14 - Quechua/Kichwa Poetry

Summary

This essay analyses various examples of poetry written in Quechua (as the indigenous Andean language is known in Perú and Bolivia) and Kichwa (or Quichua in Ecuador) and begins by underscoring how colonial linguistic and cultural hegemonic structures and policies, together with the intense chaos, violence, and demographic collapses that characterized the colonial period throughout the Americas, has resulted in the loss of many indigenous language manuscripts and voices, whilst work attributed to the (written) corpus of one author may in fact, have been the (oral) work of an entire community. Although the essay describes key Quechua language poetic texts of the pre-colonial, colonial and Republican-era, its primary focus is on the post-indigenista corpus of twentieth century poetry published by authors such as Kilku Warak'a and José María Arguedas, as well as the post-Arguedian generation of bilingual Quechua poets. The essay concludes with a consideration of new currents of Quechua poetry--often written by poets who also work as translators, educators, activists, or community organizers--which choreographs verbal gestures that flow nimbly between denunciations of a myriad of both injustices and celebrations of the vitality, beauty, and creativity evident within urban, rural, and peri-urban Andean communities.