chroniclers, namely José de Acosta, Pedro de Cieza de León, and especially
from the notes of another Peruvian mestizo, Blas Valera. Garcilaso cites long
passages from Blas Valera, especially those concerning events in the northern
empire, an area of which Garcilaso had no personal knowledge, as well as
details of many incidents that transpired after Garcilaso had left for Spain.
Garcilaso’s chronicle portrays the Incas as benevolent rulers, rather than as
the tyrants and illegitimate rulers of Tahuantinsuyu, as depicted in Pedro
Sarmiento de Gamboa’s chronicle published a few decades earlier, in 1572.
In celebrating the Incas, however, Garcilaso often glossed over the less
pleasant aspects of Andean culture, denying, for instance, that the Incas had
practiced human sacrifice (see Capac Hucha). Admired for his eloquent
writing style and an account filled with rich details, Garcilaso has also been
criticized over the years for his hyperbole and some clear inaccuracies,
although he has enjoyed a revival in recent years.
Further Reading
Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca. Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, Part One.
Translated by Harold V. Livermore. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966 [1609].
———. Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, Part Two. Translated by Harold
V. Livermore. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966 [1617].
———. Comentarios Reales de los Incas. 2 vols. Edited by Carlos Araníbar. Lima: Fondo de la Cultura
Económica, 1995 [1609, 1617].
Mazzotti, José Antonio. “Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca (1539–1616).” In Guide to Documentary
Sources for Andean Studies, 1530–1900, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, vol. 2, 229–41. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
■ADRIANA VON HAGEN
GONZÁLEZ HOLGUÍN, DIEGOThe great Quechua lexicographer and grammarian commonly referred to
solely by his matronym, or mother’s surname, Holguín, was born in Cáceres,
Spain, in 1552. He arrived in Peru in 1581, traveling on the same ship as his
Jesuit colleague and author of works on the Aymara language, Ludovico
Bertonio. Both men studied their respective languages in Juli, on the south
shore of Lake Titicaca, which was the principal Jesuit center for the teaching
of indigenous Andean languages at the time. Holguín studied both Quechua
and Aymara while in Juli, but his later publications of grammars and
vocabularies pertained to Quechua. While most of his time was spent as