KALEIDOSCOPIC LA PAZ: CITY OF THE CLOUDS 



133 



of the President and his Cab- 

 inet and the headquarters of 

 the army. Before the Euro- 

 peans came the city was 

 known as Chuquiapu, * which 

 means "the place of gold" in 

 the Aymara tongue, and upon 

 the site of the ancient town 

 ^'Nuestra Senora de La Paz" 

 (Our Lady of the Peace) was 

 founded by the Spaniards in 

 1545. After the final victory 

 of independence, in 1824, the 

 name was changed to "La Paz 

 de Ayacucho" (the Peace of 

 Ayacucho) in honor of the 

 famous battle-ground. 



There is a deep significance 

 in this application of the name 

 of Ayacucho, reverenced by 

 all South Americans as the 

 place where the Spaniards met 

 their Waterloo, for La Paz can 

 now claim both Alpha and 

 Omega. It was in "Nuestra 

 Senora de La Paz," in the 

 year 1809, that the first cry 

 for liberty was sounded in the 

 Southern republics. 



Remote from the seat of 

 Spanish authority, the spirit of 

 independence had been fostered in this 

 country, then known as Alto, or Upper, 

 Peru. Here the people had suffered most 

 from the cruel tnita and many other 

 forms of tyranny. The first proclaimed 

 Declaration of Independence ran: "In 

 the noble and valorous city of Our Lady 

 of the Peace, at 8 o'clock at night, on this 

 1 6th of July, 1809, assembled in the salon 

 of the Cabildo, the undersigned, in the 

 name of the people, declare and swear to 

 defend with their blood and fortune the 

 independence of the country." 



It was in the Plaza Murillo, opposite 

 our windows, that one of the great sign- 

 ers of this declaration was led to the 

 scaffold the following year. Yet in the 

 prophecy uttered in his farewell, "The 

 torch which I have lighted shall never 

 be extinguished," Pedro Domingo Mu- 

 rillo voiced a great truth. Recalling the 

 twenty flags of the Latin- American re- 



CHOLA GIRL IN PARK : LA PAZ 



publics, one realizes that he and his fel- 

 low-patriots did not die in vain. 



To the traveler the interest and charm 

 of a city like La Paz lies not only in 

 its ever-changing scenes, for every street, 

 every other building, has its history. I 

 never entered the old court-yard of our 

 hotel at twilight without picturing scenes 

 quite as attractive and far richer than 

 those of today. From the balconies above 

 I seemed to see fair, bejeweled ladies, 

 robed in satin brocade, with great tor- 

 toise-shell combs crowning their heads, 

 looking down, as mounted cavaliers rode 

 gaily into the patio, resplendent in armor, 

 silver trappings on saddle and bridle. 

 Those were indeed picturesque days, 

 under the vice-royalty ; and sometimes, in 

 the very early morning, when the city 

 was still asleep, I walked up the old 

 highway leading to the heights. Failing 

 to look back at the tiled roofs, I quite 



