Chapter 5: Seattle’s Quechuans—The Incas Among Us

May 30, 2011

You don’t have to go work on a health project in Peru to see an Inca. For 15 years they have had a toehold in Seattle, home of the Quichua Mashis (Quicha Brothers) whose haunting music entertains thousands each year at Seattle’s Northwest Folk Life Festival.

The little guy pictured here is the liveliest of the band of Inca musicians. And “little” is the operative word, because he couldn’t be five feet tall. With his black fedora and what appears to be a fine alpaca wool cape, he is the most dapper of the dapper men who make up the Quichua Mashis. He plays the charango, which is similar to a mandolin or lute, using a sound box traditionally made from the back of an armadillo. While his band mates blow into Zamponas (pan flutes) and use more familiar European-based instruments, his fingers fly over the 10 strings of the charango.

Charango

My Back for Your Sound Box?

  

According to folklore as provided by Wikipedia, “the [charango] was invented in the early 18th century in the Viceroyalty of Peru,” based on three possible instruments brought by the conquistadores: the vihuela, mandolin or lute. It stands as a symbol of the resilience of the Inca culture, that they can assimilate Spanish influence and still retain their language and their traditions, and share them internationally. Based in Seattle, Quichua Moshis has performed in Europe, South America, Japan and Canada, calling Seattle their home base since 1993. They have performed in the Northwest in a wide variety of events. (home page: http://www.incasite.com/Framesets/QuichuaFrame.htm)

According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, “Quechua was dominant in South Peru. As the Incas' empire expanded, their language became the administrative and commercial tongue from North Ecuador to central Chile.” After their conquest of the Incas in the 16th cent., the Spaniards spread the use of Quechua beyond the Inca empire.” The language is spoken by 10 million indigenous people in Peru and 2 million in Bolivia.

But is it “Quichua” or “Quechua?” Well, there are 28 Quechuan languages still in use. Quechua, says Columbia University Press, encompasses “far more native speakers than any other aboriginal language group in the Americas.” It is spoken in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Argentina. But the reach is not surprising when you recall that the Incas built 20,000 miles of roads, without having invented the wheel. Our "Quichua Mashis" natives are all Ecuadorians.

Linguists have a theory that seems to fly in the face of reason: That we learned to speak before we learned to think. The logic of this is that words allow us to split hairs: Do you “dislike” something; do you “hate” it; or do you “loathe” it? Shades of meaning that allow us to use different words to pick up just the right idea had a big impact on how our thinking ability developed. You see this right away when you start looking at Quechua. It shows up in first person plural – “we.” For example, when I say “we” are going downtown, does that “we” include you? Or am I talking about "we," but not “you?” Quechuan speakers have two ways of saying “we” to make that distinction.

You can study Quechuan on the Internet, but the big issue is what does it sound like when actually spoken? I’m hoping that between now and August there will be a way of learning how to say “we need to use the bathroom” without insulting some guy's mother.

Love,

Robert