0ooooh looked at that interesting example of Mestizo culture....

I don´t have much time to write so I´ll be brief. Speaking of brief.... I have a briefing for my four day trek to Machu Picchu in 20 minutes! My biggest fear is that the room is going to be filled with middle aged over weight Americans looking for a good time. We´ll see. Either way, I'm excited.

It was a big, interesting day. Three cultural sites in Cusco in one crazy day: Museo de Inka, Cathedral de Cusco, and Qorikancha.

Museo de Inca= museum with artifacts of Inca and pre-Inca civilizations.

Cathedral de Cusco= huge Catholic cathedral in the center of town, filled with incredible altars, paintings, baroque archectecture, and a whole lot of Jesus and Virgen Mary.

Qorikancha= the craziest! From the outside it looks like a huge Catholic (in this case Dominic church), but inside it´s really a museum about Inca culture and weirdly also a Catholic church! Before the Spanish arrived, Qorikancha (temple of the Sun) was a sacred temple for the Incas. Francisco Pizzaro thought it might make a nice colonial manor and bequethed it to his little brother Juan. When Juan died he left it to the Dominicans who through a whole lot of Spanish Boroque archectecture right on top of the Incas´ construction. And then in the seventies after a big earthquake, a lot of the Spanish archectecture fell down to reveal 100% durable Incan engineering. The Peruvian government then made it into a funky museum chock full of exhibits explaining the Incas´ building, Catholic paintings, Incan artifacts, and a Spanish style courtyard and fountain in the middle of it all. Colonialism is crazy!

But the thing I learned at all three sites was how Andean artists resisted the Spanish hegemony in their art work. Several local painters were trained in European styles, but they infused all their work with local symbols and secret meanings (They were called the Cusco school). Some of my favorite examples:
- A painting of the Last Supper in which Jesus and friends are chowing on cuy (guinea pig)
- An image of Jesus in which his upper body is masculine and his lower body feminine, which reflects an Andean conception of their gods having both feminine and masculine parts.
- Several Virgen Marys with half moon crown, a reference to the Andean moon Goddess Mother.

I'm out of time. I hope you all are well. I can't believe I'm going to Machu Picchu tomorrow.