Surviving the Spanish Conquest

Life before the arrival of the Spanish was very pleasant. My husband Maita and I, plus our two children, Tupac (our six year old son) and Urpi (our four year old daughter) all lived happily together in the city of Nazca. Maita was a high priest and I was an Acllyacona otherwise called a chosen woman. Together this made us very high in society.

Being an acllyancona I served as a weaver. I prepared textiles of llama and alpaca cloth. This was an essential part of Inca life. As Incas, we used these textiles as payment for the warfare or as gifts to high classed people. Also I made the clothes/garments for the Sapa Inca and for ritual use. As an acllyancona, I had many advantages to society.

I didn’t have to perform hard labour in the fields, which most Incas did and I always had enough food and clothing.

But my pleasant life all changed when the Spanish arrived, it became very unpleasant. The Sapa Inca called Maita and many other high priests and priestesses to travel with him to Cuzco, to visit the Spanish intruders. Majority of Incas such as Maita and I, had not even seen the Spanish yet and did not know who they were. When Maita left to go to Cuzco that was the last time I ever saw him. The chasqui (messengers) told us that the Spanish killed nearly everyone there in the city of Cuzco and took Sapa Inca as hostage. I was so upset that Maita was dead. As the Sapa Inca was hostage, he offered a room full of gold for his release freely. He kept his word however the Spanish did not. They killed him, took the gold and fled.

A little more then a year had passed and the Spanish apparently had not come back to our Incan Empire, until they appeared in my city. They appeared as strangers, protected by wearing full metal amour. They charged at us on huge animals, (which none of us had ever seen before) called horses. There was so many of them and each one of them was armed with gunpowder, guns and steel weapons. It was all very terrifying and I was so scared.

The Spanish had absolutely no respect at all for our religion of worshiping the Sun. So they tried to change our religion to there religion of Christianity. Plus they let fire and destroyed buildings.

Large numbers of people died, as 9 out of 10 Incas did. This was huge, because our Incan population suffered a dramatic and quick decline following contact. People died of different causes but all linked to the Spanish. Such as… -The Spanish went on rampages through the city murdering chiefs, plus anyone they did not like. -Several people had no resistance to keep on living as we were treated very unfairly and died. -And the main cause of death was from disease, which the Spanish brought. I’m really angry at all these causes of deaths from the Spanish especially because unfortunately Urpi died from disease. I was petrified, of the Spanish but was not going to let Tupac and myself die because of them. I had a strong will to survive and to keep on living.

Life after the conquest was very cruel and barbaric. The Spanish literally worked us to death. We were like slaves for them. All aspects of our culture were destroyed and the building materials were used to construct churches and cathedrals. There was destruction of everything which had given our life meaning and purpose. Now we were at the bottom of the Spanish empire, with a new language, religion, laws and way of life.