Translation and the Cronica del Peru: The Voices of Pedro Cieza De Leon

Abstract

THE LITERARY-HISTORICAL GENRE known as originated in classical Europe and became very popular in England, France, and Spain in the Middle Ages. D. R. Woolf defines it as amorphous term that refers to an account of events of the past or present organized according to year and written to preserve those events for the benefit of future readers. (1) For James C. Murray, chronicles are primarily historical works, but they are also part of the literary canon. (2) Although the chronicle as a genre may have declined in sixteenth-century England, (3) the Spanish conquest of the Americas produced a large number of these texts, many of which circulated across Europe in translation. Some of the original documents had been commissioned by the Spanish Crown or administrations in order to develop encyclopedic knowledge of the New World. For example, Pedro Sarmiento's Historia de los incas was commissioned by Francisco de Toledo during his rule as Viceroy of Peru, and Charles V appointed Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo as the official chronicler of the Indies. Pedro de Cieza's chronicles about the conquest of Peru have been hailed as some of the most remarkable examples of this genre, (4) perhaps because the voices of the natives are far more evident than in most other works of the early colonial period. Like so many of the conquerors of his time, Cieza came from the region of Extremadura, in central Spain, and became interested in the American adventure from very young age. Although we know little about his education and religious background, it is certain that he sailed to the New World in 1535 at the early age of thirteen. (5) Seven years later, he started writing the account of the events he experienced, often praising the achievement of the Incas with remarkable precision. (6) Cieza's books narrated the events that he witnessed and took part in, and also provided a wealth of information about the fauna and flora of the area, the customs of the natives (for example, references to dress, eating habits, and dwellings), their religious beliefs and peculiarities, including abundant details of cults of the dead, human sacrifices, and anthropophagic rituals. His chronicles captured some of the most dramatic events of the early colonial period, including the first encounters between Europeans and the Inca chiefs, and the civil wars that later broke out among the Spanish conquerors. Apart from his own experience, Cieza also resorted to interviews with his own compatriots as well as with members of the native population, especially the Incas, whose voices he incorporated into the account of the conquest. Catherine Julien states that Cieza introduced a new genre: the historical narrative of the Inca past. This does not imply that all the stories he narrated were faithful representations of historical facts: the words of the natives were filtered by interpreters and then reorganized by Cieza himself. As Julien reminds us, if he transcribed what he was told, the content was irrevocably altered, not only because transcription involved a certain loss but also because native informants were likely to produce a partial narrative of their own historical past. In fact, Julien continues, even if he relied on native sources of various types, it is very likely that the information he gathered was captured grosso modo. (7) In principle this should not affect the present study of Cieza's texts as we are more interested in the transformative processes involved, the creation and alteration of distinct narratives, and the interaction that Cieza has established with readers across space and time: his informants, his interpreters, the translators of his works, and his changing readerships. Although Cieza's texts were firsthand accounts of the New World, they never gained the popularity of other Spanish conquerors and missionaries, such as Bartolome de las Casas, who would later turn chroniclers. His Brevisima relacion de la destruccion de las Indias soon became a hit by today's standards, partly because the subject contributed to the promotion of anti-Spanish feelings in England and the Low Countries. …

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