It is still repeated in our midst that this Cusqueñan celebration was instituted by the Virrey Francisco de Toledo in 1572. This mistake was originated by friar Francisco Maria Norato in his book “The Colonial Cusco and the Father Diego de Haro”, published in 1935. Dr Uriel Garcia took the statement for fact, and repeated it in an article published on the Cusquenian Corpus Christi in 1938. From then onwards, this affirmation is repeated time and again, without greater analysis.

In 1572 Toledo decreed that the celebration should be observed in each province, and at the same time regulated the festivity, detailing how it had to be organized, imposing the participation of unions and other parts of the population.

The inca Garcilaso de la Vega tells that the first celebration of the Corpus Christi in Cusco was in 1550, suggesting in addition that it may have begun as early as 1547. He amusingly and ironically comments events that happened in the processions of the later years, especially in the eighth procession of 1554. In that opportunity there was confrontation between groups of Incas with Ecuadorian Canari Indians, which almost finished in a generalized pitched battle. The excesses that the Corpus Christi celebration reached are apparent with the representation of “inventions”, theatrical stagings reproducing the glories of the Incas, “gentlemen who were earth”, exhibitions of dances of the different “nations”, accompanied with music by the different ethnic groups that preserved their identity, pleased to publicly show the symbols of their individual cultural belonging.

It is also stated that the Inca INTI RAYMI was replaced by the Corpus Christi. This subject would merit more detailed research. It is evident that the time that corresponds to the month of June of the European calendar, around the winter solstice, in Inca times like that of Garcilaso de la Vega, was a sacred time in the Tawantinsuyu, in which one of the important celebrations of the Inca’s ritual calendar was performed. The Corpus Christi imposed itself in that time, replacing celebrations of the Inca religion.

In the Corpus Christi of 2005 we celebrated 455 years of uninterrupted observance of the procession of the Cusqueñan Corpus Christi, of the impressive parade of the images of virgins and saints, following the main sacred route of Cusco.

In this lapse of time many changes have taken place. It is enough to examine the paintings of the so called “Corpus of Santa Ana”, painted in the XVII century. They provide the best visual reconnaissance available of a colonial religious celebration. This is unique in its kind, being the Cusqueñan Corpus Christi.

They show the ostentatious participation and presence of the noble Incas, who exhibit themselves proudly showing the shining standards of their royalty. Other paintings of popular and anonymous authors of the XVIII century also provide excellent images of the procession. By the XX century there is beautiful photography, such as that taken by the artists Chani, Chacón, Horacio Ochoa and especially, the maestro Martin Chambi. .

The procession has changed significantly. Several figures that appear in colonial paintings do not participate nowadays, such as San Ignacio de Loyola or Santa Rosa de Lima. The andas have been modified, especially in their decoration, which is fitted to the aesthetic trends of the moment. The arcs, altars and other adjustments relating to the ephemeral religious architecture of the European baroque are andinized, becoming a more adjusted expression of the Cusqueñan spirit, as is clearly indicated by the art historian Jorge Bernales Ballesteros.

These changes are an essential part of the “celebration of the cuzqueños”, as this celebration was named in a 1990 publication. They are proof of their vitality, of the population’s sentiment, its search for self-improvement, following what its culture dictates, to do it “their way”, without diktats, impositions, and with fewer attempts to regulate them.

Images from nine parishes participate in the procession. Eight are Indian parishes, created in Cusco as of the XVI century; the ninth corresponds to the Spaniards. Those of the Indians are San Pedro, Santiago, San Cristóbal, Santa Ana, San Blas, Bethlehem, San Sebastian and San Jeronimo, corresponding to the Inca Cusqueñan districts of Chakilchaka, Qolqanpata, Qarmenqa, Toqokachi, Sañu, Wama. The ninth is the Matriz, el Triunfo or Sagrario – indeed it carries these three names. The images that have been added in late years go with the parishes, validating their participation in the great celebration of Andean Catholicism.

It is said that in first Cusqueñan Corpus Christi 117 images participated, coming from such distant places as Tucumán. This affirmation is not credible. It is part of the local mythology that surrounds the Corpus. Fourteen have been accredited, originating from the eight parishes of Indians and the one of the Spaniards, number that has not varied since at least the XIX century. The number is constant in spite of new parishes having been created in the city responding to the urban growth of the last fifty years.

The celebration of the Corpus Christi has become the town’s main popular celebration, equalled only by the cult of the Lord of Tremors, the Taytacha Temblores, which gathers an immense multitude for the moment of the blessing that concludes the procession performed on Easter Monday. Another highly concurred celebration is the cult of the Holy Cross, with the evening-watch that begins on the night of May 2nd and continues until after the Sunday of Pentecost.

There are hundreds of participants in the Corpus Christi ceremonies, observing a plethora of rituals during the nine days that it lasts in the historical centre of the town, then followed by the parish Corpus ceremonies, which extend until the last Sunday of July, or not infrequently until the first Sunday of August.