Inti Raymi is the most important celebration every year in Cusco. It links ancient Inca civilization with modern Quechua culture and connects Peruvians with their ancestors’ culture. This year, Inti Raymi not only has the distinction of being part of the bicentennial celebration of independence from Spain, it also welcomed Pedro Castillo as the President of the Region of Cusco.

I’ll explain Inti Raymi soon but first I need to explain how Castillo became president of just one region of Peru. In the election between Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori on June 6th, the final tally gave Castillo only 44,058 more votes. If he had been declared president, he would have won with only 50.125%. However, he has still not been declared president. Fujimori has made more than two hundred accusations of fraud in different polling stations around Peru. If she even gets half of those accusations ruled in her favor, she could still win. Peruvians are frustrated with the situation and have been protesting all around the country. I saw two protests on June 19th, one for each candidate. Castillo has a lot of support in Cusco and the protest march in his favor on the central Avenida del Sol was much bigger and louder than the subdued pro-Fujimori rally in the small Plaza de Regocijo.

In classic right v. left demonization politics, Castillo has been painted as an extremist who has contact with the Shining Path and will turn Peru into Cuba or Venezuela. Most of his supporters live in rural areas and care little for the international companies who are so worried about Castillo’s socialist effect on the copper mining industry. Industry leaders however, are quite worried. There are thirty-six copper mining projects currently in progress, with several set to be completed in 2021 or 2022. Whichever one ends up being president will have to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic, the lack of vaccines (currently only 12% of the country has been vaccinated) and some very nervous foreign investors. Part of Fujimori’s campaign has been about Castillo’s inexperience with politics and economy, warning Peruvians that he will will ruin the economy. The Peruvian Nuevo Sol is crashing in value and extreme inflation is not out of the realm of possibility, as President Alan Garcia demonstrated in the 1980s.

Amidst this chaos, the Governor of the Region of Cusco took a stand, inviting Castillo to come to Cusco as the President. “It’s based on 100% of the electoral results, and on this basis we invite him as President Elect,” Governor Jean Paul Benavente announced. 

Inti Raymi was cancelled in 2020, as were all gatherings in Peru. For the bicentennial, Cusco is determined to forge ahead with the celebration, despite Peru having the highest Covid-19 death rate in the world. In Quechua, Inti is the sun and Raymi is a festival or celebration. It is normally a multi-day party with events at the Qoricancha, which used to be the main temple for the sun and at Sacsayhuaman, a giant Inca fortress which looms over the city of Cusco. More events are held at the Plaza de Armas, where the fountain is covered with fake stones to look like an Inca construction, rather than a colonial fountain with swans and tritons. Only the statue of the Inca Pachacutec, facing both the cathedral and Sacsayhuaman, rises above the imitation Inca stonework.

Inti Raymi begins at dawn with a procession into the Plaza de Armas. I arrived at the plaza just after 6am, hoping to get in before the police sealed off the area. Due to the pandemic, Inti Raymi celebrations are not open to the public this year. However, I arrived while the military personnel were taking selfies with the statue of Pachecutec. They were killing time as they waited for the police to seal off the streets leading to the plaza. I chatted with the military for a bit, took photos with them and then asked if I could stay just a bit longer. The colonel said I could have another five minutes, then left to attend to his work. I stayed another fifteen minutes or so, waiting for the sun to rise over the cathedral. I wanted to see the first rays of sun hit the freshly polished statue. While I was waiting, I watched the police and military hurrying around. They didn’t have any more time for selfies. 

I noticed that only one hotel on the plaza had people on the balcony and as soon as I got my photos of Pachacutec in the first rays of sun, I headed directly there. Pretending to be a guest, I made my way upstairs and ordered a coffee to have on the balcony. I was right on the corner where the procession entered the plaza, with a perfect view of the Tahuantinsuyu flag as it was carried into the plaza by dignitaries dressed in full Inca regalia. Next came a platoon of military and another of police. Tahuantinsuyu is the Quechua name for the Incario, which stretched from the city of Pasto in Colombia, through all of Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru to halfway down Chile. Many Peruvian historians dispute the term Inca Empire as the Incario was so vastly different from any of the empires of Europe, Africa or Asia.

The ceremony was on national television, and I could see several drones filming the event, which took place on the steps of the cathedral. They began with a moment of silence for the Peruvians who died of Covid-19. Then, there were speeches, the Peruvian national anthem in Spanish and the Tahuantinsuyu anthem in Quechua. I stayed at the hotel until the last of the military and police had marched out of the plaza. On my way home, I passed the Marriott, where President Sagasti is staying. The place was swarming with security details, waiting for the president to leave for the Hilton, where “President-Elect” Castillo is staying. The rest of the speeches about Inti Raymi will be at the Hilton, rather than at the Qoricancha.

Inti Raymi was first celebrated in the 1430s under the reign of the Inca Pachacutec. It was banned by the Spanish, along with almost everything that was culturally important to the Andean people they colonized. In 1944 Cusco brought Inti Raymi back and since then thousands of Peruvian and international tourists come every year to witness this bond between modern Peruvians and their Inca ancestors. After Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Inti Raymi is the biggest celebration in South America and in a normal year draws thousands of tourists.

In the afternoon I walked up to Sacsayhuaman, only to find every path blocked by police. I would probably have had to get up there around 5am, in the dark, to sneak into Sacsayhuaman and get close to the events of the day. I may try that next year. For today, I had a lovely hike in the hills around Sacsayhuaman where hundreds of Cusqueñians were out with their families. This is the time of year for potato harvest, when families gather in the fields for huatia. Traditionally, after spending the morning harvesting potatoes, families dig an earthen oven and roast fresh potatoes to eat before going home. For people who now live in the city, this tradition has changed to buying potatoes at the market, then going out in the hills and having a picnic while they make huatia.