The second half of Guaman Poma’s letter to the king was a lot less historical than the the first half and was a lot more of his opinion and him trying to convince his audience as he detailed things like Spanish abuses. By the way he writes it often seems that Guaman Poma is trying to raise his status to an elite nobleman on the same level of the Spanish. This could be a strategy for personal gain but it could also be to make him more reliable to the Spanish. A nobleman is something the Spanish understand and this high position could give Guaman Poma credibility so that his work was taken seriously. If Guaman Poma was seen as a peasant then the Spaniards, who were from a hierarchal society, would have never have listened to him or taken him seriously. But a nobleman could be taken more seriously, even if they were indigenous.

I found it very interesting how he portrayed the Spanish. Most of them he shows like spoiled children without consequences. He writes pages about how badly the Spanish abuse the indigenous and are being bad Christians. Even the priests and the justices are described as corrupt and badly behaved. They are blamed for most of the bad things that are happening in the region as they steal, drink, gamble, corrupt the indigenous and abuse their power. I was surprised with how openly Guaman Poma wrote about what was happening in Peru. This would have meant his letter to the king would have been very unpopular and potentially dangerous for him, which he even admits when he writes “Good men will laugh at this book; bad men will get angry, will be aggrieved by it, and will want to kill me.”

To be successful Guaman Poma needed to convince the Spanish king to take an interest that would fuel action. Instead of just asking for the king to intervene Guaman Poma frames the problems as the king is being wrong along with the indigenous by the Spaniards. This makes it the king’s problem as he is directly being affect even if these things are happening thousands of miles away. If the king had ever read the letter and had been convinced by Guaman Poma history might have turned out very differently. But unfortunately the letter was never seen by the king so we can only wonder and guess.