good houses and some very elegant”. The domestic architecture of the City of the Kings was praised from the very first, to the extent that, in 1590, Don García de Mendoza believed that it was “another Madrid”, although the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, who was born in El Cusco, found that Lima “as seen from afar is ugly because it has no roofs, since it never rains”
[ 278 ] ENGLISH TEXTS