The Tarco Huamán Panaka and the Continuity of the Caillahua Lineage in the Southern Andes

This is the English version of the study: La panaca de Tarco Huamán y la continuidad del linaje Caillahua en los Andes del sur (siglos XVI–XXI). The original Spanish version can be found at DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18779655 This study gathers documentary evidence concerning the descendants of the elites of the Collagua lordship, demonstrating how the Caillahua surname and its variants —Cayllaua, Cayllahua, Caillagua, and Callagua— allow for the tracing of an indigenous Andean lineage’s continuity from the 16th century to the present. The research begins with the Relación de la provincia de los Collaguas of 1586, in which the caciques of Yanque declared their kinship with the Incas through marriage—a political tradition that must be understood within its colonial context and distinguished from the biological affiliation with Mayta Cápac, which belongs to the realm of Andean oral memory. The oldest genealogical core documented with archival precision is found on folio 2r of the Visita de Yanque-Collaguas Urinsaya of 1591, cross-referenced with People of the Volcano (Cook & Cook, 2007). This enables the reconstruction of the Guaasuri-Cayllahua House and suggests a prolonged trajectory of indigenous nobility recognition. A significant milestone is the marriage of Alonso Caillagua in 1737, witnessed by Miguel Condorcanqui Usquiconsa —father of José Gabriel Túpac Amaru—, a fact confirmed by diverse sources and consistent with the lineage’s integration into supra-regional indigenous nobility networks of the Southern Andes. The study extends to the Apurímac branch, documented since 1740 through parish registers that allow for the reconstruction of several generations and their alliances with families such as Paytan, Senteno, Quispe, and Casafranca, eventually connecting with contemporary carriers of the surname in Lima. From a perspective of ethnohistory and Andean microhistory, this research proposes that the Caillahua surname serves as an indicator of historical continuity, political memory, and the persistence of indigenous elites in the Southern Peruvian Andes.