This evening, it is my pleasure to present Carla Hernandez-Gararito, who's going to be presenting to us Juacas, plazas, and conquest. The children of Paria Caca in the Inca Empire were she, Tietiru. Carla comes to us this moment from the University of California, Riverside, where she holds the Chancellor's Professorship, which is a very honorary position. People know about these fellowships that are awarded by the University of California with their big deal. So she's good hands with Riverside at least. She did her studies undergraduate, her first master's at the University of Polica of Lima, and then went on to Vanderbilt for her master's and her PhD. And along the way, she's done fieldwork in Cistero. Marine cholera, no, I don't think that's true. Colca. Colca. Colca. Colca. Colca. Colca. Colca. Colca. Like that. The environment around her, the real subject of interest is community resilience in the face of empire, such as the Inca. And as the title of her talk indicates, she's coming to us from one of those shrines of the Andes. Let's face it, Archedie is a big place on the landscape in terms of history, in terms of archaeology, in terms of landscape. So we have great expectations. Oh, no. I only say that because I have the slightest doubt that those expectations will be met. Part of that is to take it away. And thank you for that. OK, thank you for that introduction. And I'm a little concerned now. Well, thank you for making it, I was going to say this far, to make it this late. So I really appreciate you all being here. I want to thank the board of directors and the officers of the Institute of Funding and Studies for this invitation. And also, just because this is the last talk, that it's closing the event, I want to bring it back what John dedicated at the beginning of just our date of meeting to the memory of John Janusek, who was a dear friend and professor for many of us that come from Vanderbilt. So yeah, hopefully I make John proud or make him love today.  The main thing I want to start saying is what I care about, what I investigate, has to do with how communities tell their own history within context of imperialism. And we know that in the Andes, right now we're in a stage where we're super focused on the colonialism by the Spanish. But imperialism wasn't new. And many of these communities that faced Spanish had already experienced that with the Inca empire in the fifth, yes, wait, sorry, yes, in the 16th century. And I know how to do that. And they already, some of the people who experienced that had already within their lives experienced the Inca taking over. Now, the way imperialism worked for the Inca was very coded in ritual. We all know these, especially because of the chronicles, the Spanish period chronicles. We know so much about the ceremonies that the Inca perform and how political subjugation was sort of masked through this idea of reciprocity, ritual, feasting, and whatnot. So here I'm showing some images of the inter-Rimi that is still performed in many, many regions of the Andes to date. And the reason I'm showing is I think it's a good example of how the Inca created this aura about themselves, right? We have an Inca, yes, this is the bottom, yes. We have an Inca lord that was this divine person that was sort of making these great shows of showing his sacred body in the middle of the ceremonies in Cusco. We have really rituals that have to do with performances, have to do with feasting, with this idea that the empire may be the empire, but he's still creating these bonds of reciprocity with the people that they conquer. This was coded through food, through drink. We all know that from the chronicles. And the main space where these things were performed was in plazas. And plazas throughout the Andean sequence, but for the Inca in particular, were a big deal. Plazas are surprisingly, when we look outside of Cusco and in the provinces and sites that the Inca created across the Andes, plazas are always a central feature because here they will establish these relationships with local lords, right? They will give them gifts, again, go with feasting and chitchat and this idea of parting, basically. But that was super important for this process of colonialism. So you create these social obligations between the empire and the people. Now we know, like I said, a whole lot of how these work, especially from the chronicles. We have a lot of archaeological research to throughout different Andean societies focusing on plazas. But we don't necessarily know is that how this state ritual interacted with local rituals. This idea of feasting of ritual in order to create identities was already present among previous societies, including those that the Inca faced. So here what I am going to talk about is basically how these state-sponsored rituals and spaces interacted with local ritual spaces. So my first pitch that I have to make today is that why I'm working in Guadalcanal City. John already said Guadalcanal City is amazing and it's a very well-known site in the Andes because we have not only the, we're going to go into the Guadalcanal Manuscript, obviously, but that's not the only document we have here. We have a lot of information of the people of this region before the Inca. This Guadalcanal City is located in the eastern, yes, boundary of the modern region of Lima, basically the highlands of Lima. And we know a lot of that since 1586. We have the first description of the people living in Guadalcanal City. That comes from a Relación Geográfica de Indias by a Spanish official. And it's a surprisingly interesting document. I shouldn't say surprisingly, it's a very interesting document because it tells us a lot of what the Inca found here. The corregidor actually goes into detail enough that we know that before the Inca arrived to Guadalcanal City, we had a lot of these parts, hilltop communities living in the region. At some point, when the Inca arrived and they formalized the idea of a tributary province, they just brought them all together and called them the Gaudios. But that was not the name they had. Like in the text, it actually says, Gaudios was a small part of an area outside of Guadalcanal City, a little to the, well, in the lower part. And they just chose this name because that was a society that allied with them. So building on those documents, we know that when we talk about Guadalcanal City, we're not talking of a unified people. We're talking of different communities. Specifically, in the area where I work, we have five regions that are called guarancas, as all the Andenists know, guarancas is an ideal tributary unit by the Inca, about a thousand taxpayers. So we have five of those in Guadalcanal City. So today I'm going to be focusing on one of them, the Chaucarima guaranga, and the site of Canchaje, which I will go into more detail later. So obviously the reason I'm working in Guadalcanal City also is because we have the manuscript. By 1608, just like a short story of it, because I think it's really, really a great story. There was a mestizo curate in Guadalcanal City that carried out a basically ethnographic work. He relied on indigenous assistants to go out and talk to town elders, to talk to everyone they could, and collect a history of the rituals and myths of the region. Why he did that? There's different theories, I really like Dirston's argument that this curate in particular had been accused of mistreating indigenous populations in the years past. So this will be sort of a very convoluted answer to that. Trying to make the argument that the reason everyone was complaining that he was abusing indigenous people was because he was so good at evangelization that they just hated him. So besides the intent of the manuscript or by how we know it in Spanish, Diocese Hombres de Guadalcanal City, what is really interesting is the way it was made were talking of indigenous people going out and collecting these histories. And they collect them in Quechua, not in Spanish, which is something unique for this time. And it's the only document we know so far in Peru that is written in Quechua. And this history that is in the manuscript goes way back, goes, for example, in the midst of who existed before the people of Guadalcanal City lived there. That's a dating known as Guayao Garwincho, who got a horrible rep of eating children. And we also actually know about the Inca. They mentioned them. And when they mentioned the Inca, it's always a little in the place of like, well, he also worshiped the same things we worship. He believed, they believed the same things. They honored us. So the manuscript gives us so much detail that we can actually question if there's a difference that happens when the Inca arrived on how they changed these local ideologies and rituals. Now, just to make this pitch because I think it's important, the manuscript, let me go back so that I can finish this before we start reading. The manuscript tells us of how indigenous people wanted to share their history. And that is actually the statement in the introduction of the manuscript. This is how it starts. Just going to read it because I think it's a really powerful statement. If the ancestors of the people called Indians had known writing in earlier times, then the lives they lived will not have faded from view until now. As the mighty past of the Spanish Viracochas is visible until now, so too would theirs be. But since things are the way they are, and since nothing has been written until now, I set forth here the lives of the ancestors of the Guaroceri people, who all descended from one forefather. What faith they held, how they lived up until now, those things and more. Billage by billage, it will be written down, how they lived from their drawings age onwards. So we can discuss a lot about how to use ethno-historical material with archaeology. But here I feel we would be remiss to ignore what they are actually telling us of themselves. So what is this ritual system that existed in Guarachiri before the Incas? The main protagonist of the manuscript is this fine sir, Pariacaca. This is no-cap mountain in the eastern boundary of the territory, and when they talk of this single forefather, that's what they mean. They all saw themself as the children of Pariacaca, which is what I called the talk, what I called it. And they saw Pariacacas a huacas. We all know what is a super complex concept that I will not fully unpack today, but we're talking of sacred place and sacred being and something that is intrinsically tied to a community. It brings them together. That identity they shared was their kinship to Pariacaca. Now, the way they performed this identity, according to the manuscript, was through a festival known as Aukisna. Every year, they will go on pilgrimage to Pariacaca, perform a series of events that it's well described in the text, and that's how these different communities came together and form a macro identity. From the manuscript, we also know that at some point, the ritual changes, because Pariacaca A is super far away and two, A and two, that's great, A and B. As you can see, it's a very steep climb through a snow-cap mountain. This is not something you want through every year. So in the text, they mentioned that each of the guarancas starts performing the same rituals, but in mountains closer to them. It's a very smart move. So what is interesting is that we actually have some names for these different mountains that are going to represent Pariacaca, but closer and more accessible. So one of the things that I found doing survey in Guarachiri is that, well, this is just like adding to this idea that Pariacaca brought them together. His law was one and the same law in all the villages, the law we speak of was these were all of one birth. So when they stopped going to Pariacaca to perform this idea of all being of one birth, they start marking Pariacaca's presence through sites like these, using rock outcrops. They will build their settlements where there was a central rock outcrop and then just basically expand over that. We've found that in domestic sites like the ones you see here in Pugasan Punton. And we have sometimes also found them in freestanding rock outcrops like the one I'm going to talk about today, which is Kanchake. So basically these rituals are being gone from Pariacaca to here and then are still affirming this identity of being of one birth associated to him. Now, another point that I want to make here is that the Inca were not new to this understanding of kinship or like this understanding of space. And again, we have archaeological research, but I'm also going to use this couple of examples to make my point. The Inca themselves saw their origin place as a mountain. They had their own ancestral Waka, right? In this case we have this depiction of one Akawirin, one Empoma and the Antabutoko, the cave where they came from. So this idea of a mountain that was your forefather and basically sacralized or divinized your lineage, that came from, that was understandable for the Inca too. As the Inca expanded over different regions in the Andes, they will mark their presence to carving rocks. And there's a lot of publications about this particular issue. This is an example of, say, Uite and Cusco. But the Inca were really experts in like use of understanding rock, like this sort of like liminal space between that like that ground which they belong and their community. And we don't have to go into that detail later, but that's how they mark their expansion. And finally, and this is one of my favorite women Poma illustrations, they also understood the value of rock and wakas, and this, well, in the document it's called idols, but it's more like a part of the waka from other regions. And this is a very famous image, to the other side is my favorite, when it's represented the Inca talking with different local, different regional wakas from all over the Andes that they had brought together in Cusco into this fictious council that also play as sort of like kidnapping the sacred waka of another community. So the Inca understood this. So this is something they could build upon. If we think of the Inca as this super large empire that expanded really fast, this idea of building familiarity actually makes sense. So now we go back to the site where I want to talk about. Like I said, we have these sets of local rituals in Guarachiri, but we also have a state ritual that was used by the Inca to code their expansion. And I wanted to look at how that was on the ground being performed. So the site of Kanchaje in Guarachiri is an ideal place for me to work on this, because as you can see in this image, we have two different sectors, right? We have Tura, this is the north of the site. We have a rock outcrop that we have dated to the late intermediate period. And those are the dates that I have for the site north of that period. But we have AMS radiocarbon days between 1350 to 1430 CE. So we know that this was pre-Inca in Guarachiri. And then as you can see here, we have these plazas. And these plazas, the date we're playing with at this point, what we have gotten from the AMS radiocarbon dating is 1510. Plazas are not common in Guarachiri. A site that is basically old plaza doesn't exist in Guarachiri. This is not our local, I haven't found another site that is like Kanchaje. Also, I know that Inca things look different across the landscape, but this plaza that it's kind of trapezoidal in shape, and I know that it's very ugly trapezoidal, but trust me, it's trapezoidal in shape. It's a dead giveaway of Inca things throughout the Andes. So the reason I decided to work here, the reason we carried our excavations here is because we have the chance to look at rock outcrops that are so important to local retail and plazas, which are that way that Inca performs their conquest across the regions. So another thing I want to mention about this site, and I can talk about this later, this more later. As I mentioned, we have in the manuscript different sites that served as representatives of Pariakaka for different communities. Kanchaje is located in, this is the site, and you can see this point between two rivers, and we can go into Tinkuy and that conversation. But also in the text, there's a description of a site that was specifically for the Chaukarima, Warianka. They mentioned the rivers, they mentioned the road that goes down to the lower valley, and it's mentioned also that it's right across this town here that is called Santan. And in the manuscript, it expressively says that this site was called Akusika, and it was where the people of Chaukarima performed these rituals. So I think that that's solely that this is the site they are talking about, especially if the original part of the site was just the outgrown. So I'm going to walk you a little bit through the excavations we carried out here. As I said, we were interested in on the ground interaction between ritual in plazas and ritual in the rock outgrown. This is just so we know basically that, I guess it's fuxer right now, or pink art excavation units. We previously conducted excavations in 2011. These are 2015, and well, Oscar and Grace know enough about being forced to excavate here with me, so they can also talk about that. So I'm going to walk you first through the rock outgrown. This is what it looks like now. It has this area here. It's about 60 square meters. Don't be fooled by this nice wall here. This was used as a corral, and the people were very nice in taking out the cow so we could excavate. So this part was probably not, at no point, it was wall. So we started working on the outgrown trying to figure out if we can find evidence of rituals associated to the oquisna, to Perekaka's festival, and use the manuscript sort of like another source to read our materials. So we basically, we started excavating here trying to find the access. We found a very, this is what it looks like. I promise it's great. It has different platforms to access the platform. Interestingly, what we found is in the other part of the outgrown, like going to the north and in the steeper face, as you can see here, this is actually a trench that Oscar excavated. And we found that we had a very well-defined access. As you can see, these stones are creating a wall and then it was filled with gravel and then a floor was added on top. And we found a lot, I think, three steps that we could excavate well, very broad. And that kind of threw me for a loop a little bit because, A, this is a horrible part to climb the site, especially when we already had the other platforms and access. We found materials like this tuppu here, which we did not find in other sections of the site. We also found small rooms well excavated into the recesses of the rock and those had floors that were fairly well-made. We think that this may have, it could have had a lot of functions, the problem is this is super looted. So we didn't find a whole lot, I should just start saying that. So this was clean when we got there. But, like I said, I was a little mystified of why will they climb through this site. And one of the descriptions in the manuscript when they talk about the old gizna is one of the first things that happened is a race. And that race involves carrying yamabucks. And people will basically climb the site running with their yamas, usually in a sort of a concentrical pattern that kind of matched what we had with these road steps and then try to go to the summit of the mountain. And these, as you can see here, we have some standing rocks that are actually the apex of the outgrowth. So I think that may be why we have this access that it's such a bad access to carry, to go through the site. It was part of those ceremonies that are physical or like trying to perform something to honor Parigaca. We also found a bunch of these little guys, which also was excavated. He carried my excavation. And we found a lot of these small chambers peppered throughout the rock outgrowth. And again, looted, so we didn't find anything there. We decided to clean out one of the best preserved ones. And we found evidence of some human bones, basically, hands and feet, which as you all know, it's that giveaway of a body being moved. We found several of these. So what I think, the way I'm interpreting it at this point is that if this is a waka, if this is a sacred place and so tied to Parigaca and different communities that make up a single waranga are coming here to carry out different rituals. This could be people that are important for those communities, maybe leaders or maybe some sort of like creating ancestors for each community, through burial here. So we also excavated rooms like these. This, okay, so these factual lines here that are broken are different features. In these features, most of them were ash lenses. We found in the ash lenses, ceramics, lithics, animal bones. This here I'm going to talk more about later. These are stone. This one here is batan. I don't remember how to call it in English. So this is a batan. I want to first talk about this briefly because we were also interested to see if we found evidence of intense activities in the outgrowth. And we found these burning events, but most of the material we recovered didn't have evidence. For example, the bones didn't have evidence of cut marks or actually being burned in it. It seems more like they were at some point left there as part of the feature. So we thought we may be looking at closing events. Another thing, this particular guy here, which you can see here on the side, this is what we found here. This is a type of context we found. I'm going to talk more about this later, but one of the most consistent things we have are these cobbles, like always stones in the middle of the context. But I'll come back to this. So this here, this is what it looks up front. It's weird because we excavated a north side in Guarajiri where we also found a very large type of stone feature like this. As you can see, it's carved here to leave a recess that kind of looks like a seed. I'm not saying it's a seed. I don't think that. But it really caught my eye because this was incorporated into the room. As you can see, the wall goes here and everything was peeled around it. And if we are talking about a Guaca, a sacred place, a specific area that will serve for libations, what we usually call a mochadero, would make sense for us to be featured here and be part of this area of very intense activities. This room, the last one we excavated in the outcrop, it's great. It's one of our favorite areas because here we found direct evidence of closing events and rituals associated to the abandonment of the outcrop. As you can see, we have here four features. This is coxail, all of these are animal bones. I'm going to refer briefly to these three here. This area here, it was broken into the wall. At some point when the room is being closed, the people broke the wall, created this sort of corner thing added to face wall here. Actually put a floor inside, and then what we found was this, which I feel we should have been smarter when we excavated in Oscar because I feel like thinking of thinking of what this could be. And I go back to that image of the Inca in Guamampoma talking with these little standing slabs. Some of them have faces, and some of them are just rocks. So this thing, the fact that it was placed here, as you can see on the floor with these two propelling it up, it looks like it's hidden. It looks like at some point they created this specifically to put it there. And when we talk about rocks and guacas and whatnot, we're also talking about the fact that they can be, like if it's rock, if it's a mountain, the body can be partitioned, and it can be moved. That's what in the chronicles, we have all these things about mobile guacas. So I think this is something that is related to that. I cannot fully explain if this is Inca period abandonment or it's Spanish period abandonment. Because of analogy, like with the things I have found around, I think it's Inca period. But we definitely need more dates here to be sure of that. Their thing we found is that when they were living, when they were closing things and leaving things on the floor, they left artifacts that were sort of like everyday's use, but very sort of like intimate use things that are being left on the floor. So for example, we found contexts like these. And here we have ceramic shirts. Again, we have these little stones here, these little cobbles. And these, we found both of them, one here and one in the floor. This is what they look like. There are camelid mandibles that had sort of like a serrated, intentionally serrated area in this part of the mandible, which name I do not remember. So once again, we're trying to figure out what these were, a colleague of mine, Carlos Osores, took these collections to analyze to the north coast. And one of the things when we couldn't figure out what these were, the workers he had with him were like, well, those are hoe to clean out the vegetation. So, which makes sense in the side we have here. So that will be the reason why that's serrated. We think that's actually the function they may have had. I don't want to just say like this is weird and brittle. It probably had an actual use. And the other thing we found were, this is a closing in the door, and again, these cobbles here. So I have gone through many different places of thinking with these cobbles because my first instinct is that this is a small grinder, right, like a small manual. And when we send these things to the Arcabillo Laboratory in Peru, and it came with evidence that there was maize associated to it. But the thing is like these two here, as you can see from the scale, they're super small. So they're not necessarily ideal for grinders. They don't have a lot of evidence of where that suggested that. I've been, as you probably figure out at this point, I do a fair amount of looking at documents. So I found a document from the early 17th century in which, in the excerptation of idolatry's collection in the El Archivo Orso Vispal, in Lima. And there's a lot of description from people of Huarichiri that they all had in their houses sort of like little stones that they would use as part of healing. And basically in the descriptions, it says that when they got, when someone was sick, they will grab a stone and just put it in like sort of like in a maize porridge and basically in a porridge substance and then wrap it on the body of the person that was sick. And then they will throw them out. And in the places they throw them out are areas where later the priests sort of identified the elevations and were like sacred stones and whatnot. So I'm starting to look at if this is part of one of those things like for us, like our moms and dads have medicine, right? Like something they had in their house for these healing practices. And again, I'm returning to the Huaca, which makes sense when something is being close to sort of like return everything to it and its power.  But I think that may be an alternate interpretation to it being a grinder. So everything we found here, let us so far makes me believe that it matches with what we know of what local people in Huarichiri were doing before the Inca and continue to do afterwards. So then we went to the places to try to look at if we found evidence of the traditional Inca feasting, right? And one of the things that's interesting is like, I think the outcrop, the main, the outcrop as the main ritual area at some point was closed because we have all these different contexts. And then the plazas were built. And that is a very canonical interpretation, right? Like the Inca closed something, built a plaza because now this is the sacred place, but it's super close. It's what the Spanish did later. Interestingly, even though there was this abandonment, it was never a fully like divesting itself from it. And this thing you can see here, there's this road that originally when we went into 2011, we thought it was a modern road, which is not, it's a original road of the site. So this actually it's connected from the back, the area of the plazas with the outcrop. So it was never fully a whole separation. So we went into the plazas and you're going to be very disappointed in a second when I show you ceramics. So another thing I wanted to mention is that material associations between both areas are not super different. And we found significantly less cobbles here, more less of those stones I have been talking about. But when we look at the ceramics, this is what it looks like. I'm very embarrassed for all the people that have talked about nicer things, but this is consistently what we find in what actually very coarse and decorated shirts in both of the areas. But when we started excavating the plazas, we found things that I am excited about. But we found like two of these shirts that are painted, some of these like here, an evidence of some colonial ceramic experimentation. But this is, I got to say, it's like about 1% of what we have. So everything is pretty consistent about regarding materials. Now, when we excavated in the plazas, obviously we didn't find a lot of materials because plazas are continuously clean. If anyone has work in this type of hilltop sites, people build atop the bedrock. So basically we had, what was it? Like probably 10 to 15 centimeters down and then we'll hit the bedrock. Yeah, I know. So one of the things that we didn't find is like for example, in the small sections where we could see the floor had been broken, they sort of like created, added a little of gravel to level it and then like cover that with clay. So it looks like continuous reparation and that may have to do with maybe seasonal use, cleaning, then like sort of like making sure the surface would endure for the next time it was used. So we were not super excited with the results from that trapezoidal plaza. But then we excavated in these rooms here. As you can see this part is attached to the plazas. We thought that that may be part, sort of like you have the plaza and then you have, if this is feasting, if this is commensal politics, you need somewhere for people to sleep when they're in the ceremonies for some areas of storage for the materials. We found that here again like in these rooms and in this patio and you can see in this photo, clean floors but a lot of different levels. Again like constant reparation. And this room here was actually storage unit. This is what it looks like. This is a confusing map. So let me just mention, this is the floor. Then we broke the floor and underneath it we found these flat stones. With it's a pattern we have found in different areas of the valley. We usually see descriptions, mentioning that this is good for food preservation. I am not a specialist on it so I don't want to be, don't quote me. But we think that this was a storage area. We found here evidence of whole vessels, like ceramic vessels. This is what it looked like. As you can see we have these ifs here. One here, here, here, here. So that probably meant that at some point that was divided with organic material hanging from those ifs and then you can have a storage of different levels of jars. This is what we found when we were excavating and this is the only area of the site where we could make up almost complete jars. Everything else was not like that. And for those of us that really, really dedicate ourselves to the Inca we found evidence of at least one of, a couple of these fragments that had Inca style decoration. Trust me, I swear this is Inca style decoration. But actually I have only found two Inca style shirts in the whole site. Despite the dates, despite the shapes, despite the plazas. And one of them was in context in the storage unit that was associated to the plaza. So I was pretty excited about it because that does work with this idea of like storing food, sharing, feasting and some association to the state imagery. And this, and here you can look at Tamara's very amazing work explaining why Inca iconography really speaks to this idea of the Inca feeding his people. So, so far, so far here this is an interpretation that, that is very traditional in the idea like I was saying, shifting rituals. But we wanted to see if there was some connection. And what we found in the second plaza sort of like makes us rethink of the role of the role of local ritual in these areas of these plazas and these Inca spaces. So we call this a semicircular plaza and I should foreground this by saying I have been asked if this is a D-shaped plaza and it's Wadi, that's not, just like, no, that's not what, that's not what my dates are showing and that things we found in the plaza do not match the descriptions of either the niches and other areas associated to Wadi spaces or the materials recovered from the plaza. So I don't, to this moment I don't think it's Wadi. I may be wrong, I don't have the data to say it's Wadi. So I just wanted to make that disclaimer that make me look really bitter. So, as you can see, as you can see we have this curved area in the second plaza and we have this inner wall here. So the way this wall here looks is like this and we have this area that is sectioned by stone pillars one here and one here and those stone pillars varying size like the base is between one and one and a half meters and then the tallest preserved one is three meters. So this pattern of sectioning the wall so having pillars and then adding something to connect them it's not an Inca pattern and it's not a Water City pattern. We haven't seen that in any other area. In this wall here we have four of these pillars that are connected and we have two free standing ones, one here and one here. In 2011, Grace Alexandrino, I should apologize, I make her excavate a whole lot of nothing in the middle to see if she found the rest of the wall and she didn't. So we're pretty confident that these were always free standing and then these were the connected ones. So this is what it looks like. Obviously we excavated there. We found our traditional sequence of clean floors and then we found ceramics like these and now my Wadi rant is going to make more sense. This style is something we had not seen in many other regions of Water City. There's not a lot of systematic excavations here. Sac Chase excavated in a site nearby what he has is not the same things we're finding here. So I did some investigation trying to figure out what this type of decoration was and the only reference I have found are from the 1969 report from Thomas Patterson's expedition in which there's a letter describing sites near Water City that has drawings that are basically these ceramics. But those sites are dated to the early intermediate period. So once again, I had a problem. So these shirts we found four. Two of them here and two of them in the rock outcrop and I don't know enough exactly of how the other sites were dated because we don't have a lot on the reports but if they are early intermediate period it opens up a question if we are looking at something that it's earlier or at some sort of archaism or something. So this is where I returned to the manuscript to see if I could find something to make sense of the wall. And what I found is this description here and it says, to be comforts at Waxa, Waxa is a dancer during the Unkisna, a dancer in Onnoferia Caca, people in fact perform a certain ritual. It's like this, a man of the Cacacica IU that's one of the communities functions as efficient for these ceremonies. From early times these coefficients were only one or two people and for their title it was Yanka. The same title is used in all the villages. This man observes the course of the sun from a wall constructed with perfect alignment. When the rays of the sun touch this calibrated wall he proclaimed to the people, now we must go or if they don't he'd say tomorrow is the time. Practical people that you have used for. From this command people go to Paracaca in order to worship. So this is probably me extrapolating something. This idea, I don't know how I did that, there you go. This idea of a wall with perfect alignment kind of matches what I have here. I have not done the archeosometry measures. I need someone way more capable than me on that. But one of the things that this is aligned to is other spatial reference and sites that are nearby. And I can talk about that a little but there's another site mentioned in the manuscript that has five peaks that it's in the way of looking through here. So the fact that we have six also kind of makes me think of these five spaces but that is something we're still exploring. But I think if we look at this description if this is one of those walls with perfect alignments that have specific things where you can look just as viewpoints, it may be tied to the beginning of this festival and deciding when pilgrimage should be carried out. And if that's the case, it could be from what, I don't know if you can see this well but like as you can see this wall is attached to the rest of the construction. So it may be, I'm starting to come around to the idea that the wall may be part of the original design of the site and it just became incorporated into Inka plazas. Like I said, I'm still like trying to move through that idea because it's not the easiest explanation in the world. But if that's the case, what we are seeing is that something that it's so intrinsically tied to Parikaka ritual and pilgrimage is in Inka standard spaces, is in plazas. And that's something that is strange and tell us a little, tell us something that the Inka are not separating themselves from them. They're including that. They're making their part of their own spaces. And like I said at the beginning, when we talk about the Inka, they're incorporating local rituals in a manner that would enable them to both have control but be legible. Like be able to build on what was familiar. So I think that's what we may be seeing here. So to close this, I wanted to come back to a few basic questions just so I remember to say everything I wanted to say. First is like why are we talking about plazas and guacas? Because these ritual spaces, these sacred spaces are actually telling us something about politics. They're telling us something of how the Inka built an empire and how the people of regions like Guarachiri managed to not only outlast the Inka, but their traditions managed to survive. There's a reason why we're talking about a 1608 document and then documents I found in the archive where they still talk about these things. They didn't disappear with the Inka. So I think that this in Kanchaki in particular where we have plazas and guacas, we can actually investigate that intersection. So what does negotiation of a state and local ritual looks like on the ground? I think it looks exactly like that. Like we have a mixing of things and we kind of need to explore obviously what actually is an ideal case as far as sources, but if we can have access and maybe some archival documentation for the late periods will be worthwhile here, if we can do that and look at how people are telling of like this is what I do, this is my ritual, these are the instruments I'm using. We can read material culture in a different way that may be way more informative. So why Kanchaki and Guarachiri? Like I said, we have ideal documents in Guarachiri and ideal sight in this, in Kanchaki and being able to look at both spaces. And basically the main point, the main thing I want to leave you today with is that Inka imperialism was not necessarily about erasure, when they were facing other regions where we have people that are contesting them, that are fighting them, we have evidence of that also in the chronicles. Yes, they may go ahead and try to destroy that, but if we think of an empire that was filled of a lot of different people, of a lot of different groups, you may not want to invest yourself horribly in areas that are not resisting you. And in that case, the mechanisms of imperialism may also be creating spaces for local agency to develop and be maintained and actually be more, be expanded and be reinvented by the people that were surviving the Inka, that were experiencing them. So I just want to say thank you again for having me talk today and for everyone that has been dragged into Guarachiri with me, and I'm happy to address any questions you may have.  So we have, we did AMS redocarbon dating and we work with UC Irvine actually. And the dates we have from the rock outcrop are pre Inka, are part of the late intermediate period, but we also think, you know, like in imperialism happens on different paces. It works well with the pre Inka period in Guarachiri. And the dates we have for the plaza are already, I think I put it there as 15, 16 or something around that. And that's probably not necessarily the point when the Inka arrive to Guarachiri, but maybe when they feel comfortable in Guarachiri. Because you arrive, you're kind of adapting, like still like not necessarily building a massive plaza. But I think that that plaza is happening when the Inka are stable in the region and then can add something to it. I mean, the official answer is Tupac Inka, you're punky. And yet the Inka arrive according to the documents, they arrive by the time they have already conquered Chimu and Cajamarca and are coming down from the expedition. So they go through different regions before. So that's the answer to it. I think that they may have arrived earlier and when the outcrop was still functioning and they would have done what they do in different regions, which is like worship or like venerate, whichever waka they find. So it could be, that's one of the things that it's kind of hard in Guarachiri because there's not a lot of systematic research. I don't have yet a lot of comparative materials.  So we're trying to build something that can be interpreted from his excavations and mine. But yeah, it's definitely possible. They arrived earlier than I'm thinking. Beneficence of that picture. So this is just something I really like. What the manuscript remains one of those canonical documents in Andean imaginary, especially for all of us that are dedicated to archaeology, to history. And last year my university in Peru actually came out with a calendar that had a local artist draw representation on some sort of like different types of art for the Guarachiri manuscript. And this is one, this mountain here is Parekaka. Parekaka has two peaks and this is Laguna Moyococha, which is also, it's one of the areas that Ducha Bonavia visited. So this is representing Parekaka. And I also like, I like making the point that these ideas, these rituals, these myths still matter a lot because communities still have to figure out a way not only to come together, but to sort of like create their identity in the face of a Peruvian state that doesn't care. So there's a lot of revalorization of these myths, traditions, and practices precisely for that. Could you tell us a little bit more about the quality of the stonework? Ideal. There's not evidence like of traditional Inca stonework here. It's very consistent. Like what I have found, whichever dates I have here or in the other side that I have added, which was a domestic site, the masonry doesn't change. So that's not a good marker for me for dates and it's not showing like the idea of the Inca imposing something in that pattern. It's very much local manufacture. Sometimes most of the rocks are selected basically. And the best made walls are usually like have like the bigger ones in the base and then you kind of grow up and you add mortar in that domestic spaces, in particular those that were roofed with, at some point roofed, we have recovered evidence of plaster, I'm sorry. No paint. That's not something that we'll preserve here. But it's not fancy in cattle. Yes. In sort of regional terms, maybe there's not good survey data, but is there anywhere nearby or what is the nearest recognizable Inca administrative center or a smaller center or perhaps a town hall? Is there something that is more of an imperial outpost than a connection with local? What actually was through the Hauha? So that will be, at the Hauha will be the administrative center. The other obvious huge Inca site close by is Pachacamac and in Pariacaca, at the foothills of Pariacaca, there's been no excavations, but Carlos Farfan has done survey day there and he has mapped two sites. One of them is circular structures that he identifies as LIP. And then there's another site where he has found Inca like structures. He doesn't describe a whole lot of the stone. So I don't know that, but like the shape that he uses to say that it's Inca and it's built atop previous LIP structures. And in the manuscript, there's specific mentions that when the Inca arrived here, they assigned 30 retainers to work at the foothill of Pariacaca. So he has sort of like make that connection to say those were the Inca minimized there. And then that's also a whole thing because there's a tribute, that's something where the people of ORECD had to pay tribute to have those retainers at the foothill of Pariacaca. So those will be the closers. Sorry. Sack Chase that has worked in Yaxatambo has identified a sector of his site as the Inca sector. And he thinks he has some evidence of trapezoidal niches there. But it's not a very like super mark clear area. So you had a question and then we can go. Yeah. Sort of in the same vein, I'm trying to get my bearings within the local geography. The description of the subject is very clear. But I'm more interested in trying to get something I can recognize. How far away are you from the Hauha Pariacama Royal Road? Yeah. Chaje is away from the Royal Road. Yeah, the site is not a tambo that it's attached to it. Interestingly, the site, the modern town near Chaje, it's called Laway Tambo. So there may be that connection, but this is not connected to the Royal Road. Yeah. And the caves there that I hear I have been into, but that's still some distance. That's it. And I should have been clear, like Muyukocha is like the lagoon that it's around that stairway. And it's depicted in the documents as Perekaka has two different mountains and a stair coming up. Muyukocha is the lagoon that is there. Guarachiri? Let me see if I can. Well, I'm not doing this well. It's Guarachiri by car is about two hours. It's not close by. And one of the things that comes up a lot when I try to think about the geography is like it looks very concise in the maps, right? Like it looks like a unity, but experientially living there, Guarachiri and Pariacaka are not features that are constant for the people where I work. So that kind of also goes to this idea of resonance and when they will need these different reminders of that unity, but it's not close by at all. Thank you. And I had a question over there. It was from the Alhazard. So what? Let me think. So now wait. It's the Kapaknyam is not visible from the side. Like we know how to reach it, but like walking it probably be like for us, like an hour probably in order to go down to it. It's also not fully preserved in that section. What I can say just because I didn't talk about that a whole lot as far as geography, there are other sites mentioned in the manuscript that are part of this history of Pariacaka or where he was born or where he visit and whatnot and those sites are visible. So there's a particular one site that's a great site. It's called Cinco Cerros, five hills that different scholars have identified that as either the birthplace of Pariacaka or one of the places where in a very like allegorical Catholic way Pariacaka went disguised as a beggar and was not fed or given drinks and then destroyed. Yeah, so that site it's actually visible from all the surrounding settlements in this part of what it should be. So the connection, the placement of the sites, it's attached to that local ritual not to the infrastructure. Yes. Huge question. It is but it's a reasonable one so it's fine. Let me, I'm getting there now. So I have excavated in this site in particular twice. I don't know if I will go excavate again. The way, what I'm looking at right now it's honestly more in the ceramic production aspect because like I said we have these local networks here and one of the things we found is that in the, basically none of the sites we have excavated we find evidence of production of ceramics. And as some of you probably know this area is also known for cause that town of Santo Domingo de los Oyeros, it's close by and that's a hub of ceramic production during the colonial period. And I'm interested in, interesting, I'm not interesting. I'm interested in figuring out how old that tradition of pottery making is because the part that when I talk to people in the town they still remember two generations ago buying the ceramics from them. And now that particular community it's mostly women that are producing the ceramics and they are even, they just form an association and are going to the Peruvian festival of Rudac Mackey as a traditional producers of ceramics. So I'm very interested in figuring out when it became such a female driven activity. My hunch is that it has to be with the colonial period when women are told to stay home. So that's a space, that's a way in which they could reclaim this territory. And there's a lot of allegory for gender roles and parallels in the manuscript. So that's what I want to start exploring. So nothing to do with this probably but it's in the same area and it has, like I said, I'm really trying to understand how people still maintain these traditions and create a community in Guarachiri. Thank you. Yes. Oh man. Yeah. It's a question. Yes. No, it's a question. No, no, no. As far as I know, it's a step of capitalism. No, but what I want to say is I always understood that Inca's work come close as well, would be as cool as it must be. But Inca's also well-dominated and it was a special kind of domination, not to me, reciprocity and solution. Of course, very complex way. But a way to use that word, in realism, what does it mean? It's a very big question for like anthropologists so that's what I'm trying to. So the short, more clear answer I could give is that I'm not using necessarily the Lenin understanding of the word. I'm looking more at the idea of like, imperialism as an expanding state that has a worldview of itself that it's trying to impose in the world. And the Inca had an idea of how a world order looked like. And that is supercoded in ritual. It has to do a lot with some of what we know, usually reciprocity and rock outcrops and carving and whatnot. But that's still an imperial ideally in which they are coming up on top and in which they are presenting themselves as the natural leaders of a world. And I think that as a Peruvian, I can say from my own education in Peru that we tend to make a very strong distinction between Spanish and Inca colonialism, which is totally valid, but that doesn't mean that's not an empire imposing itself upon people. And in the case of the Inca, there's a lot of behaviors they had that are very similar to those of the Spanish. For example, this idea of portraying that societies they conquer, that's basically barbarians that needed to be conquered, the Inca did that. And the Spanish did that. This idea of I'm imposing my religion, the Inca were way more permeable like the way of Inca religion was agglomerate if they could act, but their own deity, their own lineage and their own ancestor was on top. So even though it's different, I think that's the type of imperialism we're looking at. Not necessarily, obviously there's, I am more interested in these ritual social aspects, but there's also a military component, there's also a economic component that was very marked with the Inca. So I think that was there. So that's how I understand the world. I also like, I'm an anthropologist, so I tend to be a little bit loose with like how much I can play with the concepts. So that's why I call it imperialism. Paul? Yeah, this may be readily apparent to a specialist where in terms of broader implications were sites like this where Waka's and Faza's overlap so directly. I understand it's a unique setting when you combine it with historical sort of documentary evidence, but what's the wider context for sites like this in the area and maybe even more broadly in the end? I think this is pretty standard behavior for the Incas. And I think there's been scholars that work in different regions have found varieties of this pattern. And I think where I have basically a privilege is that I can actually investigate the local ritual aspect of this. But I think this is something that in many regions where the Inca went, they did that. They tried to tie themselves to the existing ritual and like depending on the relationship they had with the people that may be more or less violent or more or less inclusive. Possibility of getting onto the president's reception. I'm going to intervene and I really want to thank Carla for what I think is an exceptional presentation under what looks like mundane circumstances. I think she's made various in progress thinking about what a site like that might look like and how the relatively scant remains that she finds relates to the idea of a time sequence involving an incoming imperial tower. So I'm very impressed. It's been a great trip to go there and understand your process of field work. Your humor is really a lot of fun. And it's been very, very enjoyable. Before we disperse, I'm going to disperse to the reception, of course. I just also want to take us back to John Janesek. Just for a moment. And not to say much of anything more. But in my feeling, a meeting like this where you have so much good information, so much good interaction, so much energy that we generate in these circumstances, I really think is the thing that I can most imagine being that transition from being dead to being ancestral. And so I just want to ask you to take a moment of silence because that we haven't done. And just think for a second about John as an ancestor and what that means that he is not dead. He is in another class of being. And that's not something necessarily further away. Thank you, everyone. Now let's cheer up and head for the reception. It's just right out these doors to the side and straight away in the morning. A lot of us going in that direction. Again, thank you to everyone for your attention.


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Palm Sunday. Well we all know what Palm Sunday is all about, but just some quick reminders of what it is. We do know that it was pretty much the last week of Jesus's life here upon earth. We know that right after this Jesus will then be crucified, buried, and then resurrected on the third day. This being the last Sunday of Jesus, there's a few things that I do want to know.  Behind him were his parables, but ahead of him now is his passion. Behind him were his supporters of fellowship, but ahead of him now is his last supper of betrayal. Behind him was the the delights of Galilee, and ahead of him was dark Gethsemane. Prophecy was now to become practice. So Palm Sunday is the day in which we recognize Jesus last day, but at the same time it is a prophecy being fulfilled in which the Lord now, or our God, is going to pretty much tell the world that Messiah is here. Messiah is, Jesus is the Messiah, and we're gonna see the response of the people in a few moments. But we do know that at this time, which was April 6, 33 AD, we do know that at this time Passover was being celebrated. According to Exodus chapter 12 and verse 30, we do know it is a time in which in which God delivered the people of Israel from from the control of the Egyptians. If you remember with me, God told them and commanded them that they were to always remember that day, you know, through a feast and so forth. So they were gathering Jerusalem, and they will celebrate the Passover. That's when God said that the angel of death over the people of the firstborn, and they all died. And you guys remember the story. We do know that around this time, Josephus tells us that there were over 2.500 million people, so it was crowded. You could imagine.  But when I go to Dodger games, man, there's so many people, man, especially when you know, when it's opening day or you know, or a playoff. And I don't know about you, but I kind of hate crowds. But I can only imagine with all these people being there, they're getting ready to to celebrate. You know, I'm sure that the Roman soldiers are guarding, they're aware, they're looking around, making sure that no zealot stands up or radicals try to do something to over, you know, overrule, you know, the Romans there. But we know that there was this big thing going on. And the life of Christ, you know, the testimony of Christ has gone before him. We know that around this time, Jesus had left Capernaum, he's making his way down to Jerusalem, and people have heard of everything that Jesus had done and spoken. I mean, Jesus was doing great miracles.  He raised people from the dead Lazarus. He gave the blind their sight back. Those who couldn't hear, God gave them their hearing back. The people that couldn't walk. I mean, God made them walk again. I mean, Jesus was just doing a work for the Lord as he made his way to Jerusalem to be crucified. As I looked at that for a moment, I just want to share with you this quick application. I want you to know that if you are a Christian, we are to learn to follow Christ's footsteps. And that is that wherever we go, we are always to be ready to be used by God. Are you hearing me? Always be ready to be used by God, not just at church, not just at your home, but everywhere we're going. In fact, every believer, it's on call 24-7.  Hey, pastor, are you up? Oh, now I am. What's up? Well, I'm going through this and I'll begin to minister to them or get a phone call. Oh, in other words, wherever we go, as Christians, as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to be ready. So when our number is called, we can be faithful and respond to it. Jesus, everywhere he went, he left his footprints. Everywhere he went, he left, you know, a work. He allowed people to be ministered by him. So same with us. Everywhere we go, we need to make sure that we're in a position where God can use us for his glory. Now, going here in verse one, I want you to know something happened.  This is now when they drew near Jerusalem to Bethlehem and Bethany at the Mount of Olives. He sent two of his disciples and he said to them, go into the village opposite and as soon as you have entered it, you will find a cult tied on which no one has sat on. Notice the command, loosen it and bring it. So we know from the gospel's account that Jesus and disciples were making their way into Jerusalem as I noted. Notice this is near Jerusalem. They come to this place called the Mount of Olives. The gospel tells us that. You know, near Bethany, Bethvegi and Bethany. Now, I want you to know that we're told that Jesus sent two of his disciples on a mission for him. Now, I say that because I want you to understand this, guys. I want you to understand that God has a task for everyone in this room, just like he had a task for these two disciples.   If that's Christianity, oh man, boring. No, not that he's boring because he's awesome. You heard that, Pastor? What I'm saying that that's not the purpose why God saved us. He saved us so that he can use us for his glory. He saved us so that we can bring to the lost the message of salvation. He saved us so that we can bring hope to those that are without hope. He saved us so that we can bring healing through God's word to those who are broken hearted. We are saved for a purpose. We are called for a purpose. And the thing is that if we're not in a position where God can use us, then we are the ones that are missing out. But God wants to use every single one of you, including me. The question is this, will you be available? It all begins by first getting right with God and then secondly submitting to the word of God. As you begin to submit to the word of God, God then begins the transformation. As he begins that transformation, right? Now he starts putting in a position so that he can use you for his glory. God wants to use you. When you understand that when God uses us for his glory, that it comes with a reward in the end, trust me when I tell you this, you're going to do whatever it takes, man, because you want a big reward. But I learned something awesome, that when God uses me, I'm willing to be used by him out of gratitude. I'm willing to be used by him because of what he did for me. That's why the apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as what? As living sacrifices. And then he goes on and says, why? Because it's your reasonable service. When you understand the extent that Jesus went in order for you to have a relationship with him, but also to have all your sins forgiven, you're going to realize that what Paul was saying is this simple. Just because of what he did, this is the, this, you can at least offer yourself as a living sacrifice.  He said, you know what? Reasonable service. He said, look, if I was to walk in and let me, let me, let me share it as I came up with it, okay? So I can get credit. But anyways, if I was to come up here right now and I come to the first guy here and I say, hey, bro, man, I had a long, long trip, man. My feet are aching.  I got some cream in my backpack and just massage my feet. Bro, you don't even know. I would totally appreciate it.  I can take out my, take out your socks.  But, but, but let's say this. Let's say though, that if I knew that he would, he was in debt, he was struggling and I just came up to him and says, hey bro, what are you doing, man? Oh man, you don't know, man. I'm just going through his hard time. I owe about $500,000, man. They're going to possess everything. Whatever. And I can't, you know what, bro? Man, do your story. Move me, man. Here's a million dollars. Don't only just pay your debt, but you have another 500,000 so that you can live, you know, without that burden. You can be free, you know, just to enjoy life a bit. Now, if I was to give him that check and he realizes that there's funds in there, even though there's no funds in there like that, but we're imagining here, right? But if I was to do that, I would say, hey, bro, can you take out my shoes and just massage my feet? Don't even put cream. He'll be like, hmm, he did help me out, man. And he blasts me. You know what? I can't, I can't do that. I can't do that.  Maybe he has it on him. I don't know why you have Febreze on you, but, but he'll do a little, a little massage there because he's, you know, that's the least he can do. But let's just say that if we're walking out here on the parking lot and, you know, some of you guys will start speeding and you accidentally are heading towards someone's child.  And then I'm hospitalized. And then you find out that, that I will no longer be able to walk. And you come and visit me. And you're pouring out your heart saying, man, you don't even know how appreciative I am.  How, what can I do for you? And if I say, you know what, man, I can't move. Can you do me a favor and can you take me as a sponge bath?  Why? Because of what I did. When you understand how much God loves you and that he sent his only begotten son to die for your sins and forgive you of all your sins, past, present, future.  The heart that has, that is the gratitude will respond. You point the direction, Lord, and I will go. I will go. See, the thing is this, God wants to use us, understand that he has a purpose for us in which he will be glorified. You're going to benefit from it. And we're going to talk about that in a few moments. But the thing is this, God saved you with the purpose.   No, not you, man, because you don't even have an education.   But if you can rely on the word of God, trust the word of God, believe the word of God and use the word of God to fight these, this nonsense that he's throwing at you.  I mean, you're looking at one right here, right now. But God has a specific task, just like he had with these guys. These two guys, all he wanted for them to do is to go and to get a call for him from this place, opposite of them. God chose you for special tasks as well.  Listen, we are his special people, and he has called us to proclaim his praises. Are you being faithful to God? I said earlier that God didn't save you just so you can sit in these pews. He saved you so you can be a light. He saved you so that you can proclaim his truths. He saved you so that you can worship him and honor him and bless him.  He gets blessed when you praise him. You know, I was sharing in the first service how as a papa, I kind of understand a little bit in some of your parents know exactly what I'm what I'm talking about when I share this. When I was little, man, I'm not me. My kids were little. When my kids were little. They used to love to flatter me with their words, especially my daughter. She will sit next to me and she'll say, Daddy, you're so handsome. I know, mama. It's me. El guapo loco. Daddy, you're the best dad in the whole wide world. I'm your only daddy in this whole wide world.  Don't you think God loves when you worship him, when you praise him, when you say, Lord, you're awesome, Lord, you're amazing, Lord, you're good, right? So why not do that and let the world see that? So when they come and ask you, what are you talking about? You can say, here, let me tell you about my God, who is good. But here's the thing. The only way those praises can arise from your heart is when you're experiencing the faithfulness and the goodness of God. And that happens when you're walking in obedience to the Word of God. You can't experience such things if you're not doing nothing for God, but not only that, your faith increases. So now that when you're speaking, have you ever talked to somebody and you know their line? You're like, yeah, whatever. Maybe that's the line. Okay, look me in the eye. But when someone is talking in there and they're believable, I mean, you're like, they got you right there, right? They got you hooked because they're speaking with passion, conviction. They're speaking like, man, these guys are, you know, like if he actually went through it and you're like, I did. And not only do you grow as you're walking with God, doing his will, but others are attracted to it. Now they want to know. And notice how God then begins to use you. You know, I remember when I first started my walk with the Lord years ago now. I remember, man, when when I got a call from San Diego. Hey, bro, can you come up here? My daughter is really sick. They only gave her a few hours to live. And I remember thinking, you know what, I'll be there. Just send me the address. I was staying in Southgate at that time and me and a few other people. We ended up going up there. And the whole time as I'm driving up there, you know, I'm not expecting to see what I was about to see.   I'm sorry. I'm going to go over there. I'm going to pray and then I'm just going to leave. But when I'm going through there, you know, I'm thinking, man, Lord, please help me to have the right words to come for the family and so forth. So I get there and, you know, at the Children's Hospital, I'm standing with the parents and you can see the pain that they're going through. That their little precious princess has only hours to live. I didn't, I didn't have much to say. I mean, what, what can you say other than, man, my heart's with you. So I asked, where's your baby? Oh, this way. So I walked behind them and, and when I enter into the, this room, this, you know, this room, she's laying there and her poor little body is swollen. You couldn't even see her face. And there was a picture of her there, you know, and she looked nothing like her picture. She had this pipe coming out of her heart and some other pipes helping her breathe. And I remember thinking, Oh my goodness, this is crazy. Lord, give me the faith to believe. And I remember praying for her. And I said, Lord, your will be done. And you know, we prayed afterwards. I comforted the family and I had to drive back. And I remember getting the call as we got closer to Los Angeles. Bro, you're not going to believe what happened, what happened. She opened her eyes. I'm like, what?  Oh, I'll call you back. Click. They hang up, right? I like, dude, come on, man, you left me already, you got me all excited. Three hours later, Pastor Dave, what's up? You're not even going to believe it. She's talking. And then a couple of hours later more, Pastor, she's walking. I'm like, what?  That's insane. It's the Lord. And then here's the crazy thing. Yeah, praise the Lord. Give him all glory and honor. And then I remember after that, we had a little picnic and they wanted to drive from San Diego because the little girl wanted to talk to me. So they came all the way when we had a picnic and she walked up to me and she told me, thank you, Pastor David.  And I just wanted to say thank you. That was the task that God had for me. But could you imagine if I would have doubted? Can you imagine if I would have said, no, you don't understand, man, I'm trying to watch a Laker game over here. Can you imagine if I would think about it? I would have never been in a place to receive from God. I would have never been in that place, not only to see God work in such a miraculous and powerful way, but I would have missed out on an opportunity. To grow in the knowledge of God. That he is faithful, that he is powerful and that God still works the same way he did back then. God has a task for all you guys. You hear me?  These disciples had a purpose at this time in their lives. And notice, Jesus said to them, go into the village opposite you. So he's taking them out of their comfort zone. You guys really think I wanted to go L.A. once I knew I was called? I wanted to stay here in Ontario. I mean, Chino. Sometimes the God calls us, he calls us outside of our comfort zone. And as soon as you have entered it, entered it, you will find a call tied on which no one has sat, losing it and bring it. He tells them, losing it and bring it. So he's giving them instructions. We got a task and then we're giving instructions. God has called us. He gives us specific tasks. And then he'll give you instructions that you may be able to do what he has called you to do. But here's the thing that I want you to understand. When God gives you a task, be sure that the enemy is going to do whatever he can to get you to doubt that call or that task. You know what he used for me? My background. Dude, you graduate. You never even graduate. You never went to Jewier High, if we're going to say.  You're titty titty. So we use titty. And then and that weighed heavy on me until I read first Corinthians chapter one, verses 26 and 31, where it said that God uses the fullest things.   You know why, David? I go, why Lord, keep reading. And I read so that he can get all the glory. And I get nothing. But notice he caused them to go, go. The word goal there, it basically tells us that it demands action. We need to get up, stop being lazy. Are you hearing me and start doing what God tells you to do? You get up and you go and watch God work. Here's the thing. But what do I do? Well, there's two things that we already know.  Number one is found in Matthew in chapter 28, verse 19, where he said, go and make disciples out of men, baptizing them, right? And then they're teaching them how to observe God's word, to do everything that Jesus told them, commanded them to do. So that's the first thing you're saved. What do I do next? OK, start discipleship, but you don't get it. Pastor Roni, we only meet on Tuesdays. Come on. That's not what he's talking about. Befriend that person. Start hanging out with the person. Start talking about God. Start allowing your life to be, you know, to be an open book to that person and show them how to walk. After Christ's footsteps.  You make disciples. You know, when I got saved here in Chino, the brother who brought me, I followed him and that guy had a heart to preach. He will go anywhere and just preach the gospel. Guess what? I got that from him. Make disciples, teach someone how to be like Christ.  Dude, that's one task there for all of us. Here's the other one in Mark 16, 15. He says, go and preach the gospel to every creature. The word preach means proclaim, declare it.  Let people know that there's a God who can heal the broken heart.  There's a God who forgives sins and removes that guilt that we may experience true joy and peace in Christ.  Why aren't you doing more? He gives us a task. He gives us specific directions, just like he did there.  No one has sat on it and bring it. God will give you specifics. And I've learned that even with me, as God gives me a vision, God's put something in my heart. I don't just jump right into it. I got to pray to God, make sure he's in it. First, number two, got to make sure I do it his way. If not, you're just wasting energy, time and money. And I did that for years. And to find, I said, Lord, I got in your way. God said, you think so? Come on, David, I've been telling you this for 14 years. What are you doing over there? It's because Lord, I thought I thought I knew better. Really? And in the process, you hinder the work of God in you and through you. All right? You hinge it.  Just like right here. He brought these two men, gave them specifics, and they did it. Now notice Jesus said regarding the quote on which no one has sat. No one has sat. So there was this pony untamed that Jesus was gonna ride. Now here's the thing that I wanted to share with you. Believe it or not, sometimes God uses things or people to get his work done. We know you guys, I mean he uses, where his instruments that God uses, he equips and then he uses for his glory. But God also uses things to get our attention, doesn't he?  Unconditional love. For those who have pets, you know what I'm talking about, right?  You get a little upset. You start kicking it around a little bit. Just a little bit.  I do that all the time.    I learned that through an animal.  You know, with that, I can share this story. I think I shared the story a while back, but let me share it again. But I remember, man, when God used my chihuahua to show me who I was, because God uses things to do his work. And God wanted to do a work in me, but in order to do that work in me, he had to show me who I was first. And he did by using my chihuahua. Well, I come home to a smell, pretty bad smell. Look, did I realize that just the night before, when we were eating steak, was not steak, man. L.A. steak is like flat. Canasada, call it. And we just drip it in A1 sauce. My kids decided to give my chihuahua A1 sauce steak, with steak. It's a bad idea, man, because I come home and I'm like, man, what is that? Sonia, nah, I didn't say that. Don't tell her, please. And I remember like, man, what is it? And I started following the smell. That's how strong it was, like it was going, come, right? And I make a, I connect with the problem and I see it and I can follow it. Like, oh my goodness, I see it, I see it. And it goes up my stairs and into my room and boom, there it is. And I'm like, cookie, cookie. I realized that if I yell, she won't come. So I come down, cookie. Cookie pops out of the bed.  Dude, I've never seen a chihuahua run so fast and then she did like a little slight underneath the bed. I got under, got the broom that was there started trying to hit her. I was bad. She got up, she ran into the kitchen. I mean, that kitchen's a bathroom. I ran right after her. She, I corner her and I'm like, what's up now, fool? And she's looking at me. Now she's on the defensive mode. Forget, he's my owner. Now he's trying to kill me type of thing. So she's giving me attitude.  I'm like, what's up monthly? Why are you mad dogging me? What's all right? Here's the thing. I didn't realize that I was conversing with a dog. I did what Balem did. Remember when Balem was talking to the donkey? I mean, he was so into his rebellious that the donkey's telling him, what are you doing?  Remember that? The donkey tells him, come on, why are you beating me? I've been faithful to you. Oh, you don't understand. He's cracking my feet when he's crying with you. He's talking to a donkey. If a donkey ever talks to me in human words, I'm running. Right, I'm running. He's possessed. I'm out of here, right? Choo! But I remember as he begins to bark at me, and I'm like, what, what, what? I can hear God say, through cookie, mean, mean, repent, repent. That's what I was hearing. I didn't hear it literally, but you know what I'm talking about. That I had to stop and say, oh my goodness. I'm a bad man with a bad attitude. And God showed me, in order for him to do a work through me, he first has to work in me. Before God can do a work through you, he has to work in you. And you have to allow him. The more you say, no, no, that's not me. You know what? The longer it'll take, and you hinder God from doing, what he wants to do. Have you ever thought about it like this?  But how many of you guys have been praying for loved ones? I know most of us here, the majority of you guys. But I wonder how many of us are living hypocritical lives. We're still cursive, we're still drinking, we're still smoking, we're still losing our temper, we're still doing all this stuff. And have you ever maybe wondered that what they're thinking is they're watching you act this way? Well, come to church with me, you need to come to church, come on, you'll be awesome, the worship is amazing, Jared is cool, whatever, right? Have you ever noticed that sometimes they'll look at you and say, nah, it's okay, but what if God was to one day open their thought life to you, and you can hear them say, they're going to church, man, but look at you over there cursing, you're over there drinking, you're over doing this.  Think about it. So here God's trying to reach them, but because of your compromised life, you're hindering the work of God in them. And don't you realize you're pushing them further away from God? Because what happens when someone comes and tries to tell them about the Lord? All Christians are hypocrites. And now you make it hard for us to reach them. Guys, before God does a work through you, he then needs to do a work in you. You have to allow him. So that's the thing, notice, but here the disciples are given a task, are given specifics, and notice, and in verse three, and if anyone says to you more instructions, why are you doing this? Say the Lord has need of it, and immediately he will send it here, immediately. But notice how it says that the Lord has need of it. This was to be said if anyone would question them as they took the call. Now the question has to be asked is, why would the creator of the world need anything? The answer is simple, he doesn't. But he gave an opportunity for that man, or these men to serve him for such an important part in the life of Christ. I understand that, man. God doesn't need me, God doesn't need you. But the fact that he will consider us, and then call us, that in itself should give your heart of gratitude. That God, you will entrust me with your word. God, that you will entrust me with these souls. God, that you will entrust me, and God says, I trust you. I want you to do that for me, would you? Why do you think that when I teach the word of God, I don't take it lightly? I prepare, I study. Why? Because I wanna make sure that I'm faithful to what God has called me to do.  I wanna be faithful to the things that God entrusted me.  Isn't that crazy? When I see people respond to the saving gospel of Christ, and usually when I give an altar call, my eyes are closed, because I'm praying. Because I know the devil's working. I do, or self is working. So I'm praying, but then I'll do a little, I scan the room to see who came forward. I don't do it so I can, I don't fight people, I'm like, Lord, I'm not anointing no more. I don't do it for that reason. The reason why I do it is because I get excited. Oh, that person right now has just been pulled from the strong grip of the enemy. And it's about to get right with you, Lord. That is so cool. I understand, to some extent, the responsibility given to me. God's giving you responsibility too. We're a body, and we're given the opportunity to serve. So if that opportunity is given, if that responsibility isn't trusted to you, can I encourage you to be faithful?  Oh, dude, it's gonna bless your heart. You know, when I used to work down, or any job that I used to work, I used to love when my boss used to say, good job, David. Thank you. Thank you, I appreciate that. And I will walk on like, good job. Now imagine when Jesus tells me, well done, I'll be like, I don't know what I'll be doing, man, but I'll be so blessed to hear the creator of the world who entrusted me with his word and his people, to hear him say, well done, to hear him say, well done. Dude, I can only, I long for those words. Do you? Do you? Well done, my good and faithful servant. May we be faithful. Notice he also states, Jesus says, and immediately he will send it here.  Now, one commentator knows that the phrase properly translates like this, he will send him back. And a quick point, listen, that is the way God works. Anything we offer him, whether it be our energy, our money, or our time, our abilities, whatever it is, God will return it to us with interest. Don't ever forget that, whatever you do, whatever, whether it's a word of encouragement, whether it's anything that you offer, God. God's gonna reward, I'll return it to you with interest. Trust me, guys, some of you guys know exactly what I'm talking about.  I wonder how many of you guys, when I said money, you know, there goes President there, talking about money again, all these preachers want to do is money, money, money. Oh, stop it. Let me tell you something, God don't need your money. God will use whatever it is. And if that's causing you to question, then keep it.  In 1 Corinthians 15-58, Paul said that your labor is not in vain. Your labor is not in vain. We're all, we're told throughout the scriptures that Jesus is gonna reward us for our faithfulness. When you understand such things and you start doing what it's called you do, expect. Here's the thing, expect God to reward you. I tell God, Lord, all I want is to fly like Superman in heaven. I do, man, I've always liked. Where's David? Where, Lord? Shh. I would love that, man. Of course, everything else that comes with heaven, like God being there and hanging out with him, what makes heaven heaven is God will be there. But everything that you give to the Lord, energy, money, time, abilities, you'll return it with interest. Verses four, six, notice. So the disciples go, notice, they obey, Jesus gives them a task. He gives them specifics. So they went, they obeyed. That's the key there. They went their way and found. So as they went, they found, they realized, they saw exactly what Jesus said was gonna happen. They're tied by the door. Can you imagine?  I want you to go to, you find this man. There's gonna be a, I think, and here's the thing. They have to believe him first of all, right? Okay, now they're going. You think it's gonna be there? I don't know, bro. You're asking me, what if it's not there? What if we find there, and there's a cat? What do we do there?   And they go up there and then they see it. Oh, this is crazy. How did Jesus know that? At that moment, their obedience is allowing them to see exactly how God works at that moment. They're realizing, oh man, he's all knowing. I wonder if that's what the conversation is about. He knows it all, man. Man, that's crazy. We can't do anything because you don't know it all, man. I don't know what went on right there. But I'm sure something happened in the heart.  Or how about something like praying for someone? Here's another quick story, man, and I don't want to bore you with my stories. I can tell, I don't, so I'll say it anyways. But there was this one kid, and then with Stephen, he was an exchange student from China, right? And he came, he was staying in our house for one year. You know, we housed him. As a pastor, my goal was I'm gonna reach this kid to the Lord, you know? Oh man, this kid was strong. You know, he was an atheist, self-proclaimed Atheist. And I remember, I tried to share the gospel with him, and he wouldn't do it. Finally, he admitted, look, Pastor David, he said, the reason why I won't do that, because when I go back to China, I want to be part of the army there. And if I believe in Jesus, that's what he told me. I don't know if it's true or not. He said, but if I believe in Jesus, it's gonna mess up my chances. I said, oh, that's gastro, man. What's gastro, Pastor David? So make a long story short.  He wanted to join the basketball team. This guy did not know how to play basketball at all. He couldn't even play baseball. I mean, we tried to, he goes, he passes through, he goes, can you teach me how to catch? I'm talking about, we're doing okay like this, you know? And he still dropped it. That's how bad he was. He tried to join basketball. He went and played basketball, and his ankles got messed up.  You know what I'm talking about? Well, someone broke his ankle. They did a crossover. He kind of went like this. He came home. Oh, Pastor David, pray for me. Oh, no, he didn't say pray for me. He just said, oh, Pastor David, oh, this hurts so much. Oh, this hurts. And his foot was like this fat. I mean, it looked like an elephant's foot. It was big, man. And I'm like, dude, what happened? And we started bagging on him. Hey, you dumb, bro, come on, man. And I go, no, don't laugh. Please, it hurts, it hurts. And the Lord said, pray for it. So I said, hey, Steve, do you mind if I pray for your foot? Oh, whatever, Pastor David. I said, let's make a deal. Whatever, Pastor David. I said, okay, if God heals your ankle, would you believe that he's real? And would you give your life to God? Yes, yes, I promise you. I promise you. Okay, I said, Lord, I pray that you will heal him. The next day, he's walking. And I go, oh, that lay. He comes in from school. Hey, what's up, Steve? Oh, so God healed your foot. What's up now? Remember that deal? No, Pastor David, no, man. No, I'm sorry, man, no, no. So you're not gonna believe? No, I'm not. Lord, I pray that you will bring that ankle back. The next day, hey, my daughter, my sons, their witnesses, they were there. We were all tripping out. The next day, his foot was back like that. Pastor David, why are you doing that? Pastor David. I said, don't mess with my God. See, he's real, man. That allowed me to have more confidence in God, that even in little things like that, if it's from the Lord, he'll perform them. I believe it. If God wants to open MacArthur Park's lake, he'll do it if he wants. If God wants to stop the sun, healed like Joshua days, he'll do it. I believe it. Do you believe that? It all happens by you being obedient, getting past the doubt, and just doing it because he said so. This is what they did. And exactly as Jesus said, as they follow to the team, the Lord was faithful. See, guys, God will always be faithful to his word. Always. Always. So notice the verses 4 and 6, they found the call as they trusted in the Lord's words, as they followed his words. There he was, tied up exactly as was said. As Jesus said it, what happened, it happened. As the disciples through the call, men confronted them. But Jesus' disciples said exactly what Jesus told them, so they were allowed to take the call. There in verses 5 and 6, notice, for some of those who stood, they're said to them, what are you doing, loosening the call? And they said to them, just as Jesus had commanded, I would underline that, just as Jesus had commanded, so they let him go. Here's the thing, you ready? Stop misinterpreting the Scripture. Stop watering it down. Stop trying to make it sound good. You just speak it the way he spoke it. I believe in the power of the Word of God. The Bible says it's alive in Hebrews, sharper than two-edged sword. Think about it. Do you believe that? I believe that. Even if I get up and I'll say, Jesus loves you, come to the Lord. He died on the cross. That is enough to bring about a revival in our land. I believe it. I do. If you believe God's Word, you're going to see, and you act upon it, great things happen. But here's the thing, never, never misquote his Word. And I'm not saying, okay, sometimes we paraphrase it, you know, I do that a lot, man, because I got a bad memory. But I'll say, the Word of God says this, and I paraphrase it, or I'll quote it, but I will never change it. In Revelations, you know that there is a warning for those who add or take away from his Word. I'm aware of that. I fear that. Oh, I ain't going to do that. And sometimes what I can't explain it, I'll just read it and say, there, God told me to tell you this, man. When I meet with couples that are fighting and struggling, I'll tell them, you know, they're like, but, but, but, going here, and I'm just kind of turning to the pages and then I go to Ephesians. You guys are Christians? Yeah, okay. There you go. Read that right there. Oh, so what do I do? Right there? Cancel? The meeting's over. God bless. So easy, man. Easy stuff, right? Just, they did exactly. They said exactly. And they were able to see God work progress. So they, they, they let them go. So again, verse seven. So they brought the coat to Jesus and threw their clothes on it and sat on it and many spread their clothes on the robe and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Those who went before and those who follow cried out saying, Oh, Zana, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom of our Father, David, that comes in the name of the Lord. Oh, Zana in the highest. And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when that they, when he had looked around all things as the hour has already late, he went on to Bethany with the 12. And a couple and a few hours there, Jesus will be betrayed and, and you can go on and read and you have the Last Supper and then you have the betrayal and then you have the crucifixion of the Lord. But for this moment here, he fulfilled the prophecy. He fulfilled the prophecy of Zachariah 99, the Masiatnik scriptures to Daniel chapter nine, 24 to 26. Jesus is saying, listen, I am that Messiah, the Lamb of God, the one who will come and reign. He fulfilled it. This was big in Israel. In fact, what we just read, Oh, Zana, blessed is and so forth there in verse nine and 10. It was actually, they were actually quoting Psalms 118 verses 25 to 26. So it was a scriptural praise. And here's something quick. How do, how do we need to praise God scripturally? We need to come to the Lord using our words. As Isaiah talked about in chapter 14 verse two, we are to praise him with a song. Psalms 100 verse two. We are to lift up not only our voices, but our hands Psalms 134 verse two. We are to praise him according to his word. Now that's important guys, because some people come, don't come early enough and please don't get me wrong. I'm not questioning your loyalty or your love for God, but for me, this is me. I love worship. You know why I kept coming here after I gave my life to the Lord? It was because of the worship. I used to get in fights with my wife. Just to come listen to worship. I would come over and I miss worship. You know, we'll be fighting. Hurry up. I'm getting the baby. I don't care. I'm going without you. And there I was to praise you Jesus. I was in working progress, right? But here's the thing. I love worship to this day. I love worship. My church will tell you second service.  I don't want to miss worship. Why do we see it as less important than the word? I think we need it all, right? The worship. It's a time we come and we sing our love songs to the Lord. It's a time that we come or if someone has said before and we smother our Lord's faces with our kisses through our worship. It's a time that we come and we bless him after he's blessed us all week. Why not come and sit at his feet before we receive from his word and just lift up our holy hands without caring what this person's going to say and what this other person's going to say. Just spread out and say, Lord, thank you. The only time you should not lift your hands is if you didn't put on deodorant.  Well, the people did, but here's the thing and this is what I want to close with. Now, these are the same people that in a few hours or so, actually days, it's all within that week. They yell, crucify him, the same people that said, Hosanna, Hosanna, oh, save now.  Have you ever wondered why? Well, let's think about that for a moment. They were being influenced by the religious leaders, the teachings and so forth, which is all good. But they began to build up these expectations of Jesus, a Messiah, that in their pursuit of such blessings of Messiah, they began to kind of alienate those scriptures that talked about the suffering Messiah. So when Jesus didn't meet their expectations, they wanted to be delivered out of the people of Rome. They didn't want to be under the power. They wanted to reign once and for all. They're in Jerusalem. So when Jesus comes talking peace and love, they're like, God, chalice, man, we want reign. We want someone to control, to once again allow us to be on the throne, give us our temple. We worship its arts. We're in control. When that wasn't met, they turned their backs on God, the Son of God. I wonder how many people are here today like that. I was one of them. When I first came to the Lord, I had these high expectations of the Lord. And I'll be honest with you, I wasn't really knowledgeable when it comes to the scriptures. I'm still learning. Don't get me wrong. I'll say, I know the Bible completely. I don't trust me, you know, but I'll tell you this. I began to read, but I started reading those passages that talks all, you know, talks about the goodness of God and how God makes us prosper. Psalms, what one of you be like that tree by the waters?  You know, I read all those prosperity. I love it.  That's how I read it. You remember the next morning, I want the good stuff. Give me the good stuff. So guess what happened? I started building this person. God's going to give me, he's going to give me this. So when I hit a wall, when I began to struggle, when I began to get persecuted, I forgot those passages, but all I can think is, what happened, God? What happened? You said that if I give my life to you, that you were going to give me a whole set of new friends. You said that you were going to bless me, that you were going to provide. Now I can't even get this and I don't have this. I'm tired and you heard me say this before. I'm tired of eating Capitan Serial. I want Captain Crunch. Why not bless me with at least that Lord? Come on. Capitan Serial, oh man. And I started getting to the point where I started doubting God and I stopped serving him. At least wholeheartedly. When me and my wife were having some serious issues to the point where we were almost divorced, thank God I'd listened to the devil. Thank God I didn't. I would have missed out on what my wife is today. She's in Boston right now speaking at a conference. I'm like, whoa! And she's a way better speaker than me, so I give her props, man. But here's the thing. I remember when I walked out the house, ready to give up. I remember my cry to God. I've been serving you. And I just spit in my hand. I've been serving you for five years, thankfully. And you still haven't changed my wife. I'm done. And I told her, don't call me. It's over. There was more to the story. Some of you guys know my testimony. If not, email me. I'm just joking. But I'll tell you this, and I started blaming God. And I even told my wife.  It's over. I don't want to ever come back. I'm gone. I'm moving on. That was my heart. And I love what God did. God put my son Isaac. Johnny was different. Johnny was like, can I play PlayStation? Or we don't have PlayStation. Nintendo? That can I play with this? Isaac was the most, dad? What's up, Mio?  I said, of course I'm coming home. Were you? Dad, I love you. I love you, daddy. I said, okay, Mio, put your mom back on the phone. And I told her, you know what? I can't believe, before you say anything, I didn't tell him a thing. He picked up my phone and he called you. I said, well, I'm coming home just for them. But I'm leaving soon. I'm still married, man. God, it was the Lord. It was the Lord. And here's the thing. Those decisions that I made, and there were some bad decisions that I made in my life. Bad ones. It's because Jesus didn't meet up to my expectations. Listen, don't let the enemy build those false expectations of God in your life. Those things are true of God. But there's more to God. You've got to read the Word. Get a proper understanding of His Word. Apply it even when you don't want to.  And to see my wife, she mourned. But to see her faith, she went to Israel and God spoke to her there. And then after that come, and immediately started teaching women's conferences and retreats, I can say God is so good because even when she went through this trial, God remained faithful to her. God helped her. God strengthened her. And now God is using her even more.  This is what she would say, God's going to work it out. God's going to work it out for His glory. And you know what's crazy? He did. He's with the Lord. Punk. Beat me. But on that Saturday, when I got up there and spoke and I gave an invitation to see all those hands that we've invited so many times to church and they would say no. It was because of a tragedy that God turned around for His glory. See, I understand. Amen. I understand to some extent that God will do whatever it takes that He may glorify Himself. But at the same time, whatever He allows in my life, I know that I'm going to benefit from it. I will. Even though it hurts, I'm going to benefit from it. I'm going to benefit from it. And it's just God working in me and He's not done with me and He's not done with you. You just got to obey, trust and follow Him for who He says He's in Scripture. And don't set up expectations for yourselves. Just simply trust, obey and let Him work in you that He may work through you. Amen.