The Ancient Andean Quecha

Today, the Quechua people (Quechua, Runakuna, Kichwas, and Ingas) live in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Colombia; however, originally they were the indigenous people of mountain highlands of Peru, called the Central Highlands. Their traditions and beliefs have survived Inca domination, Spanish conquests, and the beginning influences of modern technology.

Current typical Quechua members of Peru

Throughout the region, Quechua is he first language spoken and traditional costumes are still woven on backstrap looms and worn at the markets. Many Quechua make their living by farming maize and coca in the valleys or potatoes and quinoa in the higher altitudes, while other families herd llamas and alpacas on the cold windy puna.
    While modern historians and some scholars claim that the Quechua people are the direct descendants of the Incas; however, as large and powerful as the Inca Empire was, it actually consisted of a very small ethnic group that ruled for only a short span of time (1438-1534). The history of the Quechua people begins many centuries before the Inca civilization rose to power, and it continued to evolve in multi-faceted ways in the period after the arrival of Spanish conquerors and settlers in the 16th century, and were found all over the Andes, though most retreated into the high country where the Spanish never traveled or ruled.
    As an example, the Morochuco are a unique group of formerly nomadic Quechua who live near Ayacucho on the Pampas de Cangallo in the rocky, remote central highlands of the uninterrupted Peruvian wilderness—the birthplace of Peru’s most devastating terrorist organization, Sendero Lunimoso (“the Shining Path”) viloently shook Peru’s political landscape in the Ayhachucho region for more than two decades beginning in the 1980s.
    The Runa Simi (peoples’ language) of the Quechua, is well over 2,000 years old and referred to as proto-Quechua, and has 46 dialects, all from one common language, with the most common dialect called “Central Quechua,” while those in Ecuador speak the “Kichwa” dialect. In fact, some Quechua words familiar to most Americans and now found in English are: alpaca, Andes, chino, coca, cocaine, condor, gaucho, guano, jerky, llama, lima (bean), Machu Picchu, mama, pampas, Peru, pisco, poncho, puma, quinine, quinoa, quipu, and vicuña.
    The Quecha people refer to themselves as Runa (Nuna) meaning “person” or Runakuna (Nunakuna) “people,” and Ecuarunari (Ecuador Runakunapak Rikcharimuy) in Ecuador, distinguishing those who speak Quechua and those who do not. The Quechua were Chanka in the Huancavelica, Ayacucho and Apurimac regions; the Huanaca of the Junin Region, who spoke the languge before the Inca acquired it; the Cañari of Ecuador, and the Chincha, an early people of the Ica Region. It’s economic system is founded on agriculture in the lower altitude regions, and on pastoral farming in the higher regions of the puna.
    The Quechua have a distinct dress; however, though historians and scholars talk about the traditionalQuechua shawls draped over white blouses for women, with traditional peasant dresses; men’s clothing is claimed to be a poncho. However, during the Spanish conquest, their standard Inca tunics and wrap-around dresses were prohibited. Quechua therefore developed woven ponchos (or capes) for men and colorful shawls for women, as a substitute of their original clothing.

An elderly Morochuco Quechua man and young woman, both with light skins of a people that date back far into B.C. times in the central highlands of Peru

The Morochuco have light skin and blue eyes, and unlike other Quechua, many Morochuco men wear beards. It is unknown when these people first settled on the puna (highland plains) or how long they had been there; however, the oldest village in the area is Lauricocha, which is believed to have been settled very anciently, at least to 2500 B.C. (anthropological estimation). The point is, they have been in this area since the beginning of the pre-historical period.
    Today, cattle breeding and horse training are their main occupations, and are first rate horseback riders, including their women and children, who use their swiftness and agility to round up bulls on the highland pampas. Renowned for their fearlessness and strength, the Morochuco fought for Peru’s independence on horseback with Simón Bolívar.
    Their mountain homes are made of stone or adobe-brick with thatched roofs. Their beds are mud platforms with llama wool or sheepskin blankets, though occasionally a wood bed frame and grass mattress. They live in an ayllu (extended family) arrangements and all contribute to the major projects (mink’a, or community work) like harvesting the fields or building a new home.
    It should be noted that while modern historians and scholars give credit to the development of ayllus-style living to the Inca and their spreading it across their conquered empire, it needs to be understood that this pattern of extended family living and binding together in community needs, both for mink’a and for reciprocal ayni, was not an invention of the Inca, but existed in all ancient Quechua-speaking cultures and peoples dating back to the indigenous Morochuco people into the early B.C. period. In fact, its existence among the Inca enemies was what led to the easy assimilation of conquered cultures and peoples.
    It should also be kept in mind that these Central Highlands of Peru are toay the center of the Quechua people, but originally this early people covered all of Andean Peru—it wasn’t until the Spanish invasion and their appropriation of large areas of the local landowners, taking all or most of the land forced the native population into bondage—this was especially effective in Ecuador and much of Peru, which caused the Morochuco and their extended cultural elements to retreat into the high country where they can be found even today. Some of these indigenous farmers re-occupied their ancestors' lands and expelled the hacendados during the takeover of governments by reform-minded juntas in the middle of the 20th century, such as in 1952 in Bolivia (Victor Paz Estenssoro) and 1968 in Peru (Juan Velasco Alvarado). The agrarian reforms included the expropriation of large landowners, and in Bolivia there was a redistribution of the land to the indigenous population as their private property. This disrupted traditional Quechua and Aymara culture based on communal ownership, but ayllus have been retained up to the present time in remote regions, such as in the Peruvian Quechua community of  Q’ero (Q’iru), a settlement near.   Cuzco.

the Central Highlands are along the Western Andes (Occidental) and between those and the Central Andes, stretching from Huanuco in the north to Ayacucho in the south

Huancayo, in the Mantaro Valley which is considered the “heart of the Andes,” lies about 120-miles due east of Lima (186 by circuitous road) along the Mantaro River, on a route that rises more than 15,476 feet before sliding down to the valley’s 10,731-foot elevation. It was once the capital of pre-Inca Huanca (Wanka) culture, lies in the midst of the Andes and straddles the verdant Río Mantaro valley. It is an agricultural hub and the center for wheat farming in the Andes. It was a stronghold for the toughest Peruvian indigenous peoples, including the Huanca, who outfought both the Inca and the Spanish.

Huancavelica as seen from the Santa Barbara, which is honeycombed with abandoned mines, and where a high percentage of inhabitants are Quechua people

To the south, about 90 miles, is the town of Huancavelica (Wankwilka) along the Ichu River which cuts a 6,400-foot high valley between the Chunta mountain range, which is formed by a series of hills, and the 16,400 feet high mountains of the Western Andes. Known as Wankawilka region or “sacred stone” before the Spanish arrived, there is a very rich vein of silver and metallic deposits threads through the rocky hillside that has been the sight of mines and mining the precious metal since before the Spanish conquest. There is also mercury, commonly called quicksilver (formerly hydrargyrum) that was essential in the ancient extraction of silver from mines in Peru and Bolivia, including the famed Potosí.
    Initially unknown to the Spanish, the location of the silver mines were divulged by the Indian Nahuincopa to his master Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera, whereupon the Spanish Crown appropriated the mines in 1570 and operated them until Peruvian independence in 1821.
    Considered the "greatest jewel in the crown," they eliminated the need to ship azogue (mercury) from Almadén.
By way of understanding the various groups that emerged out of the Colonial Period (16^th to 19^th centuries):
The Creoles, who were the Spanish´s children born in New Spain.
The Mestizos, who were the Spanish and Indigenous´ children.
The Africans, who were brought from Africa as slaves.
The Zambos, who were the African and natives´ children
The Mulatos, who were the Spanish and Africans´ children.
The natives, who were the ones who lived in America before the colonization.
    The question on such subjects is always “Are these Quechua people descendants of Nephites or Lamanies?” While there may not be any way to know for positive, they existed during the time of the Nephite Nation and Lamanite kingdom, they were in the location of these two peoples throughout their history—Ecuador, Western Bolivia, Peru, and northern Chile—were indigenous to the area, and have remained there from their origin until now. Even today, the Quechua language is spoken by about one-third of the population, even though Spanish is the official and main state language throughout that area.