Chronicle
The Huarochirí Manuscript
Runa ynº niscap Machoncuna
Anonymous · 1608
Synopsis
The huaca Cuniraya Huiracocha places his seed in a lúcuma fruit that the beautiful Cahuillaca eats, then presents himself as a beggar when the father of the child is sought. The poor Huatiacuri, helped by his father Pariacaca, meets the challenges set by his brother-in-law. Pariacaca, born from five eggs on a mountain top, visits the villages' festivals in the guise of a beggar, spares those who welcome him and strikes the others with a storm, then confronts the huaca Huallallo Carhuincho. Other chapters tell of the goddess Chaupi Ñamca, the Incas and the Spanish conquest seen from Huarochirí.
Context
Written in Quechua around 1600 by Indians of the province, the manuscript was gathered into a single volume by the priest Francisco de Ávila, parish priest of Huarochirí and a pioneer of the campaigns to extirpate idolatries, together with an incomplete treatise dated 1608. The writer remained anonymous: John Rowe, then Alan Durston, have proposed recognising in him don Cristóbal Choquecasa, an Indian noble allied with Ávila. Forgotten in the National Library in Madrid, the text was rediscovered and published in German by Hermann Trimborn in 1939.
Who it is for
Short, juxtaposed narratives, in thirty-one chapters and two supplements. Bilingual editions make the text accessible.
Prizes and reception
Translated into Spanish in 1966 by José María Arguedas, who called it the Andean Bible, then into French and English; the reference text on Andean religions.