Cajamarca

Cajamarca, a Quechua word meaning "place or town of cold" that is the name of an important city, province, and department (created in 1855) in northern Peru. Because the department encompasses semitropical valleys and Andean highlands, agricultural and mining production is varied and rich. Its most important commercial crops are sugar, tobacco, and rice. Dairy farming is also important. Miners extract copper, lead, silver, zinc, and iron, especially from the mines of Hualgayoc and Chilete. More than 1.3 million inhabitants live in the department and 119,615 in the capital (2004).

Cajamarca has long been important in the history of Peru. It was the indigenous population center where in 1532 Francisco Pizarro first made contact with the Inca Atahualpa, eventually imprisoning and executing him there, despite the payment of a large ransom. Soon thereafter, the native inhabitants of Cajamarca were given in encomienda to Melchor Verdugo, their first and perhaps most famous trustee. It was Verdugo who began Spanish silver mining at Chilete as early as 1540, using the Caja-marquinos as laborers.

For most of the colonial era, Cajamarca was known for its abundant crops of wheat, barley, and corn; its deer and smaller game; and its good pastures for cattle grazing. The systematic exploitation of Hualgayoc's silver deposits begun in the late eighteenth century brought a new round of prosperity to the region. The inhabitants had, by this time, also earned fame for their weaving skills.

In the nineteenth century, Cajamarca was the home base of Miguel Iglesias's efforts to influence Peruvian politics. During the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), the department was invaded by the Chileans. The city served as the site of a congress of delegates from Peru's northern provinces who elected Iglesias president. In late 1882, this meeting of congress resulted in negotiations leading to the Treaty of Ancón and the end of the war.

See alsoIglesias, Miguel; War of the Pacific.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carlos Burga Larrea, Diccionario geográfico e histórico de Cajamarca (1983).

Fernando Silva Santisteban, Waldemar Espinoza Soriano, Rogger Ravines, et al., comps., Historia de Cajamarca: Siglos XVI-XVIII, vol. 3 (1986).

Additional Bibliography

Christiansen, Tanja K. Disobedience, Slander, Seduction, and Assault: Women and Men in Cajamarca, Peru, 1862–1900. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.

Dammert Bellido, José. Cajamarca en el siglo XVI. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú: Instituto Bartolomé de Las Casas: Centro de Estudios y Publicaciones, 1997.

Drinot, Paulo, and Leo Garofalo. Más allá de la dominación y la resistencia: Estudios de historia peruana, siglos XVI-XX. Lima: IEP, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2005.

Frías Coronado, Carlos. Pobreza campesina: Sólo un problema rural: Cajamarca: Economía, espacio, y tecnología. Lima: ITDG, 1995.

Mujica Bermúdez, Luis. Poncho y sombrero, alforja y bastón: La iglesia en Cajamarca, 1962–1992. Lima, Perú: IBC, Instituto Bartolomé de las Casas: ISET JUAN XXIII: CEP, 2005.

                                       Susan E. RamÍrez