Modernity Meets History in the Pisac Church

     When traveling to the town of Pisac, we stopped in a church to observe the Sunday mass. We sat outside waiting for the locals to file in, and as they did we were able to watch tradition unfold. The locals were primarily wearing traditional woven clothing with patterns that represented their status. First, young boys walked in while blowing into shells that acted as horns. Following this group of boys was adult men that were playing a variety of instruments. After the musical procession, people came in dressed in traditional clothing and modern clothing. The older citizens were the ones typically wearing the more traditional outfits, while the parents with young children had the more modernized look. Those in the modern outfits did not seem to be wearing formal clothing, but rather the same clothes you would see them wearing when walking around the city. Some people arrived slightly late as they had to walk from farther away to attend services.

    As the service started, the first thing I noticed was that the priest was speaking in Quechua, the native language of the Incas. The priest spoke very passionately and almost sounded angry at times. There were several words in Spanish that snuck into his sermon. This makes sense, however, as there would not have been a word in Quechua for the three parts of the holy trinity. The priest pointed out two people sitting in the front, likely to honor important members of the Pisac community. 

    I was fascinated by the way the traditions of the Incas were incorporated into the religion of the conquistadors. The use of Quechua in a sermon was surprising to me as I would have expected the conquistadores to force the Incas to assimilate to their customs of using either Latin or Spanish for church services. It was also impressive how the outfit choices seemed to be more wide ranged than services in the United States, which tend to be more formal. I can't help but wonder if the Incas had to fight to use Quechua in their services, and if there was a struggle as well to have a more modern outfit choice available to wear to mass.