CORONADO

In Peru, smallpox moved ahead of the Spanish, killed off the Incas and their king, disrupted the succession and set off a civil war. By the time Pizzaro arrived in search of gold, the Inca Indians had just gone through the worst period in their history. Fray Marcos (who Viceroy Mendoza sent out to locate Cibola before launching the Coronado expedition to claim it) had gone to Peru with Alvarado and there witnessed Pizarro’s execution of the Inca Atahualpa and the division of the spoils. Writing to the Mexican bishop about what he witnessed in Peru, he was invited to Mexico to present details about the cruelties the South American Indians had suffered at the hands of the conquistadors. Shocked, Bishop Zumarraga and Viceroy Mendoza conveyed the news to Spain where, according to historian Herbert Bolton, de las Casas included it in his book that he called Destruction of the Indies.

CORONADO

The lady who told me about how they celebrate potatoes being life also described how they deal with death, like in this song of mourning for a loved one.