Practice your Spanish listening skills: Chasquis, messengers of the Incas

Practice your Spanish listening skills by learning more about the ‘chasquis’ a fascinating communication system of the Incas.

The chasquis were the messengers of the Inca empire. This vast empire spread from Colombia to Chile and chasquis had the very important role of maintaining communications across the Inca territories by carrying news, information, messages, and objects.

Trained from infancy for this position, chasquis needed to possess an outstanding memory and to be in great physical shape to be able to cover -by foot- long distances in all kinds of terrains and weather conditions. Every village had their own chasquis that worked in relay to carry out their assignments, and any infraction or mishandling of the information was punishable by death.

Chasquis were so instrumental to the running of the Inca empire that the system continued working during the Spanish colony.

Click play to hear all about the pivotal role of the chasquis:

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