The women of Vilcabamba

Abstract

This essay examines published and unpublished documentary sources about the women who accompanied, inhabited, resisted, and negotiated the existence and legacy of Vilcabamba as an Inca refuge. The actions of the most visible women who operated between the Hispanic and the indigenous worlds, such as the coya or noblewoman Maria Cusi Huarcay, help us reveal lesser known yet important historical figures, tie up loose ends in colonial historiography, and strengthen a series of connections, such as the relationship between mining and women, polygamous alliances, and their conflicts, as well as the internal divisions within this new Inca order.