Julio C. Tello: Why was the house of the brilliant Peruvian archaeologist demolished?

The knife from a tumi gigantic had been nailed on the unusual roof built in a gable in a city where it never rains. Beyond, two colossal fish fins emerged, the crest of two waves and the lancet of another smaller tumi. All this floated over the improbable aerial sea of ​​the Malecón de la Reserva. Altering the finish of the sober exterior facade of the room – an English house plan – a series of two-dimensional and three-dimensional decorations had been applied in contemporary material, plaster, trying to reproduce the splendor of pre-Hispanic pottery. And on the baseboards, two plaster of sand and cement imitated cushioned stones of the Inca culture.

Inside, rectangular wooden beams, also covered with plaster, imitated natural logs of circular section. There were torch rubbings on stucco exits. On the first floor and facing the entrance, a gigantic aríbalo and two huge pots with Inca motifs had been made with iron mesh. For the finish, it was preferred to use a strong mixture of sand and cement. In short, the whole complex – balconies, stairs, blasting and corridors – obeyed the particular interpretation of our glorious past in the hands of the architect Eduardo Rivero Tremouille, who had built it. Or, better, of Dr. Julio C. Tello, who inhabited it.

National flavor

“I am Indian. I think in Quechua and to speak Spanish I have to mentally translate myself, ”he said. Indeed, in the whispering of his words it was possible to hear that sweet echo that occurs when a ‘runasimi’ pronounces Spanish. When he taught classes in San Marcos and in the Catholic. In his fiery speeches in the Chamber of Deputies as a representative of Huarochirí, where he was born. Thus he would graduate as a doctor, obtain a postgraduate degree from Harvard and a doctorate from Cambridge. And at the University of Berlin, where he specialized. It will be precisely that mixture of languages ​​- in its lexical, phonetic, phonological and morphosyntactic mixture – that solidified in the form of self-assertion, pride and wisdom: that was Julio César Tello (1880 – 1947).

Considered the archetype of Peruvian archeology, he was already brilliant since he was a child: in his town they called him “sharuco” (brave, overwhelming) and, as soon as he entered San Marcos, it would be none other than Ricardo Palma who would give him a job at the National Library . That triggered his genius and figure. A disciple of world-class scientists such as Franz Boas – father of North American anthropology – and Aleš Hrdlička – creator of the Asian-monogenist theory – Tello not only discovered for the world the Peruvian pre-Hispanic splendor: he himself embarked on the search for a symbolic corpus that represents with distinction the roots of their homeland.

That is, endowing an artistic object or product with specific attributes to ‘Peruvianize’ it. And in that search for roots, to become an emporium varied enough to claim our autochthony. A constellation of cultural practices, let’s say. Purpose for which archeology should be the most powerful quarry. Thus, promoted during the oncenium of Leguía (1919-1930), the so-called ‘neo-Peruvian’ emerged as an architectural and decorative style and fruitful in dance. literature, music, painting, theater, sport, etc. It was started by the Spanish architect and sculptor Manuel Piqueras Cotolí (1886-1937), who in the 1920s remodeled the façade of the School of Fine Arts and intervened in the reception room and dining room of the Government Palace.

With the same purpose – “he revives the history of the race in stone”, as he would editorialize Trade in 1925—, Manco Capac and Atahualpa began to appear on stamps. The opera “Ollanta” by José María Valle Riestra was staged. José Sabogal enclosed his indigenous characters in a black wooden frame before creating the box of matches “La llama”. Haya de la Torre requested that the cross of Sacsayhuamán be replaced by a statue of Manco Capac. Daniel Alomía Robles infested his melodies with the pain of the puna. Intellectuals such as Pedro Zulen, Hildebrando Castro Pozo and Ezequiel Urviola and declared themselves “lovers of the authentic lineage of the country.”

And while a fortnight of indigenous propaganda called “El Indio” was circulating, the Inca Rubber and Mining Companies expanded its dominions towards the Peruvian east and the dictator José B. Leguía himself traveled to La Victoria to inaugurate the monument to Manco Cápac. While all this was happening, we say, the anthropologist Julio C. Tello installed the polychrome replica of a huaca in the courtyard of the Museum of Archeology, Anthropology and History of Peru. And on that huaca he made the traditional group of Pariakaka dancers from Huarochirí dance, an event that he would replicate in his brand new home with typically Neo-Peruvian lines located in the Miraflores Reserve Park.

Lyrical Incaism

Built on a solid granite platform that simulated some pre-Columbian, if not Inca, fortress, the sage’s mansion — O’Donovan Street 115, Miraflores — featured a succession of doors, niches, and windows arranged under that gabled roof. There was no lack of the typical truncated and staggered pyramidal structure configured from the superposition of several rectangular platforms, imitating the architecture of the administrative centers of Tahuantinsuyo. It is symptomatic that the militant enthusiasm of Tello in the Neo-Peruvian has determined that José María Arguedas (1911-1969) sentenced: “With the archaeologist Julio C. Tello the indigenism begins.”

And he will finish: “Tello himself, as an archaeologist, loses sight of the living Indian. He admires folklore, but forms a group of dancers from his native town, Huarochirí, and dresses them in costumes ‘stylized’ by him, created by him, inspired by archaeological motifs with contempt for the typical dresses of the people of Huarochirí ”. The critical position of the novelist and also anthropologist was not alone. Decades earlier, José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930) had observed the politico-cultural proposals of the wise man: “Mr. Tello’s candidacy is archaeological, idealistic and symbolic. It has the prestige of tradition, the huaco and the Ccoricancha ”, he wrote back in 1917.

The fact that the conflict was not with Hispanists but between three prominent brains associated with the indigenous universe must be the most obvious symptom of the dangers that the manipulation of the archaeological legacy always entailed. A tricky issue that begins by confronting representations of the nation and ends up compromising heritage policies, historical perspective and urban planning. For his part, there is evidence that Julio C. Tello has always insisted, in early theses and mature works, on a kind of ‘reformed return to the golden age of the Incas’. What some called ‘lyrical Incaism’.

Perhaps that is why his home – which he called “Inka Wasi” -, in 1997 lost the status of Cultural Heritage of the Nation that had been granted ten years earlier “for not having sufficient architectural merits to support its status as a Monument.” (RM No. 163-97-ED). It had been acquired by the sage on May 5, 1930 and lived there until his death on June 3, 1947. Two years later, Olive Chessman, his English widow, decided to return to her country and sold the house to the family. Freundt Orihuela, who made some modifications. But, in essence, it preserved the spirit of its famous first occupant. In 2009, for example, they turned it into the Inka Wasi Boutique Hotel. Until high maintenance costs and the pandemic finally demolished it. Soon it will be an apartment building and, in memory, the picturesque memory of a Lima that continues to go away.