On April 30, 2011 at the invitation of the Magisterial Pour participated in a talk on the work of Guaman Poma de Ayala, here is my article published in the prospectus that the Shed is reaching out to attendees. Thanks for the invitation.
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala is considered the first Indian chronicler of colonial Peru. Through its work, we contemporary readers, we know the political and social structure of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The chronicle that we realize this historic moment presents us with a material so complex that we can deduce that it was written over a target. But that premium undoubtedly is to become a denunciation of the sociopolitical context and to present a draft of a new order, good governance based on social structures Tahuantinsuyo.
The chronicle of Guaman Poma was not aimed at a wide audience, its recipient was Philip III, King of Spain. Whom a complaint at that time represented the highest authority. To do this we place ourselves at this time, Philip III through its decrees and orders was seen as the figure ordering, a spatially distant subject person whom nobody knew, nobody has seen the king in this place. Las relaciones y comunicaciones venían a través de las autoridades delegadas por él y quienes habrían distorsionado el mandato de su voluntad. Por eso era importante hacérselo saber directamente, sin ningún mediador que censurara esta denuncia. Nuestro cronista no imaginó la dimensión que su documento cobraría siglos más tarde y mucho menos que nos convertiríamos en acuciosos lectores de su trabajo.
Guamán Poma propone el reordenamiento y la administración que debería tener esta sociedad colonial bajo normas andinas, una forma de gobierno que debiera estar en hands of indigenous elites and under the great command of the king. His claim, evokes the administration under which ruled the Tahuantinsuyo and proposes a reorganization in which the new mongrel race has no place, and laments the decline of indigenous people that eventually brings the expense of profits that would benefit crown. Guaman Poma is essential to restore power to the Andean elites. Those in the empire, had reached a place of privilege for reasons quite different from those imposed by the colonial order, which was based on possession of goods and capital.
For him the voice of this elite is essential and admits of it, justifying and extolling his lineage and ancestry. Guaman Poma stated descendant of the grandson of Guamán Yarovilcas Chava, who says, was the second character of the Empire at the time of Huayna Capac. So from the ideology of your project your voice legitimate sender.
their demands for justice, the reporter choose two languages \u200b\u200bto his argumentation . Use the "word" written word is not limited to Castilian, but introduces the Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous languages \u200b\u200bthrough which testifies of everyday life in these "pig." Importantly, the use of different languages \u200b\u200bbrings an imaginary self that keeps the memory of each place.
The other language perhaps even more striking is the image, which becomes a powerful document of information that speech itself, regardless of written text. Not just a support to understand it, the work of the image in this chronicle goes further. The detail and care that Guaman Poma has made the graphic description of a meticulous observer, the patient exercise an ethnographer who observes a space and describes in detail, brushing each situation to present that claim was true.
The image is a language capable of communicating even more than the written text, in a broader sense would say that is more accessible and powerful. This gives the opportunity to dwell on details of gestures and looks, sizes and appearances. The image gathers a great speech that can communicate to the caller on a more immediate and categorical.
Thus the image is used by Guaman Poma as a tool that describes and allows the analysis of the reality different from ours in time and space. Guaman Poma was aware of what she might be able to achieve, I wanted the eyes of your correspondent saw what he was seeing. Perhaps that was the intention of the writer to decide write your letter in two languages \u200b\u200bsets had to be as clear and unequivocal so that your complaint and proposed "Governance" is heard by the king. I had to show that they followed the precepts of religion, which showed obedient and aware of that word sent to preach for him, knowing that they were a culture of an organization that ensured a powerless government corrupt or abusive, who refused to "idolatry".
The combined use of these languages, which either fuse independently of one another, is strategic to Guaman Poma, he had seen as the colonists had done their part in these lands with words and pictures, he had been educated in it. Were forced to sign documents, new faces were shown in their outreaches, images that are instilled fear and subjected So why not use the same language to engage in dialogue toward the other side? Do not hesitate to use the power of the written word detailing the complaint and make use of impact that causes the image. Thus leave no doubt ensure the recipient.
But the text never reached the hands of those who should have done, Philip III was unaware of the complaint by Guaman Poma de Ayala. Hiso destination was deposited among many other roles and come to us on a long trip back and forth to recognize in the past. To look at from our present and see that lawlessness has not changed much. While Guaman Poma's proposal was to exclude the mestizos, the new race then we can say that our world is made today of this great range of colors skins share the same geographical area.
The Chronicler's ideology does not change, the fight for our autonomy, recognition and restitution of our rights in a social order that allows the integration of languages \u200b\u200band knowledge, with opportunities for all. Allowing us a look at our past and with this sap strengthen our present. The picture that presents The new chronicle and good government invites us to look in more detail than the written word and search the hundreds of images that show us the infinite faces of our country.
