16 th -century colonial Peru
Catholic as well as the Incan ancestors. Despite the efforts of Santo Tomás, the Spanish religious forces struggled to convert and conceptually unify the first generation of Incans: with language barriers, the ancestral provocations and difficulties in accessing rural populations, success in influencing Incan society religiously was limited. While the existence of Catholicism was generally acknowledged by Andeans, loyalties remained mostly pledged to Incan gods. Nevertheless, while the Catholics had struggled with their conversion attempts, Incan and Andean dissatisfaction with attempts over religious indoctrination provoked the Taki Onqoy movement, the largest organized religious resistance to Spanish colonial rule in Peruvian history. Partially ignited by the Vilcabamba government (unofficial Incan government in exile), Incan and Andean people allied in protest against the arrival of Catholicism and the spread of Spanish culture. A letter from Guerrero in 1564 (a priest based in Ayacucho, Peru), sent to Luis de Olvera, the vicar of Parinacochas, expressed horror of Inca idolatry worship accompanied with ‘ trance-like dancing and chanting ’ calling for a return to the Inca religion. The movement’s popularity accelerated with reports of the same sensation in the towns of Huancaraylla, Huamanquiquia, and Sacsamarca, as 8,000 reported cases were documented across the region. Massive gatherings were held as Andeans proved their loyalty to the movement by bringing the takiongos (leaders of movement) food, drink and livestock to carry out traditional sacrificial practices, as violence was threatened against symbols of Catholicism and those who had converted to Christianity. However, despite a period of such rapid growth in support for Taki Onqoy , its popularity began to decline towards the late 1560s. After the deployment of Spanish military and religious authorities, mass gatherings were made impossible, takiongos were arrested and executed in swift succession, and the unequipped Andeans had to concede. Without proper organization and support, the movement struggled to grow beyond its regional margins, exacerbated by the Incan Vilcabamba government’ s inability to communicate with rebels with heightened Spanish monitoring. Although the Incan resistance was defeated, Taki Onqoy ’s contribution to understanding Andean attitudes towards Catholicism is vital to understanding critical weaknesses in the Spanish control and influence over Peru. Religious authorities proved incompetent between 1532-1572, struggling to convert Andeans into genuine Catholics, riddled with terrible organization in their preaching. The Catholic forces proved their utter dependence on military force to ensure their influence and exert authority, showing that in religious matters the Spanish were unable to control Incan society. Whereas the Spaniards were devoid of great successes in religious control from 1532-1572, Spanish forces witnessed substantial success in influencing Incan society via the Hispanicization of Andeans in art, architecture and tradition. Shortly after the colonization of Cuzco in 1533, European artists started to arrive in the newly founded Viceroyalty, with the high demand of Catholic art to fill the new Spanish settlements and churches, which replaced Incan temples. A rtists sought to ‘enlighten’ Andeans with renaissance techniques, as Juan Inigo de Loyola displayed following his arrival in 1545, taking in indigenous apprentices for ‘ Spanish Mannerism ’ . Furthermore, Bernardo Bitti, a hugely influential Italian painter also arrived in the Viceroyalty of Peru, initially working in Lima in the early 1570s before arriving in Cuzco some years later, where he would collaborate with artists such as Pedro de Vargas, recreating the European mannerist style in Cuzco. The grandiose decoration existing throughout the Viceroyalty did not only serve to Hispanicize the local population as Incan art techniques were forced out of circulation in cities, but established the Spanish as victorious over the Inca culturally. One
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