Gilded Dreams
By Xánath Caraza
Photo courtesy of Xánath Caraza
Palla Chimpu Ocllo or Isabel Suárez Chimpu Ocllo was a noble woman of Indigenous ancestry from Cusco, Peru. She was Incan. Before discussing Chimpu Occllo’s life more specifically, first let us briefly explore who the Incans were. Originally, the term Inca was a title of nobility and made reference only to the royal families from what we today know as part of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, northern and central Chile, and parts of Argentina, the Inca Empire. After the arrival of Spanish, the term Inca became synonymous with mostly Quechua, and Aymara speaking peoples from South America. Before the arrival of Spanish, the city of Cusco, the Inca Empire capital, was where Chimpu Ocllo was born and later died. Born in 1523, Palla Chimpu Ocllo was the daughter of the Túpac Huallpa and the granddaughter of the powerful Inca Tupac Yupanqui. As a noblewoman, the privilege of servants was at her disposal. In addition, she had an abundance of food and had access to certain luxuries, such as jewelry, and textiles with intricately embroidered designs. She most likely learnt how to weave herself, and how to read, among other activities. She was also taught to love her culture and respect her ancestors, her family tree and sacred Incan cities. After the colonization of Peru, Palla Chimpu Ocllo was baptized as Isabel Suárez Chimpu Ocllo. In 1538, when she was only fifteen years old, she met Capitan Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega who had just arrived in Cusco, Peru from Spain. They never married, as was common among the high rank officials from Spain with Indigenous women. They had one Mestizo, biracial, child together. Chimpu Ocllo and Garcilaso de la Vega’s son was Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, later known as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. He, himself, had significant accomplishments as well. Born in 1539, he spent his childhood in Cusco, Peru in the care of his mother since he was born out of wedlock. His first language was Quechua and he later learnt Spanish. He had a great deal of appreciation for his Indigenous background from her mother’s influence. At age twenty-one, after the death of his father, he went to Spain where he became the first chronicler and writer of an Indigenous background from the Americas. He wrote of Peru, the Conquest of Peru, and the Mestizo identity. His works were well-known and widely-received among Europeans readers. Later, Chimpu Ocllo married a Spanish businessman, Juan del Pedroche, and had two daughters with him, Luisa de Herrera and Ana Ruiz. Importantly, Chimpu Ocllo was as symbol of the grandeur of an Indigenous civilization and a link between two worlds that violently collided. She was the proud daughter of the Peruvian earth, Pachamama, and the sun, Inti, both symbols of Peru’s ancient and contemporary identity. In 1571, Chimpu Ocllo died at the age of thirty-three in Cusco.
Listen to our tribute to Chimpu Ocllo “Sun Princess”/”Princesa del Sol”
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