Sign In or Create an Account. Advanced Search. User Tools. Sign In. Skip Nav Destination Article Navigation. Book Review August 01 El Inca. Lynch Thomas F. This Site. Hispanic American Historical Review 49 3 : — Volume 49, Issue 3.
Previous Article Next Article. View Metrics. Citing articles via Google Scholar. For years he had collaborated with Gonzalo Silvestre, a survivor of de Soto's expedition to what are now the southeastern United States, to give an epic account of that voyage. Garcilaso's narrative used classical allusions to at once make the conquistadors into heroic figures and depict the Indians as noble pagans analogous to the ancient Romans and Greeks.
This historiographical perspective became still more pronounced in Garcilaso's final opus, his monumental two-volume history of Peru. The first volume of this history recounts the origins and rise of the Inca empire, using accounts sent by native friends in Peru as well as Garcilaso's own childhood memories which were filled with stories handed down by Inca relatives.
Again, the overall impression conveyed by the work is that the Incas ruled their realm wisely and well, on the classical model of pagan Rome. Their only real flaw was their unwitting idolatry, and Garcilaso lauded Spanish attempts at proselytization. His message, however, was clear: the Incas were a noble people deserving to be treated with respect and perhaps allowed a role in the governance of their own territories.
The second volume whose altered title has led to speculation that the original Comentarios Reales may have caused offence with its suggestion of Incan royal legitimacy continues the narrative of Peruvian history from the advent of the Spaniards to the end of the 16th century.
The turbulent and bloody events of early colonial Peru leave an unavoidable impression, especially when contrasted with the orderly Inca regime depicted in the Comentarios Reales, that the Spanish takeover was a disaster for the region. Garcilaso suggested that the main problem was a series of cultural misunderstandings: the Spaniards were gallant warriors and pious Christians but their failure to learn Quechua and their underevaluation of Inca culture had tragic consequences.
What the Spanish colonies needed, Garcilaso argued in an age of Inquisition, forbidden books and racial intolerance, was a new regime led by those who understood the traditions and above all the languages of both Inca and Spaniard. Unfortunately, this enlightened albeit self-interested program was ignored and all known copies of the Inca's History in Peru were quietly seized by royal officials in the wake of the Tupac Amaru II uprising.
Only after colonial independence had been achieved in the 19th century could his sympathetic account of Inca history once again be read freely.
In his last years Garcilaso became a minor cleric, took on duties at a charitable hospital, and fathered an illegitimate son Diego de Vargas. His current research and writing traces the critical place of the Americas in the global history of knowledge.
He also convenes the London Andean Studies seminar. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Garcilaso de la Vega family shield.
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