Inca Garcilaso De La Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru

Home , History of Peru, History of the Incas, Inca society

Book Reviews / Journal of Early Modern History 12 (2008) 443-466 449

Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru. Abridged edition translated by Harold V. Livermore, edited, with an introduction, by Karen Spalding (Indianapolis: Hackett Publish- ing Company, 2006), xxx + 232 pp., ISBN 9 780 87220 8438 (paper).

Titu Cusi Yupanqui, History of How the Spaniards Arrived in Peru. Dual- language edition, translated, with an introduction by Catherine Julien (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2006), xxxv + 180 pp., ISBN 0 872 20828 1 (paper).

From a global history viewpoint, the expansion of the Inca Empire and the story of how the Incas were conquered by the Spanish are salient events in early modern history. Th e Incas presided over the largest state in the New World and the Spanish conquest of their empire led to a political crisis of large proportions, a deep demographic crisis that took the lives of millions, set the basis for the emergence of an empire ruled from Spain, and the forging of a distinctive culture. Th e Royal Commentaries of the Incas is one of the most important works providing an account of the history of the Incas, the Spanish conquest and the ensuing wars between the Spaniards a few decades after. Th e author, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, wrote this book while living in Spain in the late sixteenth century, and the work was first published in Lisbon in 1609. Th e mestizo son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman, Garcilaso was born in Peru in 1539 and grew up close to his Inca relatives from whom he learned the Quechua language, as well as many of the stories he put years later in this brilliant account. In 1560, he left for Spain with the plan of claiming part of his father’s estate, a goal he never attained. Gar- cilaso never returned to Peru but kept himself informed of Peruvian poli- tics by reading most of what had been written about his homeland that reached his hands, including unpublished manuscripts, and corresponding with individuals of Inca descent back in Peru. Karen Spalding, a distinguished scholar of the colonial Andes, has pre- pared this abridged edition of Garcilaso’s work based on H. Livermore’s 1966 superb English translation. With an audience of undergraduate students in mind, Spalding’s introduction is a useful guide to the author, his world, and the issues he addressed by writing a history of his ancestors sprinkled with commentaries on contemporary issues. To aid the reader understand the significance of this book, Spalding draws a brief but efficient picture of the Andean region at the time of the Spanish conquest.

Th e reader finds an overview of the political conflict in which the Inca Empire was immersed at the time of the Spaniards’ arrival, conflicts that eventually worked to the advantage of the Spanish soldiers under Pizarro’s command. Th e apt assessment of the political crisis Inca society faced in 1532 provides an adequate foundation to further understand the conflicts and subsequent wars between Pizarro’s men that broke up after the impris- onment and execution of Inca Atahualpa the following year. Th is is indeed helpful to comprehend Garcilaso’s time, personal concerns, and world- view. Garcilaso’s brief biography, also told in this introduction, helps one to appreciate the reasons he had for composing the Royal Commentaries and the particular side of the story he decided to tell. Spalding argues in her introduction that there is a close parallel between the writing of the Royal Commentaries and the conditions in Peru since Garcilaso de la Vega left for Spain in the 1560s. Th is approach works well to better situate the author and his work within the wider context of the Spanish colonization of the Andes, although not all specialists would agree with some of her assessments of the period, for instance in regard to Andean indigenous elite’s attitude toward Catholicism (p. xix). To produce an abridged edition of a great work like Garcilaso’s necessar- ily involves taking a risk, for criticisms will inevitably arise. In Spalding’s selection the chapters on the history of the Incas are the shortest part of the book while those on the Spanish conquest and the civil wars are the length- iest. Th e selection omits most chapters about Inca imperial expansion as well as almost all chapters about religion. Th is is indeed a problem for Garcilaso’s views on religion are a critical part of his argument. Spalding could have provided a more detailed explanation for the omission, espe- cially since in the introduction she highlights how crucial religion was in Garcilaso’s thought. Th ese criticisms notwithstanding, history students and the wider public should benefit from the initiative to publish this version of Garcilaso’s major work. Th e History of How the Spanish Arrived in Peru is the only account of the Spanish conquest written from the point of view of an Inca. Th e author, Titu Cusi Yupanqui, dictated this version of the Incas’ exchanges with the Spanish to a mestizo (person of mixed race, Spanish and Indian) scribe while he was in his stronghold in Vilcabamba, with the purpose of address- ing the Spanish king, and as part of an attempt to negotiate with the invad- ers the place he and his people would have in the new order. Catherine Julien, the translator and editor of this bilingual (English and Spanish) edition, provides in the introduction the adequate background to this