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Quilago

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Quilago (1485–1515) was the queen regnant or cacica of Cochasquí, in modern-day Ecuador. She is known for leading native resistance to the expansion of the Inca Empire and was supposedly the mother of Atahualpa, the last Sapa Inca. Her story has become an origin myth in Ecuadorian national mythology, which has retroactively framed her as an Ecuadorian rebel against Peruvian invaders.

Biography[edit]

A member of the Caranqui people,[1] Quilago was from Cochasquí, an emblematic site of the Kingdom of Quito.[2] As queen, Quilago formed a united front with neighboring indigenous societies to militarily resist the expansion of the Inca Empire.[3] Quilago's military coalition managed to keep the invading Inca at bay for two years,[4] but her forces were ultimately defeated,[5] in a battle at Yawarkucha.[6]

In order to prevent the further destruction of her community,[7] she was forced to marry the man that had conquered her kingdom, Huayna Capac, the Sapa Inca.[8] In the end, this had the effect of solidifying Inca control over her people.[9] Quilago bore the Sapa Inca's child; according to the archaeological narrative of Cochasquí, which has been supported by some historians,[7] their child was supposedly Atahualpa, the final Sapa Inca before the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.[10]

Quilago then began to plot the murder of Huayna Capac.[11] She sent him love letters, with the intention of leading him to a well that she had dug in her apartments and pushing him into it.[6] However, she was betrayed by her own servants, who informed Hayna Capac of her plans.[7] With forewarning, Hayna Capac went to her rooms and instead pushed her down the hole,[12] along with her serving maids.[6] Anthropologists Frank Salamone and Sabine Hyland consider this story to be a folkloric explanation for the use of shaft tombs in Quito.[13]

Legacy[edit]

Quilago's legend was passed down by native Quiteño people.[12] It was recorded in the Quito Manuscript by the Spanish chronicler Fernando de Montesinos [es].[6]

As the final ruler of Cochasquí, Quilago has taken a central position in archaeological narratives of the Inca conquest of Ecuador.[7] The story of Quilago's reign has also become an origin myth in the history of Ecuador, drawing on contemporary ideas of indigeneity and gender to construct an Ecuadorian national identity.[14] In this national narrative, Atahualpa has been held to be the "first true Ecuadorian", due to his mixed heritage from Quilago and Huayna Capac.[7] In the 1930s, this theory provoked the Armed Forces of Ecuador to search for her remains, in order to "reclaim the mother of the nation".[15] In the ruins of Cochasquí, the site's museum has been named after Quilago and tour guides have made her the protagonist of the stories they tell about the site.[7]

Archaeologist O. Hugo Benavides has pointed out that, despite Quilago's representation of "[female] courage and maternal concern", which broke with traditional gender roles, the site of Cochasquí has been "masculinized to represent the pre-Hispanic community's members' courage against the foreign conquerors".[7] Benavides also described how Cochasquí and Quilago herself have been appropriated by Ecuadorian national mythology, retroactively re-framing the history in terms of modern nation states by portraying them as native Ecuadorians resisting Peruvian invaders. This has even led to some Peruvian tourists abandoning tours of the site,[16] while also denying the indigenous peoples of Ecuador their own historical continuity.[17] He points out how Quilago's narrative has been used to legitimise sexist ideas of a nation's heroic masculinity. To Benavides, Quilago "escapes the inferior feminine depiction of Ecuadorian womanhood only to be burdened by the masculine characteristics of courage, strength and unwieldy spirit".[18]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Fine-Dare 2019, p. 34; Hyland 2007, p. 72.
  2. ^ Benavides 2008, p. 1066.
  3. ^ Benavides 2008, p. 1067; Benavides 2011, p. 130; Hyland 2007, p. 72.
  4. ^ Benavides 2011, p. 130; Fine-Dare 2019, pp. 34–35.
  5. ^ Benavides 2008, p. 1067; Benavides 2011, p. 130; Fine-Dare 2019, pp. 34–35.
  6. ^ a b c d Hyland 2007, p. 72.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Benavides 2008, p. 1067.
  8. ^ Benavides 2008, p. 1067; Benavides 2011, pp. 130–131.
  9. ^ Benavides 2011, pp. 130–131.
  10. ^ Benavides 2008, p. 1067; Benavides 2009, p. 188; Fine-Dare 2019, pp. 34–35.
  11. ^ Benavides 2008, p. 1067; Fine-Dare 2019, pp. 34–35; Hyland 2007, p. 72.
  12. ^ a b Fine-Dare 2019, pp. 34–35; Hyland 2007, p. 72.
  13. ^ Hyland 2007, pp. 72–73.
  14. ^ Benavides 2008, pp. 1066–1067.
  15. ^ Benavides 2008, p. 1067; Benavides 2009, p. 188.
  16. ^ Benavides 2008, pp. 1067–1068; Benavides 2011, p. 131.
  17. ^ Benavides 2008, pp. 1067–1068; Fine-Dare 2019, p. 35.
  18. ^ Benavides 2008, p. 1068.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Benavides, O. Hugo (2008). "Archaeology, Globalization and the Nation: Appropriating the Past in Ecuador". In Silverman, Helaine; Isbell, William H. (eds.). The Handbook of South American Archaeology. Springer. pp. 1063–1072. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-74907-5_53. ISBN 9780387752280.
  • Benavides, O. Hugo (2009). "Narratives of Power, the Power of Narratives: The Failing Foundational Narrative of the Ecuadorian Nation". In Walkowitz, Daniel J.; Knauer, Lisa Maya (eds.). Contested Histories in Public Space: Memory, Race, and Nation. Duke University Press. pp. 178–196. ISBN 9780822391425.
  • Benavides, O. Hugo (2011). "'Our ancestors the Incas': Andean warring over the conquering pasts". In Gegner, Martin; Ziino, Bart (eds.). The Heritage of War. Routledge. pp. 127–141. doi:10.4324/9780203809204-9. ISBN 9780203809204.
  • Fine-Dare, Kathleen S. (2019). "Northern Andean Landscapes of Movement and History". Urban Mountain Beings: History, Indigeneity, and Geographies of Time in Quito, Ecuador. Lexington Books. pp. 21–46. ISBN 9781498575942.
  • Hyland, Sabine (2007). The Quito Manuscript: An Inca History Preserved by Fernando de Montesinos (PDF). Yale University. ISBN 9780913516249. OCLC 964732009.
  • Ugalde, María Fernanda. "The Rebel Potters: A Review of Gender Relations, Female Oppression, and Patriarchy from the Perspective of Ecuadorian Archaeology". Antipoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología. 36: 33–56. doi:10.7440/antipoda36.2019.03. ISSN 1900-5407.

Further reading[edit]

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