Winter - Classical Mileend Alpacas

Above: Two shepherdesses
(from left to right: Collagua
and Cabana) with their herd
of alpacas and llamas in the
Colca Valley Region. Note
the leading reins (jaquimas)
that they are carrying and
with which they handle their
animals.
30 Alpaca World Magazine Winter 2004/05
THE
ALPACA
LADIES OF
AREQUIPA’S
COLCA
VALLEY
Arequipa’s Colca Valley is located some ninety miles from
the city at an average 4500 metres above sea level. The
terrain is marked by its sharp contrasts from fl at highlands
to plunging canyons and its ever-present backdrop of the Andes
mountains.
The main Colca Canyon is the world’s deepest – it is estimated
to be almost twice as deep as the Grand Canyon – and the
region has been home to various farming cultures for thousands
of years. In the words of a well-known fi lm, a river runs through
it, but, in this case, a river that changes its name fi ve times as it
runs its course: Paco Paco (source), Chilamaya (for 7 miles), Colca
(for 155 miles) and Majes (for 37 miles) and Camana (where it
reaches the coast).
The land, though fertile in its deep valleys, is a hard
taskmaster on the high altitude plateaus where conditions
of extremes prevail. During the day temperatures can soar in
a cloudless sky up to 90º F and then plummet to 15º F below
freezing during the night. The high altitude ensures that a
blistering, unfi ltered sunlight beats down on the people working
the fi elds branding them with their trademark leathery and
blotch-marked skin while the same conditions chill them to the
marrow during the cold nights.
One of the fi rst people to inhabit the region were the
Collaguas, a pre-Inca culture that tilled the land and herded
alpacas and llamas. Their main claim to fame was their habit of
tightly-binding babies’ heads so that they grew up with pointed
craniums in a symbolic gesture to the mountain gods (apus)
where a pointed head represented the peak of the Collaguata
Volcano from which their culture took its name and from where
they believed that they were descended. Their capital in the
Colca Valley was Yanque.
Whereas both sexes wore traditional costumes, the main
Francis Rainsford
cultural identifi cation was demonstrated more visually by the
ladies with their clothing. Additionally, when the Collaguas were
conquered by the Incas and forced to form part of their empire
the practice of forming pointed heads was phased out and, in its
place, a boater-style hat made from animal hide was adopted by
the womenfolk.
Around the time of the Spanish Conquest in 1532 the
Collaguas were fi ghting against an invasion of their Colca
territory by a group of people from Puno and the South of Peru
– the Cabanas. The Cabanas had a similar style of dress to the
Collaguas with intricately-embroidered dresses but, in their case,
the embroidered cloth included their headwear.
Hostilities were waged between the Collaguas and the
Cabanas which came to an abrupt end when the Inca Empire fell
to the Spaniards. Once colonisation took place the
Spanish conquistadors decided to keep the Inca practice
of making subjugated cultures wear distinctive costumes so
that they could be easily identifi ed. The Collaguas stopped
making their hats from animal hide and decided to use straw
instead – at the same time adding a decorative band for
extra panache. Alpaca and llama herding continued in the
region but with the addition of the newly introduced sheep
which, along with cattle, came with the Spanish Conquest.
The Spaniard’s well-documented greed for gold and precious
metals meant that Cayollma in the Colca Valley became very
important for its mining activities and replaced Yanque as the
capital.
Following Peru’s hard-fought independence from Spain in
1824 the emphasis on mining in the Colca diminished and the
capital gradually moved over to Chivay where it remains today
with the political designation for the region being the Province of
Cayollma.