3 - Lettered subjects

Summary

I have the impression – I may be wrong – that there is a certain tendency to present the relationship between writing and the narrative of the self as a phenomenon particular to European modernity. Now, I would not deny it is modern, but it was also one of the first uses of writing.

Foucault, “On the Genealogy of Ethics”

The life of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega is emblematic of the many dimensions of Spanish empire in the sixteenth century. Born Gómez Suárez de Figueroa in 1539 to Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega, a noble conquistador, and the Inca princess Chimpu Ocllo, Garcilaso led an intellectual as well as an historical existence that straddled the two very different worlds he inherited. Although the elder Garcilaso never legally recognized the young mestizo as his son, thus withholding from him the blessings of legitimacy, he did develop a strong attachment to the young man, leaving him a small inheritance for traveling to Spain and continuing his education in the metropole. It was in Spain that the younger Garcilaso adopted his nom de plume and effectively became a mestizo writer.

This chapter explores how Garcilaso's massive two-part Comentarios reales de los Incas – his highly influential contribution to Spanish historiography of the New World – positions the writer within an imperial structure while challenging the nature of Spanish rule with concerted rhetorical attacks.