Qhara qhara

The Qhara Qhara, rendered cara-cara in early Spanish accounts, are an Aymara-speaking people of the southern Bolivian highlands, whose ayllus held the country around Potosí. Before the Inca expansion their confederation with the Charca had its capital at Sacaca.

In the late fifteenth century the armies of the Inca Túpac Yupanqui overran the region, and the Qhara Qhara became subjects of the Inca Empire. In 1538 they joined the Yampara and Charca in allying with Gonzalo Pizarro's Spaniards, and guides from these peoples revealed the silver deposits of Porco. Under Spanish rule their communities were repeatedly called on to supply Indians for the Potosí silver mines.