Cajamarca
by Scott Kloos
Quite apart from the barbarities and blood baths perpetrated by Christian nations among themselves...the European has also to answer for all the crimes he has committed against the dark-skinned people during the process of colonization. ...A picture of the common human shadow could hardly be painted in blacker colors. The evil that comes to light in man and that undoubtedly dwells within him is of gigantic proportions, so that for the church to talk of original sin and to trace it back to Adam's relatively innocent slip-up with Eve is almost a euphemism.
-Jung, The Undiscovered Self
-Jung, The Undiscovered Self
I awake to a Pan-American, wind shaped vision of multicolored plastics and bits of paper. The forgotten, discarded remnants of everyday life frenetically swirl upon waves of sand, shifting and undulating like a manic snake whipped about by the angry wind. I am contained within a bubble, my visual experience in the front seat of the top level of the bus at odds with the smooth sensation of the asphalt flow below me.
Cane field fires burn on either side. Thick, almost black, reddish gray-brown columns of smoke billow, rising up and merging with the duller same-colored sky. The sun is a glowing orb of orange drawing us northward.
We stop at a police blockade behind ten other vehicles. A twenty foot tall, red and yellow chimera of flame dances wildly. It seductively licks at a power pole. From inside the smoke, I can just barely make out the shape of what seems to be an overturned truck. Some men get off the bus to investigate. I wait as impatient carloads exit the queue and speed off in the other direction. Suddenly vehicles emerge from the smoke single file. Passengers emerge and reboard. It is our turn.
As we approach, the scene becomes clear-several smashed up cars have been pushed to the side of the road to make way for traffic. Two men stand next to the overturned truck and pick through the peppers that cover the road, but most seem unsalvageable.
We head east, leaving the barren coastal desert, and climb up through a wide desert valley where a small watercourse winds itself through a wide, round river rock basin lined with fields fed by irrigation canals. Cane fields give way to rice paddies. Mango trees grow on the edges or on little tree islands among the fields. Livestock graze the stubble. Vultures wait.
I wake up in a foggy narrow valley pass. It is a dark sierran night. I am in a different world, one of moisture and trees. A world that feels more solid. Soon we pull into the town. I never know what to expect. It is hilly, less formal than Trujillo, but old here on the outskirts. I actually have to wait ten minutes for a taxi and have to flag it down. I like it here already. There is no horn honking. I check out cheapest central hotel. It is disgusting, reeks of kerosene; the window glass is broken. I sneak out while the desk clerk cleans the room. He calls down at me on the street.
-The room is almost ready.
-If I can't find anything else I'll be back.
It is almost midnight. I check out two or three more hotels that don't pan out-they are either too expensive or the senora is out. I am still full from a half-awake meal at a roadside diner. I finally find a room at Hospedaje la Merced. The owner mumbles and I have trouble understanding her but we agree on a price and I go up to room, unpack and arrange my things, read, and sleep.
There is large sprawling market snaking its way through the streets. It is easy to get lost. Cajamarca is a center for trade in the region. Also the site of one of the bloodiest and most brutal battles of the Spanish conquest. Atahualpa, who was returning from Quito where he had beaten his brother in a battle to unify the Inca throne, on his way back encountered a small band of conquistadors led by Pizarro.
Atahualpa had beaten his brother in a battle for the Inca throne in Quito. On his way back to Cusco to claim the throne with his army of 80,000 soldiers, he ran into a small band of about a 170 explorers (conquistadors) from a distant land. These explorers invited Atahualpa to a peace ceremony in his honor in Cajamarca's Plaza de Armas. For this the explorers sent a Friar, Vicente de Valverde, to convince Athualpa to adopt the Christian faith. Atahualpa merely observed a Christian bible handed to him and quickly threw it on the floor as a sign of indifference. The events that unfolded after this incident would culminate in bringing about the end of the Inca Empire, as the Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro invaded the Main Plaza of Cajamarca and soon captured Atahualpa and most of his army.
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