Flying "Cholo": Incas, Airplanes, and the Construction of Andean Modernity in 1920s Cuzco, Peru

The public euphoria for pilot Alejandro Velasco Astete's flight from the capital city of Lima to his hometown of Cuzco, Peru, in 1925 was surpassed only by the anguish over his death in a crash a month later. Residents in the former Inca capital shared the almost universal fascination with flight that two years later transformed Charles Lindbergh into an international celebrity after his electrifying Atlantic crossing. Aviation promised integration for a Peruvian city that resided nearly two miles up in the thin Andean air and lay several days' journey by train and steamship from Lima. Flight in the indigenous region carried symbolic capital for intellectuals and public officials who bristled at their perceived racial inferiority and resented political, economic, and cultural marginalization by Lima. So when a Quechua-speaking pilot of Inca nobility and Spanish ancestry stepped down from an Italian-made biplane onto Cuzco soil in 1925, elite observers hailed him as nothing less than an Andean superman. Newspapers breathlessly described the authentic sierran blood, vitality, masculinity, and skill of the first Peruvian to make the treacherous if not suicidal flight across the Andes. Elites were convinced this "modern" sierran man and his mastery of the science and technology of aviation were undeniable proof Cuzco belonged at the vanguard of the ethnically and geographically divided Peruvian nation.¹

The Velasco Astete chapter provides a unique lens through which to analyze complex racial, political, and cultural currents in Andean society. I focus on prolific and often effusive newspaper and magazine coverage of the pilot's rise and ill-timed death to explore how elite Cusqueños seized the symbolism of aviation to promote Cuzco's regionalist agenda and envision an Andean modernity that emphasized the region's unique claim to the pre-Hispanic past. My analysis addresses why the science and technology of aviation were essential to the Cuzco political agenda that paradoxically pursued authentic sierran modernization in the image of Peru's autochthonous heritage. Cuzco's vocal indigenista movement, robust public debate about the "Indian problem," the introspective 1921 centennial celebration of independence from Spain, and ambitious modernization efforts during Augusto B. Leguía's presidency (1919-30) formed the backdrop for Cuzco's enthusiastic reception of flight. Although newspapers demonstrate that many among the lettered elite, civic leaders, and entrepreneurs looked to the United States, Europe, and even other Latin American countries for a template for modernization, I explore why local elites sought "progress" essential to their project to displace the cultural, economic, and political center of gravity from Lima on the central coast to the isolated southern highlands.² The pilot's story illuminates how nationalist sentiment and regionalist autonomy inextricably intertwined in Cuzco, where the indigenous, Andean, and pre-Hispanic opposed the urban, coastal, and Hispanic represented by Lima.³

A newspaper's reference to Velasco Astete as a Christ entering an "Inca Jerusalem" did not seem like misplaced hyperbole amid the maelstrom generated by his arrival and death.⁴ News of the approach of this modern "cóndor," a term popular in Inca iconography, the morning of September 1, 1925, pulsed through the city nearly as fast as the telegraph relayed his progress. Residents climbed the surrounding mountains or scurried to the top of church bell towers.⁵ The anxious crowd that gathered at an improvised landing field heard the whine of the engine before the "gallant ship" appeared from heavy clouds and circled the city.⁶ The moment was not all technological marvel: Smoke from a straw bonfire marked the spot for the pilot's safe landing.⁷ In the monthlong celebration that followed, Cusqueños lavished the pilot with medal ceremonies, dances, dinners, champagne toasts, and recitals that showcased Andean music and dance. Although elites suggested this modern moment captivated all social groups, gala announcements in newspapers often invited the most cultivated and aristocratic elements of society.

Figure 1.

The image of Alejandro Velasco Astete's plane over Cuzco's Plaza de Armas enthralled not only the city's indigenista intellectuals...