Laraos District

The "Laraos District" is a district in the Yauyos Province, in Lima, Peru.

Elderly people in Laraos still speak an archaic Quechua dialect. As no more children speak the language, it is in imminent danger of extinction.

The district of Laraos is one of oldest of the province of Yauyos, and its history is ample and emerges from the pre-incan times. Its preceding town is "Sinchimarka", cradle of forjers, but simultaneously brave and militant men, like all the tribes who conformed the Yauyos, who were tenacious resistants before being conquered by the incan leader Pachacútec. The pre incan towns of Laraos are: Wanllapata, Wajramarka, Wayaumarca and Callawarqui. Sinchimarka is an incan citadel.

In 1586, being viceroy Don Fernando de Torres of Portugal, the first mayor of Yauyos, Don Diego Dávila Briceño, made the territorial demaracation and formed four parishes or curatos with more than four towns each one, entrusted at the service of the Dominican priests. These were: Santo Domingo de Yauyos, Santo Domingo de Laraos, San Cristóbal de Huánec and Santa Maria de Pampas.

It is to say that with the Spanish conquest, the natives of Sinchimarka were forced to become transferred to the present location of the district. Thus this one acquires the denomination of Santo Domingo de Cocha Laraos, being one of the most important towns and then they contributed in the process of cristanization of the inhabitants of Yauyos.

Its name comes from a derivative of the word Jaqi or "Jaqaru Laraupugio". Larau means paved street, pugio is spring, and both mean the spring in the paved street. With the Andean transculturization it is transformed into Laraus (plural), that it means paved streets; and with the castellanization it is pronounced Laraos.

The farming community of Laraos was recognized the 2 of September 1938. Their annexes are San Juan de Langaico and Lanca. Its populated centers are Llapay and Tintín. The town is divided is ten main streets: Callhuapampa, Ansaya, Larpa, Callampa, Súniqui, Remove Cancayllu, Achallanca, Warcaña, Caracara and Chunchillo.

External links

* [http://www.laraos.com/ Laraos, un viaje al paraìso] (in Spanish)
* [http://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual/publicacionesbanrep/bolmuseo/1986/bol16/bob5.htm Gerald Taylor: Curas y zorros en la tradición oral quechua] (two stories from Laraos, in Quechua, with Spanish translation)