Theatre company with its director, Luis Ochoa

In this photograph Chambi portrays the theatre company of the famous cusqueño actor and scriptwriter Luis Ochoa - in the centre in bourgeois clothes, perhaps with his son. A central figure in the season of "Inca theatre" in the Quechua language, in 1923 he was the leading actor in a historic revival of the Quechua drama "Ollantay" at the famous Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (Argentina), by the Compañia de Arte Incaico directed by Luis E. Valcárcel, within the framework of a real tour of South America organised by himself: the Misión Peruana de Arte Incaico, which also included Montevideo (Uruguay) and La Paz (Bolivia). The years were those of the acme of the indigenist cultural movement, which brought the different expressions of native cultures and in particular the Inca culture (or rather a reconstruction of it) to become part of the Peruvian national identity but also of South American identity in general. The centrepiece of this intellectual movement was Cusco, the ancient capital of the empire of the same name.
It can be seen in the photograph that the actors of Ochoa's company - the same Compagnia de Arte Incaico of which he was the first actor, active until the 1950s - are dressed 'as Inca', with the typical accessories that historical and archaeological evidence attributes to that culture. Prominent, for example, are the brooches known as tupu, capes, tunics and skirts with geometric motifs, as well as feathered headbands, women's headdresses made of folded fabric, and golden accessories in the shape of the sun (an ancient symbol of Inca nobility). Inspired by Inca clothing but less faithful also appear the sandals, reminiscent in their shape of Greco-Roman ones.
Other accessories, on the other hand, are more fanciful and appear to be the fruit of certain imagery of the continent's past - particularly surprising, for instance, is the prehistoric-style club in the hands of some of the actors.