Biography: the Inca Garcilaso | Peruvian historian and writer.

(Garcilaso de la Vega, called the Inca; Cuzco, Peru current, 1539 - Córdoba, Spain, 1616) Peruvian historian and writer. He was the son of the Spanish conqueror Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega and the Inca Princess Isabel Chimpo Ocllo. Thanks to the privileged position of his father, who belonged to the faction of Francisco Pizarro until moved to the side of the viceroy La Gasca, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega in Cuzco received a careful education beside the sons of Francisco and Gonzalo Pizarro, mestizos, and illegitimate as it.
At the age of twenty-one he moved to Spain, where he continued his military career. With the rank of Captain, he participated in the Suppression of the moriscos of Granada, and later fought also in Italy, where he met the neoplatonic philosopher León Hebreo. In 1590, probably hurt by the little attention that you had in the army by his condition of mestizo, left arms and entered into religion. He attended the humanistic circles of Seville and Cordoba, Montilla and overturned in the study of the history and the reading of classical and Renaissance poets. Result of those readings was the translation of the Italian made by Inca Garcilaso dialogues of love, León Hebreo, released the same year of his retirement in Madrid.

Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca
Following the current humanist in vogue, the Inca Garcilaso began an ambitious and original historiographical project focused on the American past, and especially from the Peru. Considered the father of the letters of the continent, in 1605 unveiled in Lisbon his Florida history and day than it did the Governor Hernando de Soto, title that was synthesized in La Florida del Inca. The work contains the Chronicle of the expedition of the Conqueror, in accordance with the stories that he himself collected over years, and defends the legitimacy of imposing the Spanish sovereignty in those Territories to undergo Christian jurisdiction.
The heroism displayed there and suffered hardship, history had had enough incentive to tempt a writer. It is surprising, however, that Garcilaso chose it, who was unaware that territory at all and instead had such direct information of his native country, as they would then. The same Garcilaso came forward to explain it: Soto company you was referred to as repeatedly by one of its participants, who decided to expose it in writing, so used, in addition, data provided by other two witnesses. He did it with enough extension (a book for each year) and showed, above all, his talent literary hitting to reflect the tragic beauty of that heroic attempt.
The title most famous Inca Garcilaso, however, were the real comments. The first part of this work was published in Lisbon in 1609 and the second, which took the title by the publishers of General history of Peru, was published posthumously in Córdoba (1617). Reviews of the Inca are a blend of autobiography, vindicating his glorious lineage and attempt to provide a historical view of the Inca Empire and its conquest by the Spanish. This combination of arguments of different interest has caused a long controversy about the historical credibility of the data contributed by the Inca Garcilaso in his writings. On the other hand, from the purely literary point of view, his prose is considered as one of the higher manifestations of the Castilian language and as an unavoidable reference in the formation of a Latin American literary tradition.
The first part of the Comentarios Reales (1609) addresses the history and culture of the Inca Empire, highlighting that Cuzco was "further Rome", contesting to those who tried to "barbarians" to the indigenous Peruvians. Its providential view distinguishes a time wild, previous to the civilizing mission of the incas; These, on the other hand, was installed with a stage of high civilization, to which Spaniards should improve with the evangelization, as Rome was Christianized in the old world. The second part (the General history of Peru) focuses on the conquest, view as gesta epic; the problem is that the conquest should culminate in the Christianization of the Peru, but "the work of the devil" Egged the sins of the Spaniards, leading them to the civil wars, the destruction of wise Inca institutions and adverse to Indians and mestizos Toledo policy.
Artistically, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega skillfully combined resources of the epic, utopia (Platonic genus of great cultivation among humanists) and tragedy. EPIC and utopia are linked and reinforce up to half of Florida and the reviews, announcing then the tragedy that ends up rushing as the end of both chronic. Despite those reason late, Garcilaso looks hopeful future, as clearly manifested in the dedication of the second part of the comments. Written from his own memories of childhood and youth, epistolary contacts and visits featured characters from the Viceroyalty of Peru, the reviews are, despite the problems of its oral and written sources and the incongruities of many dates, one of the most successful attempts, both conceptual as stylistically, preserve the memory of the traditions of the Andean civilization. For this reason it is considered his masterpiece and has recognized it as the starting point of the Hispano-American literature.
Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas
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