Titu Cusi

Don Diego de Castro Titu Cusi Yupanqui (1529 – 1571) was an Inca ruler of Vilcabamba and the penultimate leader of the Neo-Inca State. He was a son of Manco Inca Yupanqui, He was crowned in 1563, after the death of his half brother, Sayri Tupac. He ruled until his death in 1571, probably of pneumonia.[1]:10–11

Titu Cusi
Sapa Inca
Reign1563 – 1571
PredecessorSayri Tupac
SuccessorTúpac Amaru
Born1529
Cusco, Peru
Died1571 (aged 41–42)
Vilcabamba, Peru
FatherManco Inca Yupanqui

Rule

During his rule at Vilcabamba, the provisional governor-general Lope Garcia de Castro wanted to negotiate with him. The negotiations were about Cusi leaving the Vilcabamba and accepting a Crown pension. After negotiations escalated, around 1568, Titi Cusi was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, as Diego de Castro.[1]:xiv,14–15

Titu Cusi made Túpac Amaru a priest and custodian of Manco Inca's body in Vilcabamba.

Túpac Amaru became the Inca ruler after Titu Cusi's death in 1571. Titu Cusi's close companion Martín de Pando, who had worked as a scribe for the Inca for over ten years and Augustinian Friar Diego Ortiz were blamed for killing Titu Cusi by poisoning him. Both were killed.[1]:16

Cusi is the "narrator" and source of An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru, a firsthand account of the Spanish invasion, narrated by him in 1570 to Spanish missionary Fray Marcos García and transcribed by Martín de Pando, his mestizo assistant.[1]:12

The resulting hybrid document offers a unique Inca perspective on the conquest. The confusion and misunderstandings of first contact are described in the account, including beliefs that the Spaniards were gods. The section that describes the moment when Manco Inca, the father of the author and the brother of Atahualpa, receives the first news of the Spaniards' arrival from coastal tribesman is of particular note.[1]:64

When my father heard this, he was beside himself and said, "How dare those people intrude into my country without my authorisation and permission? Who are these people and what are their ways?" The messengers answered, "Lord, these people cannot but be gods, for they claim to have come by the wind. They are bearded people, very beautiful and white. They eat out of silver plates. Even their sheep, who carry them, are large and wear silver shoes. They throw thunder like the sky... Moreover, we have witnessed with our own eyes that they talk to white cloths by themselves and that they call some of us by our names without having been informed by anyone and only looking into the sheets, which they hold in front of them... Who could people of this manner and fortune be but gods?"

— Titu Cusi Yapanqui (1570), 'An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru'

References
  1. Yupangui, Diego de Castro, titu cussi, active 16th century. (2005). An Inca account of the Conquest of Peru. Bauer, Ralph, 1965-. Boulder, Colo.: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 9781457110771. OCLC 607730293.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Sources
  • An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru by Titu Cusi Yupanqui, trans. Ralph Bauer ISBN 0-87081-821-X
  • Andean Worlds by Kenneth J. Andrien. ISBN 0-8263-2358-8
Preceded by
Sayri Tupac		 Sapa Inca
As ruler of the Neo-Inca State
1563–1571		 Succeeded by
Túpac Amaru
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