On the morning of March 10, 2014, as vendors made their way to their stands and groups of tourists began forming to make their way to the monuments of the Imperial city, people realized graffiti had blossomed on the famous twelve-cornered stone.
The city broke into amazement, horror, and tsk tsk-ing at the vandalism, the attack on one of the most significant pieces contemporary Cuzco offers to itself and international visitors. It shows the skill and complexity of Inca thought and craft, yet now it has been damaged by paint. A simple tag. An attack on the place of this stone by a young person saying “I am here.”
A security video surfaced and screen captures from it flooded Peruvian cyber space.
The alienation of some youth, urban culture, and Cuzco’s pride crashed into each other and the web fills with condemnation and insults for the young man who dared to assault the city’s pride and glory, the token of its past and contemporary magnificence.
