Don Víctor Huamán Reyes: el «cacique moral» de Cañaris

• Main Author: Pedro Alva Mariñas
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Institut Français d'Études Andines 2008-04-01
• Series: Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Études Andines
• Subjects: Cañaris; Lambayeque; moral cacique; tradition; founder; community
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/bifea/3483
• ISSN: 0303-7495; 2076-5827

Don Victor Huaman Reyes, recognized and called «the cacique of Canaris», is projected, through time, as a personage who comes straight out of the history books, because he assumes the leadership of various aspects of the lives of the people of Canaris. We see him as the protector of the ancestral legacy, intervening in the great problems of his community, dispensing attentions and hospitality to the people, watching over the communal traditions, among them, the dancers, the maintenance of the roads, and the practice of good customs and good treatment of outsiders. Don Victor served in various official capacities and also assumed various traditional responsibilities. In this respect, like the majority of colonial caciques, he moved between two worlds; nevertheless, the traditional responsibilities and the fact that he was the protagonist in various transcendent events for his community made him a significant Andean authority. Don Victor Huaman Reyes looked like a simple peasant and his outward signs of wealth were hardly perceivable, but one quickly notes that he enjoyed the respect and consideration of many people, of «his people» as he was accustomed to say. Perhaps, the people were his wealth.