I was a little surprised by the book because of how it was written. Unlike Guaman Poma’s book Yawar Fiesta is written like a story but I thought it might be like The First Chronicle outlining Spanish abuses. Yawar Fiesta is a lot more subtle than the First Chronicle as it showed the racism and abuses perpetuated by the Spanish by slipping things in to the story as it goes along. You can see the way the indigenous are spoken about, spoken to, treated, and thought of by outsiders.
At the beginning there is a lot of description and scene setting so it was really easy to picture where the story was taking place. This goes on through the story with lots of details added. This is one of the many elements that are different from western story telling. There is a lot of information and interactions and sometimes they do not seem necessary to the story. It is also not told in a linear way like the Popol Vuh.
One thing that really surprised me though were some of the words that popped in many places. There are words like Yankee and red skins and others that I thought would have been too modern to show up. It made me wonder if this was a direct translation or, more likely, that these words are just the most recent and nearest equivalents to the Spanish words that were used. Changing up what words are used changes the meaning of the message. It can be subtle or it can have a large impact depending on the word choice and context. I wonder what would change if I read this is Spanish or Quechua and how my interpretation would change. Languages do not perfectly translate so for the translator there is some flexibility in translation.
There was so much anticipation for the bullfight in the book but often these fights were described very violently and gory. People get disembowelled and apparently this is entertainment. This sport is very dangerous and deadly for the indigenous bullfighters who do it and it is even mentioned that people get gored and ripped apart every year. The edict that is passed is not for the indigenous’ sake though but for the town. Several of the elites think that this type of bullfighting makes them look bad, which is why it must be stopped. The injured and mangled people are just a side note.
I was also curious about the mention of Yankee and red skins and the novel. At first I thought it might have been something that was done deliberately by the author who might have been knowledgeable at the time about Americans, but I didn’t consider that it could have been words chosen for the translation.
Isabella F
I also wonder how translation affects the voice that we’re hearing. We talked about how voices can often have recognizable features, and especially within a community that we can find links and connections that remind us of the speaker. I wonder, through the combined Spanish and Quechua, turned into only English, do we truly get the full sense of the voice? I realize this is the point of all the little footnotes, but it is still something to wonder about.
I was also intrigued by the differences in storytelling styles between this text and others that we have read. In some ways I think I preferred this format because it almost makes it harder to discredit the explanations of Spanish abuse and mistreatment when it is told for the purpose of some other story. Rather than talking about them directly, and having the reader consider each action on its own for what it is, the actions of the Spanish were situated within a wider narrative that was not only engaging for the plot, but also told a story about the ‘Indians’ in Peru that was not as centered on the colonists. Although they did play almost as prominent of a role, the framing of the story and the groups of people in this one seemed better to me.