HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK 21 
row gage railway. To a lesser extent, Castro- 
virreina, connected with Pisco on the Coast by 
automobile road, tends to act as market center for 
the southern part of the Department. Other 
than mineral products (gold, silver, copper, 
mercury, and tungsten) the chief exports of the 
Department are livestock and dried meat (prin- 
cipally sheep, goats, and llamas), wool (llama, 
alpaca, sheep), and agricultural products (po- 
tatoes, barley, and wheat). 
SANTA BARBARA 
In the cold puna country, some 1,500 feet higher 
than the city of Huancavelica, the village of 
Santa Barbara is situated at an altitude of 13,800 
feet. This village is located near the site of the 
mercury mine of the same name, which is at 
present being worked on a smull scale, although 
it was formerly the most famous Colonial mine 
in the Huancavelica region.” Santa Barbara is 
isolated and relatively inaccessible in spite of the 
fact that it is situated only about 2 miles due 
south in a direct line from Huancavelica. The 
nearby mine is connected with Huancavelica, 
some 12 miles distant, by a tortuous automobile 
road, but the villagers usually travel to the city 
down a steep and rocky mountain trail. 
Constructed within a little hollow and sur- 
rounded by steep, barren mountains, the houses 
of the village straggle down a hillside to the single 
plaza, an undecorated grass-grown square (pl. 4, 
a,b). Here are located the village’s few public 
buildings. On one side is the church and a small, 
one-room jail used only for the temporary deten- 
tion of lawbreakers; at one end of the plaza is the 
school." Occupying the other end and side of 
the square are two of the village’s three tiendas 
or shops, and several houses belonging to the 
leading Mestizo citizens. The streets which 
enter the plaza are narrow and crooked, neither 
intended for nor used by wheeled vehicles. 
Electricity and telegraph communication with 
Huancavelica are lacking; the village’s supply of 
drinking water comes from nearby springs. 
Santa Barbara, which is ranked as a comunidad 
(community) in the administrative hierarchy, is 
an annex of Huancavelica. Although the com- 
munity has an estimated population of 700, only 
37 Quijada Jara, 1944, p. 13. This book contains descriptions of miscella- 
neous fiestas, customs, beliefs, and folk tales of the Huancavelica region, 
38 In this school, for boys only, there were 53 students enrolled during 1944. 
There is no school for girls. 
some 100 inhabitants reside permanently in the 
town proper, the remainder living in scattered 
house groups or caserios in the punas, on the hill- 
sides, and in the valley below. 
It is probable that at least 90 percent of the pop- 
ulation is Indian, and though Quechua is the 
language of the community, a few of the men 
speak some Spanish; the few Mestizos speak 
Spanish in addition to Quechua.” 
Within the village the Mestizos occupy the 
three principal political offices of teniente goberna- 
dor (deputy governor), agente municipal (munici- 
pal agent), and jwez de paz (justice of the peace). 
In the outlying districts there are seven lesser 
administrative officials, collectively termed va- 
rayoc, who carry staffs as insignia of office. Of 
the seven, all of whom are Indians, one is alcalde 
(mayor), one is regidor (alderman), and five are 
alguaciles (constables). Two other positions of 
influence in the village are held by Mestizos. The 
one school teacher is a Mestizo from Huanca- 
velica, while a Mestiza operates one of the three 
stores; the two remaining small shops are kept 
by Indian women.*! Since there is no priest in 
Santa Barbara, an Indian who knows some chants 
and prayers, as well as miscellaneous elements of 
Roman Catholic ritual, acts as sacristan of the 
church. 
Class distinctions are clearly reflected in dress. 
The school teacher wears European-type clothing 
of national manufacture, and shoes; Mestizas of 
the town wear full skirts, blouses, and shawls of 
manufactured materials, broad-brimmed straw 
hats, and shoes. Indian men of the village wear 
homespun woolen trousers tucked into calf-length 
knitted wool stockings, and hide slipper-sandals 
(yanqui); their shirts, vests, and jackets, cut along 
European lines, are also of woolen homespun, as 
are thei scarves. Native-woven belts, short 
striped ponchos, and native-made felt hats com- 
plete the costume (pl. 4, ec). Indian women dress 
themselves in homespun jackets, blouses, and full 
39 In the neighboring village of Huaylacucho (population approximately 
500), there are no Mestizo residents. Although resembling Santa Barbara 
closely in its material culture, organization, and general way of life, this 
village is laid out without coherent plan, has no public buildings except for 
a small church, and no stores (pl.6, a). The inhabitants are Quechua Indians 
who speak virtually no Spanish. 
40 Varayoc, a bastard Spanish-Quechua translation of the Spanish ‘‘envara- 
do” (“endowed with staff of office’), stems from ‘‘vara,’”’ or staff; it means 
“with staff.” For a discussion of the office of varayoc in Huancavelica De- 
partment, see Quijada Jara, 1944, pp. 99-105. 
41 It must be remembered that in the Highlands of Peru, as elsewhere in 
Latin America, the keeping of a shop, regardless of how poorly it is stocked, 
enhances the owner’s prestige and tends to give him a superior status in the 
community. 
