The Imperial City of Cusco

As I've moved north along the rocky spine of this continent, I've found that the further I progress into the Andes proper, the more the local culture reflects Andean civilization before the intrusion of conquest.  Southern Argentina is fairly European--the people and food are quite similar to what you might find in, say, Italy. 

But the Central Andean peoples retain quite a lot of their ancient characteristics:  the dress and religion of Bolivia and highland Peru tastes far more of the Inca than of the Spaniard, despite the Spaniard's best efforts.  Which efforts include syncretic attempts to conscript the religion of the Inca into colonialist Catholicism, as in St. Francis's cathedral in La Paz, which features a statue of the gentle saint flanked by two carvings of Pachamama, the earth and fertility goddess:

(She's actively giving birth, and very happy about it!)

In Cusco, Peru--right at the vibrant heart of the Inca Empire, in the very city of the Puma (as the Inca designed it)--the Spanish had to ratchet up their efforts still more vigorously.  On top of every sacred Inca site, the Spaniards built a giant church.  Where the Inca worshipped the Sun, the Spanish threw up the Santo Domingo convent. Where Qolqanpata Palace housed Manco Capac, the first Inca ruler, the Spanish put up the church of St. Christopher.  Where the Inca worshipped the creator deity, the Spanish constructed a giant baroque pile of brick and stone, the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin.  So much work in an effort to overwrite the culture that was already flourishing here.  

(Here's the centerpiece painting in the Cusco Basilica, Marcos Zapata's 18thC rendering of the Last Supper. But check out what's for dinner in the middle of Jesus's table:  a local delicacy, the guinea pig!)

But for all these efforts, the conquistadoring Spanish seem to have failed in their ultimate intent.  Because I can report that there is a heck of a lot of precolombian culture that endures here in Cusco and (even more so!) in the surrounding mountains.  In my travels through both Bolivia and Peru, the local people approach the mountains with sincere prayers and gift offerings to Pachamama.  Many people here speak Qechua as their first language; many people who live in the mountains, away from the population center in Cusco, speak only Qechua.  They eat foods that don't really show up elsewhere: the giant corn called choclo, the purple corn drink chica morada, the cuy (the aforementioned guinea pig) They wear traditional clothes--brightly colored fabrics made from homespun llama wool, and prominent hats.  

(Women in this traditional dress are referred to as cholitas)

In Cusco, the sense of ancient past enduring beyond the period of conquest and into the present is made material by the actual endurance of all those old Inca walls.  The whole historic center is an ancient tetris achievement of perfectly shaped stones fitted together with no mortar, so tightly carved that you can't insert a razor blade between the blocks.  

(The walls of Saqsaywaman, the Inca citadel, which oversees the historical center of Cusco from its dominant hilltop position)

I like this permeable present.  In fact, I find I like the parts of these Andean cultures best when the veneer of conquest proves thin and cannot contain the deep and earth-focused empire it endeavored to erase.

(An old Inca portal--the trapezoid shape is the giveaway to its provenance--with a little bit of Spanish balcony action perched on top)