After finishing the rest of Guaman Poma de Ayala’s letter, I noticed there was a shift in his arguments for change, using more “evidence” about the people around him in the present and directing his claims to the king by his “consider…” and “your royal catholic majesty”. In the first part he started off mostly describing the history to the king, perhaps to give the king some background information of Peru and how the people have always been loyal to god in their ways. Then in the second part he directed how an increase of sin came upon the community from the conquest, providing examples from different status and race which he “imagines” would be what they say to him in an interview.

I felt that he was very repetitive about the certain actions that the Spaniards were doing, and he held a strong opinion towards the mestizos. His explanation of the mixed race children/people sounds as though they are also a problem to the community, and the Incan bloodlines will come to a stop. He strongly emphasizes this as a serious problem through the rest of the letter, correlating it with the women’s decisions to not get married. He makes it almost sound like the Spaniards are like the devils (due to their sins) and the children that they created will become demons. The reason for the mestizos “bad behaviour” probably has to do with them not being accepted by Incan community in the first place as he states that they should “never be allowed to stay in the Indian pueblos; they should live in the [Spanish] cities, towns, and hamlets of this kingdom”. The divide among the people and the status which their Spanish side holds appears to me that the mixed raced children are unable to relate to either race, perhaps triggering them to go against the Inca’s because they don’t accept them and resort to mimic or claim the Spanish since they could only remain within their social relations. I found it interesting that he even went into depth about the African individuals who were brought by the Spaniards as slaves and how they impact the community and how they relate to being good or bad Christians. Despite this incorporation of information of different people of status and race, it makes me wonder how much of this is actually true? Could he have adjusted their actually opinions in the letter? On the most part I think that the information about the various people should be taken with a grain of salt, in which we don’t know for sure if this is all factual. Would the people actually agree with his opinions or want what he has written sent to the king to represent them?

Taking a look at page 345 and onwards, Guaman Poma de Ayala starts to refer to himself as the “author” and tells a story about himself and what his journey as a poor man. I found it interesting that he started off saying that he would finish “walking through the when he was eighty years of age”. Of course this wasn’t the first age he had written down (according to the anecdote), however this makes me wonder why did he choose 80 years old and why talk about this in the as if its the future then revert back to making it appear as though it would be the present in the end?

Overall, I feel that Guaman Poma de Ayala put a lot of thought into his letter to the king, however he did include a lot of emotion and dramatization in some parts of the text, direct accusations and orders to what he believes people should be aware of, along with strong emphasis and correlation to what makes a good Christian. Certain parts felt more like a formal letter that one could write to the king, such as his list of decrees in the first part, along with some mention of what is currently happening in the present in his community. Yet this immense amount of information he provides seems almost little over the top, especially near the end in which he incorporates himself in a story.