Tag: the first new chronicle and good government

The latter half of Guamán Poma’s plea to King Philip of Spain takes on a considerable tonal shift compared to the previous section. Guamán Poma starts out by chronicling the details of specific abuses (often even naming whom has committed them!) and also makes some suggestions for improvements. As he did in the first half, Guamán Poma emphasizes Christian values in his solutions and in his reasoning for why the actions of the Spanish towards the other inhabitants of New Spain are so distasteful. Race is also heavily discussed in relation to the current social structure of the Spanish colonial system, and goes beyond Spanish/Mestizo/Indigenous concerns and even brings up injustices towards black people in the colonies. Guamán Poma even touches on how systemic racism creates other societal problems (though his solution there leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion) (there’s also some rough opinions on interracial marriage… not great).

Throughout The First New Chronicle and Good Government, Guamán Poma acts as an advocate for the Indigenous people in the Andes. This is no different in his proposed solutions, as he suggests that Indigenous peoples should be appointed into positions of power. There is never any mention of shedding the colonial system entirely, or of restructuring it in a way that is completely radical. In fact, the suggestions made by Guamán Poma all fall within the context of colonialism and continued Spanish presence. Other than the recommendation to adopt more Indigenous principles and add more Indigenous peoples into positions of power, Guamán Poma’s suggestions seem relatively in line with what the Spanish state claims to already want- namely, Christian principles, an imperial presence, and a hierarchical system of governance with the monarchy at the top (but the pope and God above the monarch). That being said, I still am not convinced this would have been well received by the Spanish, if it were, in fact, received at all. To our (my) eye, these reforms seem pretty achievable, but a large part of Spanish rule in the Americas and in other colonies did take on a degree of racial hierarchization, which only worsened as the colonial projects of Europe distilled. (Not saying it was great when Guamán Poma writes this, but racism certainly becomes more legally enmeshed after the Bourbon Reforms roughly a century later.) As we talked about last week, Guamán Poma is in a unique social position and is therefore able to elaborate on the injustices he witnesses. However, I think this position also has him thinking and acting within the confines of the colonial system as well.

In this account to King Philip III, Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala describes the history of the Quechua people, as well as traditional roles, rites of passage, laws, and traditions held throughout their societies. Guamán Poma was born into a noble Inca family after the Spanish conquest of Peru, and the perspective he delivers in “The First New Chronicle and Good Government,” while still critical of the Spanish occupation, reflects the fractured and disharmonious (to say the least..!) relationship between the Inca and the Spanish who were occupying Peru.

Something that stuck out to me was the way Guamán Poma described the relative safety of women pre and post conquest. Guamán Poma says that before the Spanish, unmarried women were able to walk freely, without worry. However, since the introduction of Christianity, this is no longer the case. Guamán Poma himself is a Christian, as he states and discusses throughout the text. This seems to be his way of saying that it is not so much that the Christian religion is itself the problem, it is the way some of the Christian Spanish colonizers choose to abuse their power and status, and exploit the rest of the population. This section also highlighted the ways in which gender relations differed in society before and after conquest and occupation. Before the arrival of the Spanish, there was relative equality compared to after.

Guamán Poma also devotes a significant portion of this treatise to Incan laws and social customs. I think this part of the letter is extremely important as it could be seen with relative objectivity (had it ever reached its intended audience). There are clear signs that the Inca had social order, and that in many cases, a lot of their institutions shared common ideas with the Spanish-imposed Christian institutions later on. It seems that Guamán Poma’s main argument is that realistically, the Spanish are only reasserting what was already in place- though, with more violence and with less representation from the Indigenous peoples, who at this point had been disenfranchised.

While this account is certainly thorough, I wasn’t sure how I felt about Guamán Poma’s perspective throughout it. First, his status as a noble already places him in a position of relative power above other Indigenous peoples. Additionally, his commitment to Christianity also complicates (though, it does not negate) what he is saying. At times it’s hard to tell if he is trying to urge the importance of Catholicism and Catholicizing or to warn against it. The best rationale, in my own personal feelings, between these points is that he isn’t denouncing the religion but he is denouncing how it is being proliferated. Unfortunately, I do wonder if that is something that King Philip III would have even cared about, had he been able to read this.