G
GARCILASO DE LA VEGA, EL INCABorn of a Spanish father and an Inca mother, Garcilaso’s chronicle of the
Incas is one of the few accounts written by a mestizo. Although his given
name was Gómez Suarez de Figueroa, he later took the name of his father,
Sebastian Garcilaso de la Vega, and added “El Inca,” to distinguish him from
his father. Garcilaso was born in Cuzco in 1539 only a few years after the
Spanish invasion. He spent his early years in the former Inca capital, playing
with other youths in the city, speaking his mother’s language (Quechua), and
hearing stories about the Inca past—all experiences that later informed his
writing about his homeland and his mother’s people. In 1560, at the age of 21,
Garcilaso left for Spain, where he sought to be compensated for his father’s
service to the Crown. He lived out the rest of his life in Spain, never to return
to Peru. He studied in Spain and died in Córdoba in 1616. Before embarking
on his magnum opus, Garcilaso authored several manuscripts, most notably
La Florida del Inca, a history of Hernando de Soto’s expedition to Florida
and the southeastern United States.
It is the Royal Commentaries of the Incas for which Garcilaso is best
known. The first part of the work, a history of the Incas, was completed in
- The second part, a general history of Peru, which deals with the
Spanish conquest, the civil wars, and the Vilcabamba campaigns,
culminating with the death of Túpac Amaru I in 1572, was posthumously
published, in Córdoba, in 1617.
Garcilaso based his account of the Incas on several sources. Foremost were
his memories of growing up in the former Inca capital. In his chronicle, he
often laments the ongoing destruction of Cuzco by the Spaniards who pilfered
Inca stones to build their churches and mansions. His mother, Chimpu Ocllo,
and her family, descendants of the ruler Topa Inca, gave the young Garcilaso
privileged information and access to descendants of former Inca nobility that
few other chroniclers could claim. Once in Spain, Garcilaso kept abreast of
events in his home country by letters from his childhood friends. In addition,
and in keeping with the fashion of the times, he borrowed freely from other