From Oral to Written Expression: Native Andean Chronicles of the Early Colonial Period

From Oral to Written Expression: Native Andean Chronicles of the Early Colonial Period is a dense collection of short essays on indigenous chroniclers or history writers of colonial Peru. Some essays require familiarity with Quechua linguistics and oral literatures since the essayists seek to explore how indigenous worldviews, languages, and ideas shaped the production of chronicles or relations in Spanish. But also included among the indigenous writings is the Huarochiri Manuscript, written in a literary Quechua. Pictorial representations are also up for analysis, such as the in the famous work of Guaman Poma de Ayala or the work of Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua. Even Diego De Castro Titu Cusi Yupanqui is included among the indigenous chroniclers despite only dictating his words to another to tell a Vilcabamba Inca version of the Spanish conquest. Although dated (published in the early 1980s), this compilation presents an earlier phase in the academic analysis of indigenous chroniclers in the Andean world. Unlike Mexico or Mesoamerica, there were fewer indigenous chroniclers and a lack of a precolonial system of writing like Maya glyphs. Thus, the Andean response to the spread of writing after colonial conquest presents a different "high civilization" adapting writing for its own purposes. As "transitional" literature in the history of historical writings from Latin America, they represent both indigenous and Spanish/Western forms and traditions in a way that was perhaps inaccessible to individuals from distinct worlds. Adorno and Salomon express this quite clearly in the way, particularly the former, tries to juxtapose pictorial representations with an Andean view to elucidate symbolic (and ahistorical) sections of Guaman Poma's work. 

Guaman Poma and Africans in Peru

Enjoy these lovely drawings by indigenous scribe Guaman Poma, from his El primer nueva coronica y buen gobierno. It was meant to be sent to the king of Spain to describe what was going on in early 17th century colonial Peru. Although most of the images don't depict Afro-Peruvians, I found those to be the most interesting. Guaman Poma, as a literate man of indigenous descent, must have come from a colonial elite background, and his view of blacks (both bozales and criollos) was tainted by the social/racial order of colonial Peru. What I find fascinating, however, is the diversity of power relations one can see in 17th century Peru and how people of African descent, already subordinates to the Spanish, can be auxiliaries of the Spanish in ways that place them above indigenous people. For instance, the above picture shows a man of African descent beating an indigenous person with a Spaniard.

This image depicts bozal Christian blacks, devout and praying before the Virgin. Surprisingly, the African-born blacks are shown to be more devout as Christians. As someone of a higher class than most indigenous people of Peru likely were after the establishment of Spanish rule, we can assume Poma, who was literate in Spanish and thus a product of the cultural colonial melting pot, was a Catholic.

This one depicts a Spanish man beating his slaves, which may suggest that Poma was not fond of slavery, or at least the excesses some took. Poma refers to these negros as 'buenos negros,' which suggests sympathy.

Another image of a man of African descent and a white man beating an indigenous person. Though of a subordinate status in colonial society, people of African descent, ever since the defeat of the Incas, could play a 'middle role' as auxiliaries to conquest.

Apparently, creole black slaves stole money from their masters to pay Indian prostitutes, which seems to suggest that local Afro-Peruvians were immoral, thieving, un-Christian, and perhaps more deserving of punishment than bozales. Enjoy the rest of the images, which go on with similar themes in colonial society and the importance of slavery and Afro-Peruvians.

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala's Chronicle

The partial English translation of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala's massive chronicle, translated by Roland Hamilton, is a fascinating read. Although the entirety of the text is not available in English, Hamilton's translation covers the precolonial history of Peru as presented by an indigenous writer to the king of Spain. Unfortunately, the original text probably could have benefited from an editor, but the author bequeathed to posterity an unparalleled intellectual work of indigenous intellectual production in Peru, Latin America and the Americas. As part of the Catholic Indian elite, Guaman Poma's chronicle reflects the contradictory tendencies of colonial indigenous peoples with a foot in both the precolonial past and the colonial present. While he consistently criticized the Spanish colonial regime for its abuses of Indians and the spread of moral, sexual, and criminal vices brought by the Spanish, the author also sought to fix the precolonial past of the Incas into Biblical genealogies and history. 

The Inca, despite bearing responsibility for the spread of idolatry and worship of huacas across Peru, were also responsible for sound laws, a just social order, and a harmonious system in which people knew their place. Furthermore, Guaman Poma came from a provincial family, not Cuzco or the Inca royalty, like El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. Thus, his view on the pre-conquest Peruvian imperial government reflects a provincial and Christian view of the indigenous past. While simultaneously praising Christianity and expressing admiration for the Spanish monarchy, our chronicler is also presenting the Inca as the upholders of a superior system of justice, despite their idolatry. This ambivalent position of Guaman Poma probably also reflected the interests of his social class as they sought to protect or pursue positions of authority in colonial Peru. By presenting the Inca imperial past as one with a more just arrangement of society, and exaggerating the importance of his own lineage within that system, Guaman Poma was undoubtedly arguing for more power for those like himself in colonial society.

According to Hamilton, the chronicle's structure was likely influenced by quipu, the system of recording information using strings and knots. The translator suggests that Guaman Poma's penchant for long lists to describe the emperors, queens, nobility, age divisions, social classes, and epochs was probably a product of the quipu system. Indeed, this is probably true, since Guaman Poma must have relied on both quipu and oral traditions to construct a narrative of the Inca past. Although this sometimes makes for rather dull reading, some amazing levels of details and narrative elaboration breathes life into ancient rulers and personages of Tawantinsuyu. Despite his own provincial and Catholic biases and the attempt to prolong the history of the Inca imperial line to encompass over 2000 years, Guaman Poma de Ayala's presentation of this past undoubtedly presents it as superior to the corruption and excessive exploitation of the colonial system. Unlike his contemporary society, the Incas suppressed crime, sexual excess and libertinage, promoted virginity and chaste living, protected the poor and disabled, and supported institutions like nunneries. In spite of their idolatry and the alleged origins of the Inca monarchs with a sorceress who married her son, aspects of this past were deemed superior to those of the colonial Spanish and were used for a scathing critique of the the Peru of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Given the intended audience for Guaman Poma's chronicle, one wonders how he would have written the history of the Incas for local audiences and what a Blas Valera or El Inca Garcilaso would have made of him. 

And last but certainly not least, a possible connection to the Antilles may be evident in some of the customs of Indian populations described by Guaman Poma. Although he sometimes exaggerated the extent of the Inca Empire, even going so far as to claim Panama and Santo Domingo (Hispaniola) were part of it, one interesting custom of burying the dead with gold, silver and coca inserted into the mouth of the deceased stood out. Indeed, some of the most elaborate and precious precolonial Caribbean duhos or stools once featured gold-encrusted mouths. While only one specimen with the gold still intact survives, one wonders if the Taino practice of inserting gold into the mouth of zoomorphic or anthropomorphic faces of duhos could possibly be a remnant of a similar practice with the burial customs of some South American Indians? Instread of doing it for the dead, however, the Taino practiced the same custom for duhos, whose carved faces must have had some religious and spiritual connotations due to the use of duhos for cohoba ceremonies.