The First New Chronicle and Good Government (up to pg.143)

 Week 4: The First New Chronicle and Good Government (PT 1)

Reading the first half of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala's text was so interesting because it was from such a unique, sometimes confusing perspective of a mestizo nobleman that narrated Andean history, culture, and the Spanish conquest of Peru. From this first half, there were a couple themes that really stood out to me:

The first of which is how Guaman Poma repeatedly emphasized his humility and referred to himself as "your humble servant" when addressing the king and that he didn't want anything in exchange for writing this insanely detailed and extensive text, but then would add in how laborious it was to learn multiple different dialects and described the text as his life's work, his key to heaven, and had sections that detailed his family line and nobility, that he was a prince. I think that while obviously this is super ironic and pretty contradicting, it's also strategic; this text is addressed to the king and is a call to action, and so to increase the chance of the king valuing Guaman Poma's words, he explained that he is of higher class and of Spanish descent, but also refers to the king and God at the same level, constantly idolizing him with extensive repetition of "Your Sacred Catholic Majesty" that reminded me of how many times you address God with "Dear Lord" during a church service. This constant praise of the king and detailing Guaman Poma's family's nobility combined with the famous statement of Guaman Poma "y no hay remedio" calls the king to action while buttering him up and appealing to him.

On a very similar note, another concept that I thought was super prominent throughout this first half was Guaman Poma's mestizo identity. The text is very religious, with Christianity at the forefront, but every biblical or Christian reference is directly paralleled, compared, or integrated with indigenous history, culture, and cosmovision, which I think emphasizes his bicultural identity and the internal conflicts that arise from this. I thought that his illustrations really showed this; they had distinct Christian influences like biblical references, crosses and rosaries, and a European drawing style while also containing many Quechua elements like the personification of natural elements and the concepts of hanan and hurin, with the positioning of figures to the left vs right of the page. I like the example of the illustration of Adam and Eve, when God created the world; the sun is above Adam, the moon above Eve, and Venus above God, which communicated Andean notions of gender and hierarchy, how the place of honor is viewer's left and the subjected is viewer's right. It's a subtle way to critique the colonial regime in Peru, with one illustration having the colonial official on the left in a position of degradation, proving from the perspective of a Christian that the world isn't right. I also think that Guaman Poma's integration of Christianity and indigeneity is another strategy to appeal to the king about the atrocities and mistreatment of the Quechua people and that they have rights too; I thought this was made most clear when he made the point that Peru had a legitimate right to their rulership over their kingdoms, which they ultimately inherited from God's grant of the earth to Adam, and that indigenous rulers never gave up their legitimate ownership of Peru through apostasy.

After reading "The First New Chronicle and Good Government" and discovering that the Spanish king never received the text, it left me wondering if the events and atrocities following the conquest would've been mitigated if the text had been recieved; would Guaman Poma's call to action have worked or no? And was Guaman Poma genuinely concerned with indigenous human rights, or motivated by economic reasons to further the Spanish crown? I'm excited to read the second half to see what new questions and perspectives arise!