He Tales # 8 - Peru (part 2 - colonial)
COLONIAL PERU

Francisco Pizarro first set eyes on Peru in 1532, while on his third voyage in the Southern Pacific. Pizarro was a Spanish Catholic Bishop, and when he came to Peru, he found a perfect land, full of abundant resources and peopled by a proud, strong race known as the Inkas. Within a year, Pizarro had facilitated an Inkan civil war and captured the last Inka, Atahualpa. Pizarro killed Atahualpa in 1533, effectively bringing the Inkan Empire under Spanish rule. For Pizarro and Spain it was a very good year.

The impact today of that one year in history is monumental, both literally and figuratively. Today, roughly 80% of Peruvians are Christian, clear evidence of the Spanish success in bringing the Bible to South America. In our visits to the Capital of Lima and to Cusco, we saw the monuments to Christianity everywhere, in the unbelievably ornate churches of Peru. The sheer number of churches in Lima is amazing. There are fifteen churches in the city center alone, each of them more elaborate than many of the churches of Europe, all of them more richly detailed than any church we have visited in the U.S.

The facades of many of the churches reflect heavy Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance and Spanish Plateresque styles - sometimes all together in the same church. The combination creates an assault on the eyes, as intricately carved columns spiral upwards, topped by alcoves full of martyrs and saints, angels and Christ figures. Tucked in between the columns, layer upon layer of curls and swirls, flowers and geometric designs, crowd together like the paint on a Jackson Pollack canvas, proving the skill of Peruvian carvers in mimicking the drawings brought from Europe by the Spanish. The following links I found show two pictures of facades, because here pictures truly do work better than words to describe the intricacy woven into the stone.

http://www.myphotographs.net/peru/image11.html
http://www.myphotographs.net/peru/image13.html

When Pizarro came to Peru, he found stores of gold and silver in mythical quantities. We toured the Museo de Oro (gold) in Lima, walking amid case after case of Inkan bracelets, headdresses, necklaces, and breastplates. One headdress alone weighs two pounds, of pure 22K gold. What was surprising however, was to see some of the masks tinted a dark red. The red was cinnabar, a paint applied to the masks to give them color. To the Inkas, gold was just a metal that was easily worked. They often painted it, covering up all traces of the metal. Silver came in even greater quantities, mostly from mines in Bolivia. When the Spanish took over, they required Peruvians to work in the mines, pulling wealth from this holy ground, shipping it back to Spain by the shipload - many, many shiploads.

Much of the gold and silver left in Peru went into the catholic churches. In dozens of churches, your eyes are brightened by floor to ceiling altars of carved red cedar wood, layered completely in gold leaf of 18K or 22K. It is common for the main cathedrals to have 10-12 of these massive altars, providing a view designed to awe as well as pay tribute to the faith. (see attached file "altar") In Cusco, the main cathedral has a solid silver alter, 30 feet high, 20 feet across. Strangely, it is placed in front of the earlier altar, a solid red cedar affair so richly carved it would be a masterpiece in most churches, but is hidden in the shadows of the brilliant aura thrown off by the tower of silver.

Touring the churches of Peru, your eyes flow slowly over the sea of paintings, altars and woodwork created by local artists for these churches. At first glance, the paintings, altars and sculptures look much like Christian art throughout the world, but look closer and you'll find some absolutely astonishing, and sometimes heretical, differences. First, most churches do not have a Christ figure on the altar. Instead, the have the Virgin Mary or other Virgin figure, dressed in a intricately detailed, broad dress. Early Peruvians were Inkas, if you recall, and their most important belief was in the Pacha Mama, or mother earth.

When Catholics arrived, with the Mary and Christ figures in their art, they tried to communicate their religion with the paintings of Catholicism. the Inkas understood the Virgin Mary to be like their Pacha Mama, and thus made her the focal point of the altars they built. In Peru, there are 365 Virgins, one for each day of the year, derived from the importance of the calendar to Inkas. Each has a different dress, ornate with stars, moons, and other symbols of the Inkan culture. The dresses are wide and long, like an inverted "U". The dresses symbolize a mountain, or Kay Pacha, the earthly world. Hidden in the fabric, outlines of things like corn can be seen, further emphasizing earthly elements important to locals. When you put it all together, these paintings strewn liberally about every Catholic church accurately explain how locals even today see their faith. Ask a Quechuan in Cusco if they believe in Christianity, and their answer is likely to be, "Yes, I believe in the Pacha Mama."

If this sounds heretical, walk into the Church in Cusco, and hold onto your jaw. The main choir section, where priests sat to sing hymns, has fifty chairs built into the walls, all carved of red cedar. The backs of the chairs are stretched high with engravings of martyrs and saints, and angels fly through the woodwork overhead. Look under armrests, however, and you will see that a Peruvian carved this masterwork. Each armrest holds the same figure, a bust of a pregnant naked women looking up to the sky. This is a pacha mama figure, pregnant to represent the fertility so important to this agricultural region.

Even more astonishing is the large figure in front of the silver altar, "Senor de los Temblores" (the Lord of Earthquakes). In 1650, a massive earthquake decimated Cusco, trembling for several days, more than 1,000 tremblers in all. Since then, each year the people of Cusco parade Senor de los Temblores around the city, where he blesses the city to keep it safe. It is said you will be safe if you see the figure during this ceremony. The town gets so crowded, however, they have to broadcast the event on TV so everyone can "see" him. One problem. The figure is commonly known elsewhere as the Christ on the Cross. To the people of Cusco in 1650, however, Christ was not as important. They wanted a deity to protect them from earthquakes. So Christ got a new name, and new duties to fit into this very unique corner of the Christian world.

Another amazing mix of cultures adorns most rooftops in rural villages. Look closely, and you will find small crosses, with two small jugs hanging from the cross and two ceramic bulls underneath. These are Quechuan good luck symbols. The cross stands for Christ, and asking for help through their church. The bulls are called "Torinos de Pucara". Bulls (torinos) are strong and fertile, earthly symbols of good fortune in agriculture. Finally, the jugs hold the first drops of each batch of Chica made in the household. They are an offering made to the Pacha Mama, and are called "the eyes of chica" (i.e. tears). To locals, it makes perfect sense to have all these symbols brought together. They are poor, and their life depends on the land. They use the symbols they are offered to do the best they can.

Overall, I must be fair and say Peru is a land that in many ways is more diverse than the United States. What the people of Lima believe can differ dramatically from the areas North, East and South of the capital. Also, the Andean agricultural region and the desert coast are completely different worlds. Certainly, there are many Peruvians whose faith closely mirrors Catholics the world over. It is amazing to me, however, how this one country has managed to merge two very different faiths, and two very different cultures, into the Peru of today. The Inkan "kingdom" may be long gone, but there are Inkas in Peru today. They are a proud, strong people, and they can be found if you take the time to look.