The story in the Huarochiri manuscript reminded me a lot of the story of Raven when he stole the sun. There are a lot of similarities between these stories, such as the the virgin birth, trickery, and impregnating the woman through something she consumed. It is a crazy story and sometimes I was a bit confused by some of the details that came in. Also it doesn’t seem to have a moral lesson to it which I found interesting. This story also reminds me of the Popol Vuh, which is a translation of the creation stories of the Maya, in the story telling style and how both give explanations for the natural world. There is often a view that all indigenous peoples around the world are similar/the same. You could look at the similarities in these stories in that way but I think that they speak more to the similarities between humans as a whole. Different peoples have more similarities than we often give credit to.

Being from Canada I have been exposed to a lot of stereotypes of indigenous people and it would seem that the image of the poor, badly dressed Indian is not just a North American image.  “In Huamanga, if one saw a gallant figure dressed in rose velvet breeches with fine gold trim, bright doublet beneath a dark velveteen cape from Segovia, broad felt hat, and a pair of good shoes, one probably expected to see the face of a wealthy colonial, or perhaps even a mestizo. Sometimes, however, the face belonged to an Indian.” The way that this is worded makes it clear that this would be a common and expected reaction in this situation. But this reaction should make us question why it is that we immediately think this way. Why is it when people see someone dressed well and expensively that they do not think it could be an indigenous person? Is poverty just too interwoven into our idea of what indigeneity is that people are surprised and shocked to see something in contrary to this? In reality it should be this reaction is surprising and sticks with people. We need to combat this view of indigenous peoples as poor, suppressed victims. They are so much more and should be recognized as such. They and their cultures are fully dimensional and complex, just like all the rest around the world.

A couple other lines that jumped out at me were, “The differentiation of native society into rich and poor reflected the ability of a minority to free itself form constraints that bound most Indians” and “For the great majority the road to success was closed.” It is a difficult choice to have to leave your community, traditions, and culture behind to try and have a better life. And these decisions aren’t just individual but impact family and the community at large. Pretty much the choice is try to become as Hispanic as you can and leave everything you know behind and maybe you can have a better life.