The Inkarri’s myth in quechua songs

Abstract

The Inkarri myth narrates the return of the dead Inca, whose head is growing under the ground. When it is complete it will return. This myth in literature has been represented in various genres: theater, narrative, poetry, in songs in both Quechua and Spanish. In some cases, it is represented expressly and in others, subtextually, but it maintains the idea of meeting the parties and returning to change the world. The purpose of this article is to analyze, in the Quechua songs, how the death of the Inca and the myth of Inkarri are invoked in moments of great crisis that the history of the Quechua people is going through. For this we use the category of pachakutiy (change of times and space) and the Andean conception of death that declares that one does not die, but that it is split or sown to continue living. We organize the article in three parts: introduction, gestation of the myth and analysis of the Quechua songs. Through this we will demonstrate the full validity of the Inkarri myth in the memory of the people and its adaptation to socio-cultu- ral processes.