Cristóbal de Molina, called «el Cusqueño» (from Cusco), (Baeza, Spain, circa 1529 - Cusco, 1585) was a Spanish colonial clergyman and chronicler who was very fluent in Quechua. He spent most of his life in Cusco, Peru and became a reputable reporter of the pre-Colonial Andean culture.
He was the author of the manuscript (Account of the fables and rites of the Incas), an invaluable source of information about the Incas and an in-depth report on Andean culture at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
Life
Nothing is known of Molina's childhood and youth. In his manuscript he states being born in Baeza, Spain, sometime before 1530, but reveals nothing more about his life prior to his arrival in Cusco where he settled in 1556 at the age of about 27. He was nicknamed "el Cusqueño" (the man from Cusco), to distinguish him from another chronicler, Cristóbal de Molina "el Chileno", generally referred to as "el Almagrista" (follower of Diego de Almagro).
Thanks to the years of living with the natives, he learned the Quechua language to the point of handling it with great skill. He was so fluent that the first modern researchers suggested that Molina might have been of mixed European and Andean descent. Subsequent documents showed that this was not the case.
In 1565 Molina was appointed as the priest in the (Hospital for the Natives) of (Our Lady of Succor) in Cusco. Later he became preacher general of the Cusco parishes and visitor general in parts of the Cusco bishopric. Interested in the ritual practices of the natives, Molina used to congregate elders and former Inca priests in his parish or in the villages he visited to learn about pre-Hispanic stories and beliefs.
Between 1568 and 1571 Cristóbal de Albornoz, general ecclesiastical visitor in Arequipa, was sent to Huamanga (today Ayacucho) in the Peruvian highlands to identify and destroy idolatry (the shrines of the Natives) and to punish the persons and communities who worshipped them. Because of his knowledge of ritual practices and of the native cultural and religious world, Molina and another Spanish clergy, Olivera, were required to collaborate with Albornoz in his fight against idolatry and against the Taki Unquy messianic movement, which broke out in the central Andes around 1564.
The king of Spain in the 1560s was worried about the fact that the killing of the last Inca by Pizarro could be interpreted as a violation the European tradition of the divine right of kings, and that this might in turn endanger the legitimate right for the king to rule on the Tawantinsuyu. For this reason he had appointed Francisco de Toledo as viceroy in 1569 and charged him (among other tasks) with producing the proof that the Incas were tyrants, conquered their territories by subjugation of the local people and were not legitimate rulers. When in Cusco between 1571 and 1572, Toledo ordered Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa and, through the bishop, Cristóbal de Molina, to provide such proof. Molina, thanks to his good knowledge of the local language, carried out interviews among the Natives and wrote his work (History of the Incas) which he finished in March 1572. This manuscript was never retrieved.
On 24 September 1572 the last Sapan Inca, Túpac Amaru, was executed in Cusco, and Molina was one of the priests who accompanied him to the central square where a black-draped scaffold had been erected. There the Inca mounted the scaffold accompanied by the bishop of Cusco, Agustín de la Coruña, to be beheaded.
When in 1573 Sebastián de Lartaun was named bishop of Cusco, Molina provided him with a manuscript titled (Account of the huacas and shrines of Cusco) about the sacred Inca symbols that were existing in and around the city of Cusco. This work is also lost.
In the following years, probably between 1573 and 1575, Molina was ordered by the bishop to provide an account about the idolatries of the Natives. This work will become the main and only known manuscript by Molina with the title of (Account of the Fables and Rites of the Incas). It is known that while in Areqipa, the viceroy Toledo ordered a salary increase for Molina. In his decree he notes that Molina had collected information on the rites and ceremonies of the Incas.
The name of Molina appears again in January 1577 when he testified in Cusco at inquiries about the campaigns against idolatry by Cristóbal de Albornoz. He was simply introduced as a (cleric priest), and witnessed that he had known Albornoz for more than ten years and that the latter had successfully completed his service against idolatry in Huamanga (today Ayacucho).