What the Huaca?

The fight to save Lima's archaeological ruins

Story and photos by Christina Cala and Sara Olstad

In Lima, Peru, there are more than 360 known huacas and some may still be undiscovered. They're scattered throughout the city, hidden on residential streets and sandwiched between small businesses. The huacas are everywhere, and maybe that's why they're in danger of disappearing.


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Huaca \wa.ka\:

Means "sacred" in Quechua, an indigenous Peruvian language, but the term is most commonly used to describe an ancient Peruvian site or object.

}

In Peruvian culture, huaca is a term commonly used to describe archaeological sites, but it's more complex than that. Even though most Peruvians think of a huaca as a tall stone pyramid, the word's definition is actually much broader.

"Huaca is also an adjective. You can be huaca and have the condition, said Jaime Luis Castillo Butters, archaeology professor and Vice Minister of Cultural Patrimony and Cultural Industries. Huaca is the name that we give basically to all remnants of ancient societies and cultures.

Peru is known as the land of the Inca but it's also home to more than 25 earlier cultures, each with its own rituals, traditions and languages. Three of these cultures, the Lima, Wari and Ichma, all left behind huacas in what is now Peru's capital city. These archaeological ruins hold clues to understanding the people who once walked Lima's streets.

"Huaca is a complex name ... The problem is that when we say huaca we focus on the big, the monumental, and we leave behind the small, the humble."

-Luis Jaime Castillo Butters

Though contemporary Peruvians can literally walk by ancient history, many of their ancestors' secrets remain hidden beneath layers of dirt and rock that have formed over time. This is because most huacas aren't fully excavated. Instead they look like mounds of dirt, mostly unguarded and only sometimes fenced.

The huacas are not concentrated in one part of Lima. Rather, huacas can be found across the city. We visited 14 huacas in seven districts.



Some huacas are well preserved while others show signs of destruction.

Huaca El Paraiso, which is widely regarded as the oldest huaca in Lima, dates back to about 4000 B.C. But even that one isn't safe. In July 2013, one of its 12 pyramids was destroyed. Since then, the government has increased security at the site to protect the huaca, but its size makes it difficult to monitor.

The site covers many 50 hectares, making it roughly the size of 95 football fields. Most of the site is in what is called a "basural" stage in Spanish, meaning it has not been excavated.

Huaca El Paraiso, which translates to paradise, is usually identified by the one excavated pyramid in the front of the complex. The other 11 pyramids are hidden under mounds of dirt and look more like hills than sacred archaeological ruins.
El Paraiso has a small guard house at the main entrance of the complex as well as a stone house closer to the main pyramid. Even so, much of the complex remains unguarded because of its size.

Like El Paraiso, a majority of Lima's huacas remain unexcavated due to lack of government funding. Even if the government had the resources to protect them, a majority of Lima's huacas are located on land that is privately owned.

According to statistics from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, 60 percent of the huacas in Lima are classified as threatened. Details about the precise condition of these approximately 220 endangered huacas are largely unknown. These unsecure sites lack protective fencing, police supervision and other basic security features.




Some of the difficulties of protecting the huacas can be explained by three main issues.

Land

  • Rapidly expanding population restricted by geographical features
  • Confusion over who owns the huacas and who is responsible for their care

    • Money

  • Lack of government money for security and development
  • Question as whether the huaca is worth funding over other government services

    • Education

  • Failure to include history of the huacas in school curriculum
  • Disconnect with huacas as part of Peruvian cultural identity

    • These problems interact with one another across the city.

    Leck Morales Molano is a security guard at the Mateo Salado archaeological complex. He grew up near the ruins and remembers biking on the site before excavations began in 2007. To him and his friends, the huaca simply looked like a good spot for mountain biking. Since beginning his position, however, he's changed his mind and has begun to see the value of the place.

    He's seen that shift in his community as well as more neighborhood residents have come for free tours and programs such as art classes and clown performances. This interaction and awareness has also translated into safer evenings for Morales. While people used to sneak in and do drugs at the huaca they have stopped coming for the most part now that there is an increased security presence.

    The Peruvian Ministry of Culture started restoring Mateo Salado in 2007. Since then, three of the site's five pyramids have been restored. However, the Ministry of Culture has said that the restoration project will not affect the people who had previously invaded the site and built homes there. They will be allowed to keep their housing structures for the time being.
    Leck Morales Molano, 29, has been a security guard at the San Mateo archaeological complex for the past seven years. Instead of fighting to keep trespassers out of the huaca, he and other guards have had to shift their focus to stray animals that can scratch the adobe.

    Mateo Salado isn't the only huaca where squatters currently reside.

    Sonia Macedo Oliviera has been living at Huaca de Armatambo for 36 years.

    "I moved here out of necessity," she said of her decision to create a makeshift home next to the ruins. "I'm a warrior woman and I've been mother and father for my kids."

    Macedo is a single mother who makes a living by collecting and selling recyclable products. Her home is set up inside the protective fence that surrounds the huaca. Oliviera lives with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren as well as a group of chickens that provide her family with eggs. She pays her neighbors across the street for illegal use of their electricity and water.

    “I don’t disrespect anyone,” said Sonia Macedo Oliviera, 56, who is called an ‘invasor,” or invader because she is a squatter. “Other invaders threw trash here. I have sweeped.” Oliviera maintains that she hasn’t damaged the huaca even though much of her home is up against the ruins. "Now that it's clean, people say it's a huaca but not before."
    Macedo has lived near Huaca el Armatambo since before it was fenced. “I’m a humble person. I don’t have anything good,” she said. Over the years she’s collected porcelain figurines, a television, a satellite dish, books, a bed and more to furnish her home.

    Not all huacas are in this state of disarray. Huaca Santa Catalina is one site that is flourishing after the Ministry of Culture restored and repaired work done in the 1970s.

    In addition to guided tours and visiting hours for the community, the huaca is home to various classes and workshops on topics such as archaeology, theater, and zapateo, a traditional Afro-Peruvian dance. They also teach the cajon to students like Cesar, 12, who regularly attends classes.

    "It is like cultural patrimony," he said. "It's like Machu Picchu."

    Protecting the huacas takes more than just putting up fences and hiring security guards. It takes changing people's perceptions and attitudes.

    "We have so much archaeological patrimony now,” said Julia Thays, a theater class instructor at Huaca Santa Catalina. But it won't be around forever unless people take notice. "We have to fight day to day."