Negotiated Settlements: Andean Communities and Landscapes under Inka and Spanish Colonialism

3: The Land and Peoples of the Colca Valley

3 THE LAND AND PEOPLES OF THE COLCA VALLEY From space (Figure 3.1) the Colca Valley appears as a large and rich resource patch in a region otherwise dominated by expanses of high-elevation grassland steppe (puna). The valley forms the heart of the largest drainage system in southern Peru. After curving northwest from its source near Laguna Lagunillas (close to the city of Puno), the Colca River turns south before trending westerly toward the Pacific. Below the confluence of the Capiza River near the village of Andamayo, the river changes names to the Majes, and eventually to the Camaná, where the valley widens again before discharging into the Pacific on the arid coast. The valley is also a spectacular example of a humanengineered landscape: Virtually all slopes below about 3,800 m are covered with contour bench terraces tied into a complex irrigation system that transports meltwater from the surrounding glaciated peaks. It is the synergy of its natural features and human ingenuity—how the people of the Colca Valley capitalized on its endowments, adapted to its risks, and turned some of its potential liabilities into assets—that account for this remarkable landscape. This chapter explores those endowments and risks—the great palimpsest of built features in the valley landscape—and the peoples who built them. Valley Physiography The Colca River forms the heart of the modern Caylloma Province of the Department of Arequipa (Figure 3.2). The river cuts through the plateau that dominates this region of the Andes—fully 89 percent of the 12,046-km2 area of the province (an area slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut) lies above 3,800 m. In this vast, semiarid plateau, punctuated by the high peaks of thewesterncordillera,thevalleycanbeseenasanoasisofrelativelymoderate climate and considerable agricultural and pastoral productive potential. The main 50-km stretch of the Colca Valley proper can be divided into lower, central ,anduppersectionsaccordingtophysiographicchangesoverthecourseof 40 Negotiated Settlements Figure 3.1. LANDSAT ETM+ image of the Colca Valley (top) in relation to the city of Arequipa, showing intervening high puna grasslands. the river (Figure 3.2). The lower section of the valley, encompassing the area around the village of Cabanaconde, is set apart from the central and upper valleyareasbyadeepsectionofcanyon.Itissteeper,deeper,andwarmerthan the middle and upper sections of the valley, and arable land there is situated The Land and Peoples of the Colca Valley 41 in the lower kichwa and upper yungas ecological zones (between about 2,800 and 3,400 m), where frosts are less common and maize agriculture predominates .Cabanacondeisstillrenownedtodayforitshigh-qualitymaize(known as maíz cabanita) which commands a premium in markets in the valley and in the city of Arequipa. Villages here also cultivate fruit orchards in the lowest reaches of the river gorge (Gelles 2000:115–18). The central valley extends upstream from the Colca Canyon to just upstream of the village of Chivay and constitutes the core agriculturalist area of the Laricollaguas (in the lower part of the central valley) and the Yanquecollaguas (in the upper part of the central valley). Massive complexes of stone-faced, irrigated bench terraces cover virtually all of the lower slopes of the central valley, creating a visually striking human-engineered landscape (Figure 3.3). In general terms, the central valley encompasses the kichwa (ca. 2,800–3,600 m) and suni zones (ca. 3,600–3,800 m) and is surrounded by the grasslands of the puna (ca. 3,800–4,400 m) in the surrounding uplands and valley rim. The upper valley begins above an area of serpentine hills formed Figure 3.2. Topographic map of the Colca Valley, showing transects in lower, middle, and upper valley sections. 42 Negotiated Settlements by Quaternary volcanic flows that border of a long, arcing corner of the river between the villages of Chivay and Tuti. The upper valley takes on a different aspect, being shallower and more open than the central and lower sections of the valley. Agriculture is untenable in the uppermost reaches of the valley due to near-nightly freezing temperatures, so there are no agricultural terraces, and the scrub and cactus vegetation of the central and lower valleys give way to bunch grasses and high-altitude, high-insolation plants such as yareta (Azorella compacta), a slow-growing, resinous evergreen perennial highly valued as firewood. Thevalleywasformedbythecounteractingforcesoftectonicupliftandfluvial incision during the Pleistocene, and over the course of its entrenchment, the river has exposed a 2,000 m cross...