Taki Unquy

The wak'as, Andean spirits, began taking possession of the Indigenous people, making them dance to music and announce divine will to restore the pre-Hispanic culture, mythology and politics.

Taki Unquy arose in the 1560s in Huamanga, Ayacucho, Peru, from where it spread to Huancavelica, Lima, Cusco, Arequipa, Chuquisaca, and La Paz.

Bruce Mannheim argues that the fear may have been so strong that fifty years later, when Juan Pérez Bocanegra printed the Quechua hymn "Hanacpachap cussicuinin," he conspicuously avoided the term unquy, though it would fit well into the theme alongside other names of the Pleiades.

Since that time it has been the subject of revision and analysis, having aided in understanding problems in the contemporaneous Peru, such as the historical process of Andean insurrections against the Spanish.

The playwright, director and actor Hugo Bonnet Rodriguez, born in Azangaro, Puno, crafted a play titled "Taki Onqoy".

Drawing depicting "La Borachera, Machasca," by Guamán Poma [ 1 ] possibly referring to Taki Onqoy. The woman in the text is scolding the Devil, who has possessed the man drinking heavily. The Quechua text reads "Auaya ayauaya! Machac, machaclla. Tucuy cay upyac, upyaclla. Tucuy cay quimnac, quipnaclla. Tucuy cay camca serui, suyulla. Mina suyulla." In English, this translates to "Awaya, ayawaya! The drunk is just a drunk, the drinker just a drinker, the vomiter only vomits. What you do is serve yourself, devil. The mines are where you belong" [ 2 ]