Plaza Regocijo

This guide to Plaza Regocijo in Cusco follows a colonial-era story told by Clorinda Matto de Turner, about a merchant named Francisco Cartagena who came home to find his closest friend Fermin Alarcon denying they had ever met. Furious, Francisco dared Fermin to repeat the lie before the altar during mass, and the guide picks up right as Fermin takes the bet. It also traces the square's older identity, the Inca festival ground the Spanish later used for bullfights and a nineteenth century independence proclamation. Listen for how a single corner carries two very different histories at once.