A RARE INTERVIEW WITH ATAHUALPA... HOURS BEFORE HIS DEATH.
The Inca ATAHUALPA was without a doubt the most
influential and powerful leader of the INCA Empire during the middle 1520's to 1532. Francisco Pizarro reached the north Coast of PERU in early 1532; later on, the Inca found of their whereabouts and arrival in Tumbes(northern most region in Peru)through peasants from the Area, and the Network of Chasquis that had him informed of every move across the Empire.
Pachacutec consolidated a real expansion by 1434, after subjugating the neighboring Chancas, heading north and south for an unavoidable expansion that Lasted about 100 years. HUASCAR and ATAHUALPA, half brothers, got involved in a Civil war, soon after they found out that their father HUAYNA CAPAC died of a rare sickness in 1525. Scholars point to one of the plagues brought by the foreigners. HUAYNA CAPAC wanted to divide the Empire between these two young promising leaders, but neither of them accepted. We know now that Atahualpa's father got expose to a rare sickness in those days. Most likely was a new developed kind of Rubeola. The new deseases were brought by the newcomers and the Emperor father was not immune to them. Both stubbornly thought to be the legitimate Heir to the throne.
This interview deals with the last moments in the mind of the Inca ATAHUALPA, according to our scholars and all chronicle gathered through the centuries.
CAXAMALLCA, JULY 26, 1533(1:30 AM)
Q:Ayinyachuy(How are you doing)your Majesty!!. This is an special moment for us and the world, but lets go straight to our reason to be here. Are you aware of... what's going to happen this morning to you? Just a few Hours from now?.
ATAHUALPA:Yes, certainly. I'm gonna be... my physicality will end at the stake and, huh, Naturally as a warrior, I'm ready... As an emperor to eleven million people, of course I'm ready. My strenght is inherited from our ancestors, my rasing as a Lord of my people and Our Father Inti. They do not know that our God is made of the most powerful flame that trascends your every rational understanding... so, I will be embraced by my own Energetical and true father, and my ancestors when I die.
Q:You really transmit a strong message; perhaps you have so many things to say. Your brother HUASCAR, He died misteriously a few months ago on his way to caxamallca. Let me be more precise: at the end of may of 1533.
Do you know anything about this incident?
ATAHUALPA: Well, now that last night Pizarro sentenced me to death, I'm going to be honest with you: YES!, ARI!. I gave the order to my commander in chief CALCUCHIMAC, through an unimportant servant that came to clean my cell. How can I say it clearly... literally I got rid of my brother's physical threat because I found out through my own intelligence that He was going to make...(walks away and comes back) some kind of an alliance with the Wiracochas as soon as he set ground on this city. So, I had to do it in order to save my honor and the prestige of my own close Generals.
Q:This declaration is really sad your Majesty. Changing the subject.. How old are you?
ATAHUALPA: I can tell you this way: my life has seen 31 harvests since I was born. Thanks to my mother's help... in telling me of my beginnings and this Threading(out from under his trousers)called Kipu, that keeps my very own personal thoughts and deeds since I was trained to be a Leader back In Quitan.(Quito)
Q:HOW DID YOUR EMPIRE BUILD THESE COLOSSAL MEGALYTHICAL CONSTRUCTIONS... FOR INSTANCE, "THE FORTRESS OF SACSAYHUAMAN" IN CUZCO?. WE ARE AMAZED BY THE SIZE OF THE STONES USED IN IT!!
Well, look I was born from the Quittan tribe and that's about a thousand of your miles northwest from Cuzco. My father Huayna Capac told me of our "Initiators"... that they came from the south after the great DELUGE. They civilized our Great Grandparents that used to live like animals, barely surviving on hunting and fishing. They tamed our Llamas to become our beasts of burden. They taught our Parents how to cut big stones by using Sacred Engineering: mixing water, corroding roots and wedged pieces of wood. Some sacred Energy was passed on to Us. Hard to explain but they used energy from our God INTI. Our ancestors taught us by experience, that no matter what, we will have to always harvest in the highlands. They knew that the great deluge was cyclical and your culture will see it again in ten of thousand of your years. That's why mi great grandfather PACHACUTEC improved the Inca trail that starts in Cuzco and ran through the core of the Andes and finished in the valley of my ancestors. The empire is divided in four Suyos that start at the very heart of Our city Cuzco. Through mixing our harvest, our ancestors created the POTATOE, CORN, OCA, QUINUA and different medicinal roots and herbs that your culture might have lost in time. MANCO CAPAC taught my parents how to work the metals, make weapons and take advantage of advanced agricultural harvesting from the PACHAMAMA(sacred land). MAMA OCLLO taught women how to cook, how to make beautiful textiles and how to raise our children and become people of stern character and strong minds mixed with our natural crops and teachings... and...9munching leaves of Coca). There are So many things to tell you my friend...
Q:How did you...I mean, you, your own self in command of an army of 10,000 soldiers or unbeatable warriors, lost the battle against a hundred and eighty spanish "Conquistadores"?
ATAHUALPA:MANAN..! is not what seems to be. Let me tell you my true: My warriors were not used to those animals called Horses. They are just... a better breed of my Llamas; and their weaponry was totally new to us. We never saw an Archebus, besides their so called armors were almost like invencible shields to our, let us say, slingshots or to our maces. I miscalculated my strategies. Pizarro got us ambushed in the afternoon of november the 16th of last year. He killed unmisericordly more than five thousand of my close servants and lieutenants by causing a sudden attack on my men. As soon as we got in the middle of the Plaza Mayor of Caxamallca, hell broke lose. First, the only person that I saw was this monk... father Valverde, yeah, that's his name. Who through a translator named "felipillo", was preaching to me this 'Jesus' who died on the Cross( coughs, spits the Coca left over) and telling me to repent and renounce to my Father. He handed these binded sheets covered with some kind of leather. That was his Bible as Hernando DE Soto told me later...and I was trying to get hold of it and said, "what does this thing represent?"... and I threw it to the floor unable to get a word of it. "Is your God inside this thing?", I managed to exclaim. That's when father VALVERDE called me blasfemous, and then he ran toward the back of the barracks shouting, "Santiago", then their cavalry and their mouth from hell(cannons) blasted ummercily on my own peaceful entourage. Most of my closest servants ran terrified. So terrified that they torn down a wall thicker than half of your yards. I fell captive immediatly. I recall this own Pizarro saving my life, because one of his soldiers was about to crush me to death, but Don Francisco got wounded trying to stop this man from Killing me.
Q:We know that the night before your capture you received 3 of Pizarros emmisaries in your royal tent inviting you to meet him the next morning in Caxamallca. Why didn't you hold them hostage and attack the rest of the enemies overnight? Were you awared of the mous and cat sor of situation?
ATAHUALPA:I told you, I miscalculated my intentions. First of all, I was going to kill most of them and keep 3 or 4 alive..you know why?... to teach me how to get hold and mount and tame those beautiful horses..they caused me awe and admiration!. Just imagine my chasquis and my won army riding to the outer limits of my Empire. Wartime has its own canone and beligerant law. I was gonna get these Wiracochas castrated. Too late now... and too much pride took hold and blinded away a better outcome for me.
Q:Is it true that Hernando De Soto became one of your best friends?
ATAHUALPA:Ari. Yes, He taught me how to play Chess. I really got to like it so much that I began to defeat them all, even his seconds in command. So many wise decisions in a combat were being taken on that board. Check mate!!. If He were here, Francisco Pizarro wouldn't have had enough power to carry on with this sentence. Sometimes I think that's why they sent him away and deterr his judgement toward the final veredict in the council of war of "his twenty fours" . Yes, I cried when they announced it. I cried for my Children and Wives. Pizarro told me... promised me solemmly, that He was going to take care of my kids. I asked him to send my remains to QUITO, but he denied fearing my martirization. He told me that my remains would stay in the local church, that they were going to build over the remains of one of my headquartes.
Your majesty this really is very complex, but, we're going to reveal something to you. We shouldn't, because we cannot alter the sentence or veredict. But anyway, you are going to accept their Religion at the last minute and they're going to baptize you with a new name...
Q:They're going to commute your sentence. You are not going to die at the stake. You're going to be garroted by repenting all of your sins to their Catholic supreme being: God.
ATAHUALPA: Well what can I tell you, I will commend to my TAITA INTI and to my ancestors that rest in the KORICANCHA.
Q:What happened with the Gold for your ransom?
ATAHUALPA:Well, according to one of my close servants that they let live to take care of my royal needs, they melted all the gold from the whole empire that was coming from:Koricancha in Cuzco, Moche, Paracas, Nazca, Chavin of Huantar, Pachacamac, from our local lordships like Sipan, Tucume..and the list goes to no end.
If you can remember I offered to these aliens a room full of gold to the highest reach of the tip of my fingers above my shoulder and two other rooms of equal capacity full of silver as ransom for my freedom.
Q:Your majesty, I was asking about the Gold, that never made it
ATAHUALPA:What it was, it will be. That's all I can say. The love of Gold, will cause so many deaths and bring evil. Early in my captivity, I found out that these foreigners loved gold, I saw it in their eyes. Yesterday I was sentenced to die for poligamist, for worshiping my own GOD, for plannig my brother's death and for treason!!..treason?..yeah for attempting to cause upheaval, insubordination and revolt among my people.
Q:Couldn't felipillo help you to scape?
ATAHUALPA:That "SOPAIPAWOOAGUA"(Son of the demon). He raped one of my Mamaconas(concubines)...(slam a door, in rage and spitting) and He knows that I know by now that... He is dead. 'If I ever catch him in another life...'(QUECHUA) . He was spreading the rumor that I was planning my own scape. Now I understand his hatred....(sighs) besides he is from one of the Tumbes communities that my father and I conquered some time ago.
Anything that you think is really regrettable?
ATAHUALPA:I regret( kneels down with less than hope) not listening to my Generals QUISHQUIS and CHALCUCHIMAC. These white Wiracochas were easy prey when they were aiming up the sacred path(callejon). My Army spies told me that their horses were exhausted by being forced to pull all the cannons and weaponry into our sacred highlands. Because the HUAYLAS path is above the upmost point where our Condor can fly(6,000 feet above sea level). My generals told me that they were totally taken by the lack of air and practically my Men were ready to stone them to death, by dropping enourmous rocks from the higher cliffs, and the Spaniards were already fainting away in their intent. But I decided to let them into my Kingdom. I feel in despair and just look into my eyes(red, swollen) You can read despair, impotence and stoicism. Only the stars up above...know why these things happen the way they happen. Feel over this chest and my heart. I'm running out of time... my friend. My life fading away as the clouds upon the Andes(sits on the floor).
Q:Your highness, wise is the man who confronts his own reality. Is really amazing, how you face your destiny.
ATAHUALPA:Thanks, and I have to go now...pajarincamah!!(see you tomorrow)
.
It has been a pleasure... SENOR!(bows)
caxamallca,July 26,1533 4:45a.m.
ATAHUALPA is taken away from his cell hurriedly, and almost painlessly waits for his sentence..all of a suddden father fray VINCENT OF VALVERDE reads in Latin a chapter of the Bible and ask him to accept Christ as his only saviour and repent of all of his sins. "In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit..Amen". And Atahualpa, the last Inca, is put to death by axfixiation, but minutes before, a little indian was allowed to give him a drink called CHICHA(juice from corn), so He wouldn't be thirsty in his "other life". When the local indians found the truth, it was too late to do something. The day of his burial, many of his concubines killed themselves. Others wanted to rest next to the INCA by inflicting themselves mortal wounds. It was the end of the Inca empire as we know it.. .
THE DAY PIZARRO CAPTURED AN EMPIRE AND HIS MONARCH.
