Anyone Fancy A Drink?

What does this tell us about the Spanish and Incas first impression of each other?

The Indians… called them Viracochas because of the stately appearance of their persons and because each was so different from the other, some having black beards, and others red ones and, finally, because they saw them eat out of silver dishes and using yllapas, which is the word we use for ‘thunder’ and by which they meant their ‘guns’… Two of these Viracocha were brought to my uncle Atahualpa by some men from the Yunca people. At the time, Atahualpa was staying at Cajamarca, where he received them very well. However, when he offered our customary drink in a golden cup to one of them, the Spaniard poured it out with his own hands, which offended my uncle very much. After that, those two Spaniards showed my uncle a letter or a book (I am not sure exactly which), explaining to him that this was the quillca [word] of God and of the king. My uncle, still offended by the wasting of the chicha (which is how we call our drink), took the letter (or whatever it was) and threw it down, saying, ‘What is this supposed to be that you gave to me here? Be gone!’ Thereupon the Spaniards returned to their companions and related to them what they had seen and what had happened during their dealings with my uncle Atahualpa.”

Titu Cusi Yupanqui, An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru. [1570] pp. 60 – 61.

http://utoronto.academia.edu/GuyDuke/Papers/403809/Continuity_Cultural_Dynamics_and_Alcohol_The_Reinterpretation_of_Identity_through_Chicha_in_the_Andes

How can ‘Chicha’ help us to understand the history of the Spanish conquest in

the Andes?

Feast of San Juan Amancaes in Lima, 1843.Painting by Juan Mauritius Rugendas

REFLECTIONS

1. Identify the two different cultures in this scene.

2. What are the main actions and events in this scene?

3. What do you think were the effects of this event?

How can this book help us to better understand the Spanish

Conquests of the Andes?

.The eighth month, August; Chacra Yapuy Killa, month of turning the soil

E

Meeting of Spaniard and Indian in Cuzco. Native asks: “What do Spaniards eat?”. Spaniard replies “Gold and Silver”.

A

The royal administrator orders an African slave to flog an Indian magistrate for collecting a tribute that falls two eggs short.

C

The royal administrator and his low-status dinner guests: the mestizo, the mulatto, and the tributary Indian.

D

Indians "speak with the devil" while practicing a traditional Andean drinking ritual.

B

Native farmers tending their garden: "Chew this coca, sister."

Sensory Figure Assignment

Renaissance Man