HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK 19 
fact. There is also a notable movement of people 
from the Highland valleys to the Coast and of 
others from the punas and other backward areas 
into the valleys. 
Within the Central Sierra region proper, im- 
proved means of communication have created 
marked changes. Before roads were built to it, 
Ayacucho was quite literally squeezed to death 
between two railway terminals, Huancayo and 
Cuzco, to neither of which did it have access. In 
general most towns remote from the railways and 
roads have changed remarkably little. Huancayo, 
on the other hand, was converted almost over- 
night, from a small native market town into a 
thriving commercial city; the system of barter 
which formerly prevailed in the surrounding 
32 This phenomenon will be dealt with in some detail in the forthcoming 
report on the Jauja Valley town of Sicaya by Tschopik, H., Jr., Muelle J., 
and Escobar, G. 
HUANCAVELICA 
HUANCAVELICA 
The most important event by far in the post- 
Conquest history of Huancavelica, an event which 
in fact led to the founding of the city and largely 
determined the lines along which the surrounding 
region subsequently developed, was the discovery 
during the late 16th century of rich, mercury- 
bearing ores in the high, bleak mountains of the 
upper Huancavelica River.** The discovery of 
these mercury mines was, indeed, of such outstand- 
ing importance—not only for Huancavelica but 
for all Colonial Peru—that Means wrote as fol- 
lows: “The mercury mines at Huancavelica were 
the prime source of both Royal and private wealth 
in Peru; for, without the mercury produced there, 
the silver mines at Potosi and elsewhere could not 
be worked profitably . . .”’ (Means, 1932, p. 189). 
Vazquez de Espmosa, who visited the city some 
45 years after its founding in 1572—at which time 
it was called Villarica de Oropesa—has left us a 
vivid description of the discovery of quicksilver 
and of this Colonial mining town at the height of 
its boom. He states (1942, pp. 538-539) that 
although the Indians had at an earlier date mined 
the cinnabar ore to use as red pigment for paint, 
they made no further use of it because they were 
33 For a summary account of the outstanding events in the history of 
Huancavelica Department, see Gavilan, 1941, pp. 18-32. 
towns has today been almost entirely replaced by 
a money economy. Cerro de Pasco, which began 
its existence as a mining camp, is now the com- 
mercial center for a vast area of the puna region. 
The Jauja Valley towns, which were once largely 
self-sufficient communities, now depend upon 
many manufactured articles from the outside and, 
in addition, produce cash crops for the Lima 
market. As a consequence, local markets and 
fairs have decreased in importance, and trains 
and trucks have made the arrieros obsolete in 
many regions. Increased facilities for travel are 
tending to break down local institutions and to 
obliterate local differences in custom. In the 
areas most closely affected by the railway and by 
the principal roads, the processes of acculturation 
have been enormously stepped up in recent times, 
and the inhabitants of these regions are at present 
experiencing rapid culture change. 
DEPARTMENT 
ignorant of the properties of mercury.** He con- 
tinues: 
The Spaniards also never arrived at this realization for 
a long time, not until 1567, when Licentiate Lope Garcia de 
Castro had succeeded the Conde de Nieva after his death, 
as Governor. A Portuguese named Enrrique Garces, 
who was an expert in such matters, saw this red ore, or 
vermilion, and recognized it and knowing that it was 
always associated with quicksilver, went up to the mines 
with this idea, tested the ore and got quicksilver from his 
assay. That was how quicksilver was discovered here; 
immediately there was a rush from many quarters to ex- 
ploit it for export to Mexico, where they used quicksilver 
in all their mining processes (for up to that time the 
process was not known in Pert) and many got rich from 
it; and at the report of such wealth, many flocked in from 
all sides [Vazquez de Espinosa, 1942, p. 539]. 
And so at the rumor of the rich deposits of mereury in 
the days of Don Francisco de Toledo, in the years 1570 
and 1571, they started the construction of the town of 
Huancavalica de Oropesa in a pleasant valley at the foot 
of the range. It will contain 400 Spanish residents, as 
well as many temporary shops of dealers in merchandise 
and groceries, heads of trading houses, and transients, for 
the town has a lively commerce. It has a parish church 
with vicar and curate, a Dominican convent, and a 
Royal Hospital under the Brethren of San Juan de Didés 
for the care of the sick, especially Indians on the range; 
it has a chaplain with a salary of 800 assay pesos con- 
tributed by His Majesty; he is curate of the parish of 
San Sebastiin de Indios, for the Indians who have come 
to work in the mines and who have settled down there. 
4 He explains elsewhere (ibid., pp. 530-531) that the Spaniards used mer- 
cury in the refining of silver ore, and gives a detailed description of the process. 
