Interview with Doña Exalta (ca. 32 yo)

E: [My father] only told me about Ch'auch'a de Kullamarka, that it is a large church. They came there from Pacajes, from everywhere. There was a church, a temple, very large. Anyway….

N: A church where?

E: [Points to mountains] In Ch'auch'a de Kullamarka.

N: There?

E: It was a very large temple, they came there from everywhere, yes.

N: As there was a church?

E: A very large church, but this church isn't very old.

N: Is it still there?

E: You can still see the walls. It appears like Wankani. But it's disappearing little by little.

N: Like the church at Wankane?

E: They say that priests lived there [in Ch'auch'a de Kullamarka]. But this is from recent [times], more or less, I can't tell you when exactly in this case, either. But in modern times, there were saints that celebrated feast days. And later they buried him. I don't know, there were problems. They killed the priest, they buried him in Sullkatiti, and they buried his head on the Pukara. Something like that, my father told me, no? Anyway…

N: Interesting. And from whom…

E: And then they destroyed the church. They threw it all down, the saints they took to Tiahuanaco, to Jesús de Machaca, like that they took the saints everywhere else.

N: Destroyed?

E: They destroyed it totally. Everything from Pacajes, like that, like that.

N: But why?

E: I don't know. There was the problem with the… the one who…

N: From whom did you learn this story? Your father?

E: My father, his parents told it to him. Yes, my father's grandparents, they told him. Anyway, he knows something.