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Chilche (c. 1497–1586) was a kuraka of the Cañari tribe. He was a courtier of Inca emperor Huayna Capac, surviving the civil war between his successor Huáscar and Atahualpa before allying with Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro. He converted to Christianity under the name of Francisco Zaraunanta Chilche and became Pizarro's leading native supporter, eventually becoming governor of the valley of Yucay. Although obscure in modern historiography, he has been deemed one of the most powerful kuraka of Peruvian history.

Early life

According to Mestizo chronicler Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, who treated him personally, Chilche became a page for Huayna Capac thanks to his rank as a prince of the Cañari. Although he kept his royal status during the reign of Emperor Atahualpa, he seems to have secretly opposed him, as he quickly pledged himself to Francisco Pizarro in 1533 after Atahualpa's capture in Cajamarca. Chilche was the leader of a faction of Cañari and Chachapoya noblemen within the Cusco nobility, and offered their services to the conquistador. The ties between Pizarro and fellow Cañari chieftain Vilchumlay helped their alliance.

Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire

Chilche acted as a general of Indian auxiliaries in Pizarro's composite army. He faced personally the Atahualpist general Chalcuchima, whom Chilche defeated and forced to retreat in Jauja.

His most distinguished moment came during the 1536 siege of Cusco by the revolted Inca army of Manco Inca, of whom Chilche had been a former friend. One of Manco's captains approached the city's walls to challenge the defenders to a duel of champions, to which Chilche asked and obtained permission from Hernando Pizarro to accept the challenge. He armed himself with a chuqui (lance) and a champí (an axe-bladed mace) and fought the Inca, eventually killing him and taking his head as a trophy. The Spanish acclaimed Chilche for the victory, while the Inca considered it a bad omen due to the Cañari having been previously an ethnicity despised under Inca rule. The siege was later lifted by reinforcements by Diego de Almagro.

His role in Pizarro's entourage was instrumental to gain the loyalty of the majority of the Cañari resident in Cusco, who except by Chilche's aides had declined to pick a side in order to wait to see which would take the advantage during the conquest. For his political and military prowess, Chilche was rewarded with the rich valley of Yucay, replacing the former Atahualpist governor, Huallpa Túpac. Francisco Pizarro and his mestizo son Gonzalo retained the titular ownership of the valley, but they passed its management to Chilche, making him de facto one of the most powerful men in the Inca Empire under Spanish rule.

Governor of Yucay

In 1548, Chilche was sued by García Quispi Capi, a descendant of the deposed Huallpa Túpac. The Cañari was forced to hand over lordship over the local aillu while retaining the mitma and the job of governor, but he later gathered an army and attacked García, recovering by force everything he had given away. This attracted complaints from other native landowners and from the very Spanish administration, which went largely unaddressed due to his influence. Chilche was at the peak of a practically feudal network of influence, attracting many native noblemen as clients and receiving women from their families as concubines in order to secure their deals. Only the progressive regularization of the Spanish rule would make his power gradually decline, although he retained a lot of it thanks to his relationship with the Pizarro family.

During the native parade of Corpus Christy in June 1555, Chilche featured a notorious incident evidencing the political tensions between Inca and Cañari factions. He arrived in a litter decorated with scenes of the Spanish conquest, after which he stripped down to his loincloth in warlike fashion and showed the crowd the shrunken head of the Inca killed in 1537. The gesture was clearly meant to glorify his role in the conquest and to offend the present Inca, causing that four of them attacked him and a fracas erupted. When the brawl was broken up, the teniente de corregidor Juan Luis de Monjaraz reprimanded Chilche for the scandal and confiscated the head.

In 1558, Sayri Túpac was installed as new kuraka of Yucay as a consequence of political changes in the Spanish crown, but he died suddenly, after which Chilche was accused of poisoning him to recover his domains. He spent one year in prison between trials, but was freed as no evidence of the crime was found, although Garcilaso and Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala believed he was guilty. Chilche then forced the late Sayri's favorite concubine, Inés Coya, to marry him. This chapter of his life was followed by a last military tenure against the rebel Túpac Amaru as captain general of the Indian auxiliaries. Chilche died in 1586, after which his son Hernando Guatanaula, the first of eight siblings, inherited Yucay.

References

1. ^ Wachtel, Nathan (2017). Sociedad e ideología: Ensayos de historia y antropología andinas. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. ISBN 9789972516702.
2. ^ Arana Bustamante, L. (2009) Un incidente en la vida de Francisco Chilche, kuraka del valle de Yucay (1555). Investigaciones sociales, Vol.13 N°23, pp.171-186
3. Caballero Ares, J. (2024). Los indios conquistadores aliados del Perú: el caso de don Francisco Chilche Cañar, cacique, alcalde y capitán del rey. Revista de Historia Militar, I extraordinario de 2024, pp. 83-154. ISSN: 0482-5748
4. Rostworowski, María (2016). Mujer y poder en los Andes coloniales. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. ISBN 9789972515989.

• 1490s births
• 1586 deaths
• Inca Empire people
• Spanish Indian auxiliaries