Quechua is an indigenous language of South America, spoken primarily in parts of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. While its spoken form predates Columbian contact and was spoken by the Inca, a written form was first devised after contact with the Spanish, and uses the Roman alphabet. It is one of the official languages of Peru and Bolivia.
By 1916, several Quechuan-speakers had joined Pancho Villa's forces. When Indiana Jones later joined Pancho Villa, he learned Quechua from them.
In 1936, Indiana Jones hired several Peruvian porters and guides for his trek to find the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors. Five porters were indigenous Quechua speakers while Barranca and Satipo, both of Spanish Peruvian descent, were also fluent in the language. Once in sight of the temple, three of the porters fled in fear of the curse, while the last two later fled after spying a poison dart and then discovering a stone statue.[1]
Later that year, Jessie Hale, researching Incan artifacts in the Andes mountains, uncovered a stone tablet that she believed would lead her to the mythical city of El Dorado. She wired her employer, the American Institute for Natural History, requesting a translator and was sent Indiana Jones. The tablet was in a Quechan dialect, and Jones mentioned to Jessie that he was one of less than a handful of archaeologists in America who could translate it. [2]
In 1937, Jones and Francisca Uribe Del Arco were attacked on the docks of Buenos Aires by men dressed as the Soldiers of the Sun. After being captured, Uribe recognized their requests as being in ungrammatical Quechua, and that they wanted the map Jones had, leading to the Chimu Taya Arms. Jones pretended to swallow the map, and he and Uribe dove in the water to escape. Back at Uribe's apartment, Julio Huertas wondered why the Quechua would be in Buenos Aires -- and in ancient clothes.[3]
In 1957, after landing in Nazca, Jones used his Quechua to talk to some of the locals. He learned from them that a man fitting Harold Oxley's description had come staggering into the town, and had been locked away in the Nazca sanatorium. Afterwards, Mutt Williams was astounded to hear how Jones had first learned the language.[4]
Appearances[]
- Raiders of the Lost Ark comic
The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – "Good as Gold"- Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel
