Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala, Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (c. 1615)

Sancayhuasi, jail of the Incas, an illustration from the book.

As we move forward in our chronological journey through life writing, we shift from the Iberian Peninsula to the Andean world in the early 17th century. Here, we encounter Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala (c. 1535 - after 1616), a Quechua nobleman who authored one of the most remarkable testimonies of colonial Latin America: El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno (1615).

Written in a mix of Spanish and Quechua, and accompanied by over 400 hand-drawn illustrations, Guamán Poma’s monumental work is both a history of the Andes before and after the Spanish conquest and a powerful denunciation of colonial abuses. Addressed to King Philip III of Spain, the chronicle was never delivered, but it survives as a striking example of indigenous authorship, resistance, and cultural memory. Through his voice and images, we glimpse a new world in upheaval—where ancient traditions are reinterpreted, hybrid identities emerge, and writing becomes a tool for justice.

In this course, we will study selected passages of Guamán Poma’s text and images, with particular attention to the topics he constructs: justice, governance, religion, family, identity, and colonial violence. Rather than focusing on a linear narrative, we will approach the text through topic modeling, a computational method that helps uncover patterns and semantic clusters across large texts.

Our goal is to understand what themes emerge from Guamán Poma’s work when examined as data, and how these themes help articulate a new indigenous reality under Spanish rule. This digital reading will be paired with close reading and visual analysis, allowing us to consider how written and visual rhetoric work together in his chronicle.

A digital facsimilar edition can be found at the Royal Copenaghen Library: “El sitio de Guaman Poma”: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno (1615/1616) (København, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, GKS 2232 4°).

A digitized modern edition is available on the Internet Archive: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. Nueva Coronica y buen gobierno. Ed. by Franklin Pease G. Y. Lima: Bibliotea Ayacucho, 1980 (Vol. 1 and 2).

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