By Mike Safley
The indigenous Indians of Peru are unique in the modern world. They are uniformly spiritual, uninterested in politics, and loyal to their families; they are not greedy or materialistic; they express themselves in shy smiles and rarely complain. Their pride is intact despite the almost inhumane solitude of the Altiplano and dismal treatment by the last 500 years of history. They have become a forgotten people, often abandoned by their government, exploited by the machinery of commerce and left behind by the advances of medicine and the march of modernity. It is Quechua Benefit‘s goal to deliver a modest measure of relief and hope to the everyday challenge of their lives.
None of the chronicles written, mostly by Spaniards, that document the hundreds of years of subjugation of the Quechua people reports any instances of redeeming or enlightened treatment of the modern day Quechua’s ancestors. The conquering Spaniards succeeded in killing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Quechua men and women by commanding their services as beasts of burden. There was silver ore to be mined and hauled from the mountains to the coast, tribute to be collected from the length and breadth of Peru, and military expeditions that required an endless number of human porters. Hernando De Santilla observed that “down there [Peru] there is one disease worse than the rest: the unrestrained greed of the Spaniards.”
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Related Links:
Quechua Benefit: The Mission in the Andes
Quechua Benefit: An Expanding Mission in the Andes