The main historical work of Garcilaso de la Vega, which to this day is considered one of the main sources on the history of the ancient empire – Los Comentarios Reales de Los Incas. From the point of the reliability of the facts, historians consider this work to be practically flawless. The writer presented his book to King Philip II, a distrustful and cruel man (Brading 3). If at least one inaccuracy was identified, the King would punish Garcilaso direly.
However, there are several accusations against Garcilaso, the main one of which is a reproach for the author’s attempt to embellish his Inca relatives. Indeed, in TheCommentaries, the state of the Incas appears as a kind of exemplary society in which all the forces and thoughts of generous rulers are directed to the well-being of their subjects. Nevertheless, the author did not aim to falsify the Inca history. Garcilaso stated that he transferred to the reader’s judgment only those legends and fairy tales that he heard from his relatives.
Here, it seems vital to emphasize that Garcilaso tended to balance between the defense of both worlds – the Hispanic and Inca. Mostly, he advocated conquistadors’ principles and worldview through religion and the only God. “Almighty God, for the remedy of all his universal Church and final salvation proper to his real soul for long times God prosper. Amen” (Casas). Moreover, it seems reasonable to mention that in his other works, Garcilaso chose epithets that “assimilated Indians to European society, referring on occasion to ‘an Indian knight’” – the similar occurs in TheCommentaries (Brading 5). Thus, from the ideological perspective, the author targeted to devastate the Incas’ image of savages without discrediting the Hispanic one.
Finally, TheCommentaries itself might be considered as a complex and sophisticated text. There are plenty of sentences that should be perceived as full-scale and broad passages – they contain more than 120 words. Then, the work provides many appeals to God and “Your Majesty,” which confuses the coherence of the narrative times (Casas). Garcilaso used a plethora of broad and significant metaphors, comparisons, and sequences when it came to the, deleverage of important thought and messages.
Works Cited
Brading, David. “The Incas and the Renaissance: The Royal Commentaries of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.” Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 1986, pp. 1–23.
Casas, Bartolomé de las. “Brevísima relación de la destruición de las Indias.” Cervantesvirtual. Com, Web.