September 20th 2007
I am three hours away from Tilcara in the Northern Province of Jujuy where Incas built places. It will be a week of shamnic rites with elders or abuelos in Spanish to denominate Indian sages. Others are called pilgrims, I don't know where I will be put in the sacred circle of worship. There is not going to be any ingestion of hallucinogenics and recording or photography is not allowed.
I travelled from Buenos Aires on the 12th -where we stayed three days- to Rosario, where Che Guevara was born, along the rio Parana. But only just four nights ago we arrived in the most scenic area of Argentina in Cafayate where once the Calchaqui confederation of Indian nations lived. They included the Diaguitas in Cafayate, Ululas in Santa Maria and the Quilmes in Quilmes.
The confederation numbered about 100.000 people, but after they had resisted the Incas they they waged a war of 135 years, against the Spanish conquistadors. The Spaniards succeeded in cutting off the water and the food supply after the confederacy fell in their hands. They were tortured, raped, enslaved and marched away on foot to different areas, but the majority went on foot to Buenos Aires, which by bus is about 3 days drive...imagine.
In 1812 with the independence they were assimilated into Buenos Aires' population. The place where they had been kept by the Jesuits in a reducción was called Quilmes, and so Quilmes still exists today, but the real Quilmes Indians as well as the Diaguita, I was told, have perished or have fused with the Argentinians.
Today, the moment I was about to leave, a friendly old woman asked me where my poncho came from - my Q'uero one if bought in Cusco-, I had a hunch she was Indian. She said she was from near the Chilean border near the Atacama desert. That rang a bell and I got interested.
"Are you Mapuche?" I asked her to avoid asking her if she was an Indian. She said;" No I am a Diaguita."
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