The Enduring Pride of the Morochuco: Known for their bravery, strength, and first-rate horsemanship, these Peruvians continue to preserve their traditions and beliefs.

• Author: Englebert, Victor
• Position: Travel narrative

The 10,000-feet high Pampa de Cangallo spreads out for miles all around me, yellow under the warm July sun. It has changed a great deal since 1971 when I first discovered it in the Peruvian Andes, 70 miles south of Ayacucho. You could certainly call that high undulating plateau a pampa back then. Green grass ran all the way to the uninterrupted line of the horizon. The few scattered eucalyptus trees that dotted the landscape were no hindrance to the sweeping view, and the occasional scattered fields of corn and barley were only small patches of different colors on the sea of grass. But the Morochuco population grew and so did the number and sizes of their fields along with the eucalyptuses, many of which are now clustered in thick groves that obstruct the view of sections of the horizon.

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As it grew, the population also experienced enormous changes, many of them life-altering. Electricity and television arrived, transportation to Ayacucho became easier, and there was less isolation and more contact with urban fashions. They also forged all uneasy resistance to the Shining Path.

The Morochuco are not your typical Andean tribe. They claim with pride that they are descendants of the followers of Diego de Almagro, companion in arms of Francisco Pizarro. Overcome with greed over the spoils of the Inca Empire, the two conquistadors' armies ended up fighting each other. When Almagro lost the last battle, and Pizarro ordered his decapitation, his men went into hiding among the Inca. There, to better avoid retribution, they slipped into indigenous costumes and culture. They started wearing multicolored headgear known in Quechua as morochucos , a term that also came to identify their group from then on. A few of the Spaniards had Spanish wives, but most married into the indigenous population.

Thus, soldiers who had once been horsemen became cowboys. But their conquistador mentality was still intact as they began plundering the goods and cattle of neighboring tribes, a tradition they passed down to their descendents. For a long time it was unsafe to stray into Morochuco country. Even in 1971 when I visited, their neighbors had mixed feelings about them. At that point, it had only been a few years since they had stopped wearing the heavy beards that distinguished them from their smooth-faced neighbors. At one time, they could also be identified by the red bandannas they wore on their heads, but they gave up that practice to keep...