Qualla: Paccha https://qualla.com/paccha en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Paccha https://qualla.com/paccha Paccha: Introduction https://qualla.com/paccha/ Paccha means "waterfall" in Kichwa, and the name could refer to any number of streams that tumble down from Cuenca's surrounding ridges into the valley where this parish sits. But the word has a double life. Before the Spanish wrote it down in 1582, Paccha was also a princess - the daughter of a northern ruler who, according to local tradition, married Inca Emperor Huayna Capac to stop an invasion. Their son would become Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, captured and killed by Francisco Pizarro in 1533. Paccha the parish, sitting ten kilometers from downtown Cuenca, carries both meanings in its name: a waterfall, and a mother of empires.

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/z/paccha-wp/6prz-paccha-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Paccha: Twenty Villages, One Parish https://qualla.com/paccha/ Founded on May 12, 1582, as the Parish of Saint Francis of Paccha, this is one of the oldest parishes in Cuenca Canton. It covers 25.6 square kilometers and, at the 2001 census, was home to 5,311 people spread across twenty villages called caserios. The closest of those, Little M...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/z/paccha-wp/6prz-paccha-twenty-villages-one-parish.mp3 0:06 2 full Paccha: Layers in the Name https://qualla.com/paccha/ Two readings compete for Paccha's origin, and both may be right. In Quechua and Kichwa, the word root connects to pacha - the earth, the world, the cosmos itself. The Inca deity Pachamama, Mother Earth, shares this root. The other tradition traces the name to Princess Paccha, who...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/z/paccha-wp/6prz-paccha-layers-in-the-name.mp3 0:06 3 full Paccha: The Altar of Our Lady of Sorrow https://qualla.com/paccha/ The central church of Paccha is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrow - the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Sorrow - and the building itself is relatively new, only about fifty years old. What matters is inside. The altar is a masterwork of wood carving done in colonial-era techniques that ha...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/z/paccha-wp/6prz-paccha-the-altar-of-our-lady-of-sorrow.mp3 0:06 4 full Paccha: Weavers of the Straw Hat https://qualla.com/paccha/ Paccha is one of the few parishes around Cuenca where the toquilla-straw tradition - the weaving that produces what the rest of the world misnames as Panama hats - has persisted. Locally the work is called sombrero de paja toquilla, and the finest hats emerge from weavers' hands ...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/z/paccha-wp/6prz-paccha-weavers-of-the-straw-hat.mp3 0:06 5 full