Warpe

The Warpe, or Huarpe, were the farming people of the Cuyo region of central Argentina, at the foot of the Andes. They had lived in permanent villages of 50 to 100 people since the fifth century and grew maize, beans, squash and quinoa. By the fifteenth century their lands ran from the Jáchal River in the north to the Diamante River in the south, and they spoke the related Allentiac and Millcayac.

They were never fully part of the Inca Empire, but after about 1480 they adopted Inca llama herding and the Quechua language. Under Spanish rule, Chilean encomenderos who held grants in Cuyo took Huarpe workers across the Andes to Chile and hired them out to other Spaniards.