Twentymiglia
Currently viewing the tag: "Guaman Poma"
Fifteen years ago I learned about a letter written by Guaman Poma to Phillip III. The letter—a critique of Spanish abuses of the Inca people— was written in a mix of Spanish and Quechua around 1616. It was lost until 1909 and then wasn’t transcribed 1936. No one believed the Quechua was a written language. In 1980 he first digital edition was put together, but it wasn’t translated to English until 2009. Today I share this book with my students for BSA’s LatinX Cultural Festival.
But here’s what thrills me: A letter for a King from a 17th century office clerk in Peru has finally arrived at my doorstep. Can any of us really know where our work will end up? I feel this is the proper response to a wonderful parable found in Kafka’s The Great Wall of China, which reads:
