HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK on 
rawhide articles, and horse trappings from Chongos 
and Huancayelica, while on the opposite side of 
the street an equal number have coil after coil of 
maguey-fiber ropes from Sapallanga. Here also 
are the many sellers of maize and grains. Beyond, 
for a block and a half, sit the vendors of baskets 
and second-hand articles of iron. 
In the Sunday market the changing culture, so 
typical of the Jauja Valley, is clearly marked; the 
native market is rapidly becoming a national 
market. The former system of barter has vir- 
tually ceased to exist, replaced by a money econ- 
omy. Within the last 20 years, according to 
older residents, many native handicrafts have 
disappeared before the flood of manufactured 
articles from the Coast. The Jauja Valley is 
changing toward 20th century world culture; 
here, perhaps, we are afforded a glimpse of the 
future of Highland Peru. 
CHUPACA 
The town of Chupaca is situated 7 miles to the 
west of Huaneayo, across the Mantaro, and on the 
right bank of the tributary Chupaca River. Near 
the junction of these two streams the valley is 
broad and rolling and under intensive cultivation. 
To the west, where the Chupaca River flows past 
the barrio of Pincha, it runs between high, cliff- 
like banks bordered by fields and farms; here 
a narrow, precarious pole bridge spans the 
stream (pl. 11, 6). As the river swings around 
Chupaca, flowing toward its junction with the 
Mantaro, the abrupt banks give way to a broad 
flood plain which slopes gently from the foot of the 
steep escarpment on which the town is built. 
Here there are two additional bridges, one of 
which is sufficiently sturdy to permit the crossing 
of automobiles. The area between the river and 
the town is covered by a patchwork of cultivated 
fields and scattered house groups, divided and 
subdivided by innumerable stone walls, many of 
which were built when the stony fields were first 
cleared. The town itself is almost entirely hidden 
by heavy groves of eucalyptus trees, while hedges 
of maguey and clumps of retama line the roads 
and paths. 
The principal plaza of Chupaca is large and 
spacious, planted with trees, and adorned with 
several monuments. Concrete sidewalks and con- 
crete benches are laid out in geometric order, 
while the streets which flank the square are broad 
and cobblestoned. The most imposing building 
on the plaza is the municipalidad, a large two- 
story structure replete with official crest and a 
large clock situated in the face of a squat tower 
(pl. 11, a). Also located on the plaza are restau- 
rants, shops, the police station, the postal and 
telegraph office, a drug store, and the homes of 
several of the more prominent citizens. A motion 
picture theater is at present in the process of 
construction. Most of the buildings around the 
main square are of two stories with balconies and 
tiled or galvanized-iron roofs. 
Two blocks off the main plaza is a smaller park 
on which face the church and the house of the 
resident priest.” The street which joins these 
two plazas is the commercial street of the town; 
along either side are the shops of shoemakers, 
hat makers, and several small stores where cheap, 
ready-made clothing is sold. Off the principal 
plaza in the opposite direction from the church is 
a third square, an unadorned open area flanked by 
houses, which functions as a sports field and is 
also the site of the Saturday livestock fair (pl. 
11, c.) At the foot of the escarpment on which 
the town is situated is a fourth plaza which, on 
Saturdays, is also a livestock market. 
Although the central area of Chupaca is laid 
out systematically in moderately square blocks, 
at the fringes of the town the transition from 
urban to rural is gradual; the straight cobble- 
stoned streets give way to unpaved, winding lanes, 
and the blocks of houses to puddled adobe com- 
pound walls which enclose houses, corrals, garden 
plots, and fields (pl. 11, d). These in turn become 
more widely separated and their plan less orderly 
as one approaches the outlying barrios. 
Chupaca is well provided with schools. In the 
town proper there are three elementary schools, 
one for boys, one for girls, and one which is 
coeducational; while in the barrios which pertain 
to the town there are four schools for pupils of 
both sexes. In addition, the town has a normal 
school for boys in which are enrolled approxi- 
mately 150 students from several of the central 
Departments. Local school teachers estimate 
that im Chupaca and the barrios at least 60 per- 
68 The town formerly had telephone as well as telegraph connection with 
Huancayo; owing, however, to continued robberies of the wires, the service 
has been discontinued. 
6? House types throughout the Jauja Valley vary but slightly from one 
town to another; for this reason the description of Sicaya houses will serve in 
general for the entire region. 
7 The arrangement of two plazas which adjoin one another diagonally or 
are joined by a short intervening street appears to be characteristic of several 
Jauja Valley towns including, in addition to Chupaca, Sicaya, San Gerénimo, 
and Cajas. 
