New research has uncovered noble bloodlines that lead to emperor Atahualpa – often among the most humble families of modern Peru

When the last Inca emperor, Atahualpa, was executed by Francisco Pizarro in 1533, the conquistadores moved quickly to obliterate all traces of what had been the largest empire of its time.



Temples were sacked and stripped of gold; on holy days, Inca nobles were forced to parade Christian saints instead of the mummies of their ancestors; the engineering skills behind Machu Picchu and a 25,000-mile network of roads stretching from Colombia to Argentina were forgotten.

And in this new society that oppressed all of Peru’s indigenous population, the names of noble families – the “children of the sun” who had once lived as demigods – were gradually erased from history.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An 1807 painting of the submission of the last Inca emperor to the Spanish embassy of Francisco Pizarro, led by Hernando de Soto. Photograph: Ipsumpix/Corbis via Getty Images

But new research in genetics and historical records is tracing noble Inca bloodlines to the direct descendants of Atahualpa and his kin – often among the most humble families of modern Peru.

The Dutch historian Ronald Elward has been investigating the fate of the Inca nobility since he moved to Peru in 2009. “I discovered it was more common to find a gardener or servant with an Inca surname than a person from a middle- or upper-class background,” he said.

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While surnames that indicate direct descent from royal blood – such as Yupanqui, meaning “memorable”, and Pachacutec, meaning “transformer of the Earth” – were proudly preserved in rural areas, indigenous names were looked down upon in urban centres.

Elward pored through tens of thousands of pages of public documents in Cusco, once the centre of the Incan empire, checking all available parish records for the period from 1720 to 1920 as well as the archives of more than 250 public notaries. After identifying 25 royal Inca families, he set about tracking down their descendants.

“The moment I started interviewing people about their life stories, the whole thing became less dusty records and more a social and cultural reality which had been very untouched. That was the main surprise,” he said.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Roberta Huamanrimanchi Tupahuacayllo, with her daughter, is descended from Inca blue blood on her mother’s side. Photograph: Dan Collyns/The Guardian

One of Elward’s interviewees was Roberta Huamanrimanchi Tupahuacayllo, 40, who inherits Inca blue blood from her mother. A former municipal worker now caring for infant children, Huamanrimanchi described how she was teased at school for her long indigenous surnames.

“I’m very proud of my surname. I’m not ashamed, although people still laugh because it’s difficult to pronounce,” she said.

Perhaps in an unconscious echo of the Inca custom of keeping the mummies of deceased family members, Huamanrimanchi’s 79-year-old father, Mariano, proudly displays the skulls of his mother, sister and brother on the mantelpiece.

Other descendants are far more conscious of their royal pedigree. Alfredo Inca Roca, 69, claims he can trace his lineage back nearly 500 years to 1560, 17 years after the first Spanish people arrived in Cusco in 1543.

The urbane lawyer also claims to have the documentation to prove it, in the form of a parchment signed in 1545 by the Holy Roman emperor Carlos V, who was also the king of Spain. The missive grants his ancestor “Inga Roca” corresponding royal status and gives him a coat of arms which replaces the lions of the old world with South American jaguars.

“He used this nice phrase [to the conquistadores]: I don’t send you to kill kings but to serve kings,” Inca Roca said. “But it did not do much to alter the behaviour of the Spanish viceroyalty, which subjugated my ancestors.”

Inca pride is infectious in San Sebastian, where schoolchildren are now encouraged to learn their once-denigrated Quechua mother tongue.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mariano Huamanrimanchi, 79, shows a relative’s skull that he keeps at home out of respect for his ancestors. Photograph: Dan Collyns/The Guardian

The Peruvian geneticist Ricardo Fujita has drawn on Elward’s work to establish a DNA correlation between two groups numbering around 35 people who claim patrilineal descent from Huayna Capac, father to the executed Atahualpa.

The absence of any Inca mummies, which were destroyed by the Spanish, means DNA comparisons can be made only between those who claim they are descendants .

But backed by the National Geographic’s Genographic Project, the investigation has found genetic links between supposed Inca descendants and indigenous populations near Lake Titicaca, appearing to corroborate the myth that the sun-worshipping conquerors originated there.

“The official history of Peru [begins] when the Europeans arrive here in 1532 but before that we have 1,400 years of history,” said Fujita, head of genetics and molecular biology at Lima’s San Martin de Porres University.

“That history is not recorded in writing – but it is recorded in our DNA: we are reconstructing the history of the people that don’t have history.”

