Guaman Poma was also deeply concerned about the newly emergent
mestizo (Native/European) identity, which he saw as detrimental to Andean
civil society. Particularly troubling to him was the fact that mestizos, whether
living in rural communities or in the emerging cities, were not subject to
tribute obligations. He generally saw this new class of individuals as highly
disruptive of Andean life ways, often portraying them as much given to
drunkenness, prostitution, and other forms of behavior that had baleful effects
on indigenous communities. All of these matters are covered not only in the
author’s text, but in the drawings as well. On this and a host of other issues
addressed in his chronicle, Guaman Poma’s work is rich in nuance, deeply
informative, and highly effective in its interplay between image and text.
Further Reading
Adorno, Rolena. Guaman Poma: Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 2000 [1986].
———. Guaman Poma and His Illustrated Chronicle from Colonial Peru: From a Century of
Scholarship to a New Era of Reading. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of
Copenhagen, 2001.
———. “Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe (ca. 1535–1550–ca. 1616).” In Guide to Documentary
Sources for Andean Studies, 1530–1900, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, vol. 2: 255–72. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe. The First New Chronicle and Good Government: On the History of the
World and the Incas up to 1615. Translated by Roland Hamilton. Austin: University of Texas Press,
2009 [1615].
The Guaman Poma Website, Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark.
http://www.kb.dk/permalink/2006/poma/info/en/frontpage.htm.
■GARY URTON