I found the second reading fascinating, but what struck me most about Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s manuscript was his perspective and his treatment of his intended audience. The author, who is described as an indigenous man who taught himself Spanish, seems to adopt many of the literary customs of the chronicle but uses them to his own ends.

Most interestingly, he seems to be writing from the perspective of a good Christian, a religion that had been brought to his country by force. His frequent references to the European narrative of the discovery of America and his formal language used to address his noble catholic readers show where his faith lies. It seems to me that Poma de Ayala was not against Christian rule in Peru, but in fact he felt that the corregidores were insufficiently Christian. He discusses their materialism and physical abuses in terms of sin, most notably with the phrase “With their greed for gold and silver they go to hell.” It seems to me that, as a devout catholic, Poma de Ayala believed that the native people of the “New World” are well suited to practice Spanish religion. In a way, perhaps his principal grievance was actually the lack of religious standards in the early colonial empire.

Like many European narratives that I have previously read, there seems to be a theme of civilization versus barbarism. The obvious distinction about this example is that here it’s the Spaniards who are considered the single-minded savages and the conquered people are portrayed as victims. Furthermore, the first series of images (which can be seen by clicking on the link at the top of the web page) seems to go into a religious retelling of the history of the people of Peru. Again, to me this Christianized interpretation of the region’s history serves Andean causes by appropriating colonial conventions.

Another aspect of this is Poma de Ayala’s source of legitimacy. In addition to religious justification, the author also derives some authority from his own personal experience. At some level, this chronicle is not a theological petition, but a personal one. As a catholic and an upstanding, cooperative subject of the Spanish Empire, Poma de Ayala believes he has the same rights to petition the king as the white conquistadores. This is perhaps the beginning of a hybrid culture in Latin America, where racial divisions are very real, yet also blurred.