Winter - Classical MileEnd Alpacas

Left: The author Guanam Poma,
accompanied by his son Don Francisco
de Ayala, begins his journey to Lima
to present his account to the king's
representative.
Right: The administrator of the Royal
Mines punishes the native Lords with
great cruelty.
did all this without justification in violation of every precept of
justice and of their own laws.
This historian, teller of epic tales and preacher pleads for
justice for the Andean peoples and turns it into a threat of divine
punishment when he writes: I don't see that you give anything back
either in life, or at the time of death. It seems to me, Christian,
that all of you are condemning yourselves to hell...Even though you
were to abandon yourselves into the desert and become religious
hermits, as long as you do not make restitution and pay what you
owe, you will be condemned to the inferno'.
Felipe Guanam Poma de Ayala was from a noble family who
lived in the central southern province of Lucanas located in the
modern department of Ayacucho. He was a native Quechua
and Aymara speaker and probably learned Spanish as a child.
Above left: Six devouring beats feared
by the poor Indians of Peru. This visual
allegory assigns animal identities to
various colonial functionaries. The tiger
is the vagabond Spaniard often a soldier;
the fox the parish priest; the cat the clerk,
the royal administrator the serpent.
Left: How the corregidores and the priests
of this kingdom abuse the Indians
Right: The Indian parents defend their
daughter from the lascivious Spaniard.
28 Alpaca World Magazine Winter 2007 / 08