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"...don't call me Junior!"
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The Peruvian Porter, an indigenous Quechua, was part of the group who accompanied American archaeologist Indiana Jones on his 1936 expedition to find the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol in Peru, South America.

Biography[]

The Peruvian porter was an indigenous Quechua and spoke that language fluently.[3] In 1936, he was hired along with four other porters and Spanish Peruvians Satipo and Barranca to assist American archaeologist Indiana Jones as he sought out the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors, which was said to be resting place of a legendary golden idol.[1]

Despite his superstitions surrounding a temple curse, the Peruvian porter and his counterparts accompanied Jones along with his treacherous guides. Their fears seemed to irritate Barranca, who treated them harshly to the point that they had Jones' sympathies.[4] When they came within sight of Mount Shubet, the porter assisted Barranca in tying two mules to a tree, before taking the lead of the group and pressing forwards. However, after clearing away some brush around an eight-foot tall Chachapoyan statue, the porter was scared away by the demonic idol,[1] and the nesting animals that flew out of it chased him back into the jungle.[5] By running away with his fellow porters, the man wasn't present when the Hovitos led by René Emile Belloq arrived, sparing him from the certain death that awaited Barranca.[1]

Over twenty years later, Jones and the porter had a fleeting reunion in Nazca as the archaeologist, preoccupied talking to Mutt Williams on their search for the the sanatorium where Harold Oxley had been committed, walked past the Peruvian who had his attention on a garland of chilies in the busy marketplace.[6]

Behind the scenes[]

PeruvianPorter57

The Peruvian Porter in Nazca in 1957.

The Peruvian Porter was portrayed by actor and stuntman Ted Grossman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.[1] After providing stunts for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom[7] and playing the Deputy Sheriff in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,[8] Grossman returned for stunts in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where, in an uncredited cameo, he also reprised his role as the porter as one of the locals populating the Nazca market that Indiana Jones and Mutt Williams walk through on their way to the sanatorium.[6]

In Lawrence Kasdan's first draft of Raiders, the native porters are specified to be Yahua.[9] Ryder Windham's junior novelization confirms the porter and his fellows to be indigenous Quechuans.[10]

Appearances[]

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