Rewriting Spanish conquest history: foundational myths in Comentarios Reales de los Incas

Abstract

The Comentarios Reales, written by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, offers an alternative narrative concerning the Incan Empire and Peruvian colonial history before and during the Spanish conquest. To justify his concept of truth, Garcilaso uses rhetorical devices that allow him to utilize Spanish writing intertwined with Quechua orality. From the rewriting of Spanish chroniclers’ stories about the Incan Empire, which I define as myths and not fables, Garcilaso questions the veracity of the chronicles and corrects the Andean history. I explore how Garcilaso and his rhetorical devices build the foundations for Incan history while justifying himself in the authority oral discourse and knowledge of the Inca myths. The Comentarios Reales is not the most perfect synthesis between history and fiction (Arias Carbone), but a continuous negotiation between the authority of history and a fiction referred to as fables. The project of Garcilaso was to historicize the Incan imaginary and establish a foundational Incan myth.