Wow what a lengthy second half, where to even begin? Guaman Poma in this latter half of his work explicitly reprimands the roles and systems in place under colonial rule that exploit the ‘poor Indians.’ His recounts of the immeasurable pain the colonial state bestowed on the Indigenous population made me quite sad. Stories of the tyrant priests whose disposition made them lose their fear of God, inturn making the Indians fear them; seen in the example he used of Padre Juan Bautista Albadán and the atrocities he bestowed on the poor Indian who did not give him a sheep … there is no remedy!!! The powerful picture that is the cover photo of the book and that was explained in depth in this second half speaks to the heaviness of Guaman’s heart of all the corruption, even at the level of the caciques, which perpetuate the loss of Indians and their culture. As Guaman states, the Indian way of life prior to spanish contact was more Christian centered than afterwards; they had reciprocal obligations to one another and their community. Although he finishes his book off with an imaginary conversation with the King, it is seldom to say that even if this piece would have reached the king that anything would have changed. I do not know much about the other accounts of exploitation that had made its way to the upper echelons of christendom and spanish society, but Guaman may have been too naïve as to assume that the these entities e.g., the church and king, had any internal morality. This naïvety is also proven, I feel, in the way that he assumes Castilian Spaniards are the epitome of faith and gospel following. In this way, I feel his flipping of Christian doctrine as a way to reprimand and compel the king and church to catalyze change, although executed finely, would have been thrown out.

Guaman is writing feverishly and at times selfishly to fix the system rather than overthrow it. Although, he acknowledges the temperament of Indians and the potential for revolution; in saying that Indians who are not noble shall never be able to carry arms, and that Indians and Spanish should be living very separately from one another, he still fights for the same system, but in this changed system he is somehow more involved in keeping the peace and having noble Indian status and clout with the King and church. As with the our previous discussion last week, I cannot hold on to hope that Guaman has taken on the doctrine of the colonizer as a strategy to destroy from within, but rather to meet the colonizer where they are as way of survival and hopefully change.