Peru Guide

Long ago, when men and women worshipped the sun for its warmth and life, there lived a mighty Inca Emperor. His name was Viracocha. Viracocha’s empire was large and rich.

Along, long time ago, when animals could still talk, Fox and Mole were the best of friends. On full-moon nights, they both liked to sit outside in the moonlight. They would often stay up late into the night, telling stories and sharing dreams.

Many, many years ago, before the building of the great city of Chan Chan, or the hidden mountain temples; before the grand pyramids of the Sun and Moon, there lived a man called Chancay. 

The spirit Coniraya was at times mischievous. He even pretended to be the mighty Viracocha, who the Incas believed was the force behind all creation. But in ancient times he wandered the world in the form of a very poor Indian clothed in rags, so that men reviled him and called him a wretch.

Long ago the people of ancient Peru believed that the god Viracocha created the world and its people. This is a story told by the Tiahuanacan. It tells about the beginning of the world. In the story, Viracocha creates people from stone, a common material in the mountainous country of Peru.

Between the ranges of the towering Cordilleras, which gleam as blindingly as though the Children of the Sun had covered them with gold leaf - just as they covered the tip of that grim red Rock at Titicaca where the Sun once hid - the plateau is very wide and high, the air so rarefied that it seems scarcely breathable. Lake Titicaca ripples on an...

Francisco Pizarro, a peasant from Spain, was one of the least well-equipped conquerors in history. However, in the name of Christ, he destroyed the powerful Empire of the Incas and bestowed on Spain the richest of possessions. Pizarro also established the city of Lima in Peru thus opening the way for Spanish culture to dominate South America.

Ciro Alegría was born 1909 in Cajabamba, Peru, as the son of Spanish-Irish parents. He died in 1967. His great-grandfather Diego Lynch was an Irishman and owner of Peruvian mines. Alegria at age eighteen began work as a newspaper reporter, covering politics and government.

Abascal was born into a noble family and was a Spanish military officer and colonial administrator in America. At the age of 19, he entered the army. After serving for 20 years, they promoted him to colonel, and later in the war against France, to brigadier. In 1796 he took part in the defense of Havana against the British.

Europe’s first knowledge of Peruvian textiles was acquired following the Spanish invasion of Peru in 1532, when the conquistadores included a few fabrics in shipments of gold and silver they sent back to Spain.