Female Voices from Vilcabamba: Indigenous Women and the Cultural Transformations of a Neo-Inca State

Vilcabamba, a colonial Neo-Inca state, has been widely studied through its male main figures: Manco Inca, Sayri Tupac, Titu Cusi and Tupac Amaru. Their story is well known, Manco Inca founded Vilcabamba in 1536 to regroup and reorganize his supporters and to serve as a base for resistance against the Spanish. He successfully repelled some Spanish attacks but was assassinated in 1544 by rebellious Spaniards to whom he had granted refuge. His son, Sayri Tupac, took control of the region and began negotiations for peace with Spanish officials in 1557. His sudden death in 1560 prompted negotiations with another son of Manco Inca, Titu Cusi. From 1560 to 1566, Spaniards granted amnesty to the Inca in exchange for submission to Spanish rule and conversion to Christianity, but this changed when Titu Cusi died in 1570. The Inca’s supporters blamed and killed two Christian priests and executed an emissary of the then Viceroy Francisco de Toledo. Upon these events and the emergence of a new Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, Toledo ordered a final invasion of the Vilcabamba region, ending Inca resistance to Spanish colonization. While this straightforward chronology of events emphasizes native resistance, it pays no attention to the female actors of Vilcabamba. Thus, the aim of this paper is to bring forth the neglected histories of several women who along these Incas contributed to the resistance and negotiation efforts with the Spanish. The stories of Inca, Aymara and even Cañari women that emerge from genealogical accounts, Spanish, indigenous and mestizo chronicles as well as official documentation from this era reveal the roles of these women in the cultural transformations that took place in this region during the period of colonization. It also provides a glance into the inner workings of the Incas of Vilcabamba vis-à-vis their Cuzco’s counterparts.