The Inca in the Plaza: debating change in the World Heritage historic urban centre of Cusco, Peru

A statue known locally as the ‘Piel Roja’ (‘Red Skin’, a Native American in leggings, mocassins, cape, and carrying a bow and arrow) stood atop the Belle Époque fountain in the centre of Cusco’s Plaza de Armas for almost a century until it was toppled in 1969. The fountain remained without a crowning element until 2011 when the then mayor erected a new statue, representing an Inca king, atop it. The ongoing controversy over this statue can serve as a point of departure for interrogating tolerance for change in the public space of historic urban centres, informed by consideration of the relationship between memory, emotion, identity and place.