The Incas Road: Last Tambo in Mendoza
INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS 1
1 EL CAMINO DE LOS INCAS
AF-3 Not fur pubbhn&&out w~~~ mnsmk l5 AUGUST 1992
Skm 1925 the Institute of CumWafd Affairs (the Cme-Rcgm F~~im)has IXOVW ~-Wm ~kwSh@6 to en- out- stamkg zdib to heamida ttm Unkd Wes and wit9 abui hmahnd areas isues.Enmby the late Charies %. crm, m ,"Wteis *qqxwtd by mtimmfrom !imi~v~& hwdatiom.
!T have seen with my own eyes that most of the towns, tarnbos and set- tlements of the indians are deserted and burned...9 1
Crigt6bd Vaca de Castro King Charlest Emissary to Peru, Tambo Ordinances of 1543 eyes from the word sddand, with some "C mela"8czatched of the &ones that are into one of the roch piled up here, they making up what'a improvised a grill ta left of the ruined make an asado. tad10 wall. Curmela, Carmela+ Mkthey ate Carmela's lover put have the garbage on a few been itt tin^ page8 of LOBAndes newspaper>made it here in thi; into a sower ball, ma mountain tossing it into the spotlegs landscape, felt like Mardona for for a few a wuple of mhute~, The game ended hours and, when some ofthe despite dl the beauty garbage started to fd of the lm&mp and out. the huge emotion of being here at one of the very lmt tmh~ Cwmela and her of the Incan empire, 1 laver had a picnic on cm%take away my a wnddlSunday rnarnhg?maybe ~ittingat the same spot 1 am sitting at how. mq brqht meat md a
elti, rme, zooming in and out with my camcorder, adjusting the focus of the Niion.
Carmela's lover a stream, Tambillitos wanted to immortal- has a special signifi- ize his love for cance. It is the last Carmela. He brought tambo in Argentina, a small can of tar located at the last from work. He chose mountain pass to the the best stone and east across the Andes with a stick, in to Chile. For thou- between mates that e are inTam- sands of years, this Carmela, full of love, billitos, one pass was the only was pouring for him, way people of this he wrote in big print of the region could go across the word CARMELA. typical the mountains and And then they reach the Pacific headed back for tambos of Ocean and contact Mendoza. the Incaic -.. inhabitants on the I am still sitting here, obsessed. My wife tambos were the Shelley Berc and nuclei that held the archaeologist Roberto Incas Road together. 1 B&rcenaare talking They were the admin- near the car, a few istrative, stor age and 1 yards away. I cant lodging facilities for hear what they are travellers built all A saying. I am here along the Road, a with Curmela, who is day's travel apart stealing the beauty of from each other. the tambo. Situated in the -Uspallata Valley , on mkon we modem city just how horrible word 'Carajd under people. ^re out of this "out oftouehness' my breath; it seems touch with nature. feels up here. It's as to be the first verbal But it shocked me if X an missing remnse that came something deeply directly from say important that cant heart since I got up penetrate my 'good to here. 'Car@'-- Ifs 30 below zero' down hard to translate. If jacket, something we were on network that my state of the TV you wouldn't be art video mmma able to hear it cftimot record or even anyhow. Aguy sitting track. at a powerful elec- tronic editing desk I just mumbled the would press a couple
MSS of keys and that's it. to our Latin tall and lean, with a Carajo would disap- American pre- Cuyo accent. He pear and you European past, started to excavate wouldn't be able to became our expert this area in the hear it. Paradoxically guide. He had a 1970's, trying to that's what happened couple of weeks off protect the tambos to the original inhab- from teaching, due to from depredation and itants of this land, winter vacations, and destruction. He talks the Tawantinsup he left the excava- about a new law with when the conquis - tions he is conducting hope and passion. tadores came. It took on the old city of The Municipality that more than an editing Mendoza in charge of controls this moun- device to silence their an aide, to be with us. tain area, has voices, their cries, but declared it a natural the same decision. He is in his forties, and cultural land- Suppress it.
Roberto Bar- cena from the University of Cuyo, an archaeolo- gist who is battling to preserve the remaining tambos as standing testimonies mark, opening the there is almost huge, that they can dmto effecfcive prp - nothing taught about barely afford what tectioa. For Bareem the aboriginal cul- they have done which the onlyway to stop tures. Heis about to was mostly financed the depredation is to finish enclosing the by private contribu - dose off the tamhe tambo Tambillos with tione and from adallow visitors a fence. I personally Barcena adhie asso- only when it is POBBI-don4t like the idea of elates' own pockets* ble to control them. interfering with the Archaeological pro- He also thinks that landscape, creating a tecfcion and restora- enclosing' the tambos jail of sticks atld wire tion of indigenous andmarkingthem all around the peri- sites have never been will add some status meter of the tambo. It high on the govern- to the sites, and will makes me feel ment's priority list. make people think oppressed--like that behind the wire hmking at an animal there is something in a zoo, I couldn*t Unp~rt~t~d V~U- even "see" the t ambo. able. The problem of But it seems there is -gnorance of ones' no &her way to save heritage in this part it by itow*I asked the of South America, $64,000 ddk~UW- Barcena says, starts tion .Why don't you at school where create a big open ast year, figtory begins with area around the the Spaniards and tambo so it won%feel Shelley and so asphyxiating. The I were some answer was: money. The economy in of the last Argentina is in such people to bad shape and the inflation in dollars so walk among the wonders of the monolithic alignments in Carnac, France, in just the way that the people who worshipped them thousands of years ago walked thr
GumPoma de Ap& (1545?-1620?):"/man Accountant and Treasurer" In the dWgthe character is using a qu/DUs
pouring a mate for runs to the north and Shelley from the south. For the last thermos to keep five hundred years, t is cold and warm. I wanted to the white man has wait at the site until tried to hide and dark. We dark to get a sense of dismiss the advanced are at it at night*We are culture and lives of sitting on our aboriginal peoples in Ranchillos, Renault , watching this land. I can see another the stars blink in the better in the dark. pitch black, cloudless 'Progress' was the sky. The Incas road word commonly used The Incas is that very straight by the Creole as they Road. I can see a fire fine line glowing buried the native in the distance. I am from moonlight that culture*'Progress' ------was also the word the Uspallata Valley and and his group sue- Incas used when they built tambos with the cessfully lobbied the imposed their style help of the Huarpes authorities to and designs on the in the XV century.In create just before Diaguit a people and 1551 when the first they were going the Huarpes. Incas Spaniards invaded to destroy the tambo from the locals' point Cuyo and in 1561 Tambillitos in order of view: those guys when they estab - to build a highway from Cuzco who lished Mendoza City, with a straighter came and taught us they used the same line. Paradoxically , how to follow the word, 'progress' to when the road Empire rules. Keep justify the Huarpes was being paved, your shapes but use slavery and later, the workers our design. Upon the their extinction. We lived in the tambo. orders of the Incan are driving back to Layer through layer, Empire, the Mendoza City on the from Diaguita Diaguitas from the highway 7, once the ceramic to cans of Norte Chico Chileno Incas Road. We pass Coke, the tambo's went across the by the protected destiny is still being Andes into the curve that Barcena written.@
Tam bo: Spanish. From quechua: Tampus. Administrative, storage and lodging facilities built along The Incas Road. Asado: Spanish. Barbecue. Carajo: Spanish. Shit! Chasqui: Quechua. Runner, messenger. Cuyo: Mapuche. Country of sand. Argentine region that includes the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis. Cuzco; Quechua. The navel of the world. Capital of the Inca Empire. (Peru) Maradona, Diego: Argentinian top soccer player. Mate: Spanish. Herbal tea Drunk in a traditional aourd
Received in Hanover, MH. September 24, 1992
AF3-16