[Aztlan] forwarding post from David Schoen

[Sandy Mielke]

Here is the English text from the 'Peruanista' website:

"THE GREAT INCA REBELLION" IS THE "APOCALYPTO" FOR THE INCA
I just returned from the premiere screening of the movie "The Great Inca 
Rebellion" produced by National Geographic and PBS' Nova series.


The final perception that I have of this movie is that is once again Native 
history has been written by non-Native people, without our voice 
represented. Once again, Indigenous peoples are the subject of study as if 
we were not around anymore. Perhaps the haven't asked themselves if is 
correct to unearth our dead, and to use our ancestors as subjects for 
research.

I have to admit that l I liked part of the movie, especially when they show 
with scientific proof that the Spanish defeated Native peoples with support 
of other Indigenous armies, during the Spanish invasion of the Tawantinsuyu, 
the Inca civilization.

It is said that history is written by the victors. This movie reminded me a 
bit of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, only because it shows Indigenous peoples as 
violent, barefoot savage-looking people who hated each other, and killed 
their own people with merciless violence. You won't see in this movie a 
Spanish soldier portraited with the same violence as the Native ones.

This film is based on the findings from excavations made by a team of 
Peruvian archaeologists lead by Guillermo Cock in 2001, at the Inca cemetery 
of Puruchuco, in the outskirts of Lima. The funding for these excavations 
were provided by local people who live in the neighborhood of Tupac Amaru, 
on top of the archaeological site. Back in 2002, a Peruvian prosecutor had 
to investigate Mr. Cock's team under accusations of corruption and rumors 
that robbery were made by "huaqueros" or tomb thiefs.

Some of the human remains that were found showed signs of a violent death 
and after forensic tests and historical research, it was concluded that 
these Quechua warriors of what is today Lima, were killed by other Native 
people.

The movie has already a website where you can watch a trailer. In this 
filmyou can see several images of scientific analysis of cranes and bones, 
and while it's interesting to see this kind of work but honestly I think 
this was just a good advertising for the producers. Other parts of the movie 
show computer animations resembling the battles scenes in the defense of 
Lima, and they were a little childish and unfinished.

Other thing I didn't like is that Native warriors are shown using 
rudimentary war tools, as opposed to the "sophisticated" Spaniards weapons 
and they actually compare them. Also, the Spaniard invaders are never 
portraitted as bloody and cruel as the Indigenous soldiers. As a matter of 
fact, the movie calsl the new comers as "conquistadores", as if they were 
part of some heroic crusade. Terribly, the Indigenous peoples are called 
"the Indians" repeating the historical mistake made by Columbus, when he 
thought this continent was India.

At the end of the movie, the response was not so enthusiastic. Perhaps I 
wasn't the only person who expected a better result, after all National 
Geographic usually produces great documentaries.

Then an open discussion began with questions from the public. When I asked 
Guillermo Cock about the fate of the objects found in the excavations, he 
said that the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura) has kept track and holds 
collections of textiles, ceramic and others found in Puruchuco, and some of 
them are under his watch while he and his team are studying them.

However, when another person asked him about the reaction of today Peru's 
Indigenous peoples, Cock responded by saying "it's hard to define who is 
Indigenous, and Peruvians don't see each other as races; we are one nation, 
and there aren't Indigenous peoples in Peru." I was shocked and speechless, 
and my reaction was late. I approached Cock at the end of the discussion to 
greet him, he said to me that the Spanish were "valientes" (brave) people.

This movie has been made with information from someone who is trying to 
describe the history of our ancestors, but at the same time he denies our 
sole existence today. Not surprisingly, Cock is originally from Peru, one of 
the most discriminating countries in the region. Has Mr. Cock perhaps shared 
this "scientific information" with the people of Tupac Amaru, after all they 
are the ones who paid for the excavations?

After the discussion was over, a reception was held at the NG headquarters 
and I noticed that Peru's Minister of Trade, Mercedes Araoz was among the 
attendees. Mrs. Araoz is in DC to promote the Peru-US Free Trade Agreement 
in US Congress. It seems that the invasion of Peru started with the 
Spaniards in 1532 still continues today. Now they call it free trade.


UPDATE: Here is a video I prepared, with extracts of the discussion that I 
mentioned in this post. My reply to Mr. Cock about Indigenous Peruvians is 
included at the end.


VIDEO: "THERE ARE NOT INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN PERU"
(8:56 minutes)