HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF 
tion of the Province of Los Chocorvos, for exampie, 
was divided according to age and status into 
several groups including tributary Indians, mar- 
ried persons, unmarried persons, old men and 
women exempt from paying tribute, widows and 
unmarried women, and children and boys under 
14 years of age. In this Province the Indians 
were divided into two parcialidades, or territories, 
each governed by an Indian cacique (leader) and 
his subordinates. The jurisdiction of the cacique 
over the Indians consisted in obliging them to pre- 
sent themselves for their mita service and to pay 
their tribute. Each parcialidad had a treasury 
in which the funds of the community were de- 
posited, and from which the salaries of the curates, 
the corregidor (magistrate), the Indian caciques, 
the encomenderos, the shepherds of the commun- 
ity’s flocks, and tribute were paid (Vazquez de 
Espinosa, 1942, pp. 534-536). 
The hopes for the future which sustained the 
Colonial miners of early 17th-century Castro- 
virreina seem never to have materialized; indeed 
the present-day town has only begun to prosper 
as a consequence of the recently opened highway 
to Pisco on the Coast. Formerly the trip to the 
Coastal valleys required 3 or 4 days of difficult 
travel down the steep and rugged canyon of the 
Pisco River, and goods were transported by 
burros or llamas. Today trucks go back and 
forth regularly, and the life of the town is domi- 
nated by the highway. 
Castrovirreina is situated on the edge of the 
puna zone neav the headwaters of the Pisco 
River at an elevation of approximately 13,000 
feet. Barren, stony, grass-covered mountains 
flank the valley on each side, and scattered fields 
of stunted barley give evidence that this region 
represents the upper limits of agriculture. As in 
the day of V4zquez de Espinosa, the town con- 
sists of a main street, the highway, along which 
are ranged two lines of houses (pl. 6, 6). The 
majority of the buildings, most of which are con- 
structed of adobe bricks or of puddled adobe, 
are of one story and have thatched or tiled roofs. 
A few of the more recent structures are roofed 
with galvanized iron. The town is drab and 
squalid, and its appearance has not been improved 
by the serious fire which, in 1944, is said to have 
destroyed about 40 percent of the houses. A 
small church, now in ruins, stands at the upper 
end of the town, while the new church, an unlovely 
structure of puddled adobe with an iron roof, is 
701701473 
CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK 20 
situated at the lower edge. There are two schools, 
one for boys and another for girls, each of which 
is attended by three teachers.” In addition, a 
school of mines (Escuela Minera de San José) 
which has an enrollment of some 75 students, 
most of whom are natives of the region, is located 
about 134 miles distant from the town. 
Today there is no plaza or fixed market; articles 
of food, clothing, and general merchandise are 
hauled up from the Coast in trucks and sold in the 
many shops which line the main street. These 
shops do a lively business, although many shop- 
keepers complain of the competition offered by 
the general stores of the neighboring mining com- 
panies which buy goods in quantity and sell at 
cost. Nearly all of the stores are operated by 
Mestizos, many of whom are from Huancavelica 
or from the Coast. Because of the constant truck 
traffic, the town has a gasoline station, a small 
hotel, and several eating places. 
The water system of the town is a mountain 
stream which flows behind the main street through 
an open, stone-lined channel. Owing to the lack 
of sufficient water power, the electric system is 
inadequate and there is no motion picture theater. 
The population of the town of Castrovirreina 
numbers approximately 1,000, while the District, 
of which it is the capital, has some 2,500 inhabi- 
tants. Actually it is difficult to calculate the 
population of the town in exact terms, since many 
Indians who live in it for a part of the year also 
own small farms and estancias in the surrounding 
punas to which they go from time to time to tend 
their flocks and to harvest their crops. It appears 
certain, however, that most of those persons of the 
District who are classed as Mestizo or White live 
in the town proper, and the way of life of the town 
is clearly Mestizo rather than Indian.” Owing 
to the proximity of the Spanish-speaking Coastal 
valleys, and to the frequent trading trips between 
Coast and Sierra, Spanish is the language of the 
town although many of the Mestizos of Castrovir- 
reina also speak some Quechua. Spanish is also 
spoken as a second language by many of the 
Indians of the outlying regions of the District. 
The degree of culture change and mestizaje to 
which the Castrovirreina region has been sub- 
47 At present some 150 boys and 115 girls are enrolled in these schools. 
48 According to the 1940 Peruvian census, the District of Castrovirreina has 
2,516 inhabitants, of whom 942 are classed as Whites and Mestizos while 1,568 
are Indians (Extracto Estadistico del Pert, 1940, table 2, p. 35). 
49 It should be noted that at the time when the survey was being made 
(April 1945), most of the Indian residents of Castrovirreina were away at 
their estancias harvesting the potato crop. 
