Parte de libro
Between "Chaos" and "Order": the Representation of the "Sounds" in the Work of Pedro Cieza de León, Primera parte de la Crónica del Perú
Registro en:
978-987-544-976-3
Autor
Eiris, Ariel Alberto
Institución
Resumen
Pedro Cieza de León was part of the Spanish forces that participated in the conquest of
South America in the middle of the XVI century. After coming very young to the
continent, he arrived in Peru at a time when the main part of the conquest of the Inca
empire by Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro had finished. However, he took part
in relevant political events and in internal conflicts that soon appeared among the main
referents of the territorial occupation. Along with Sebastián Belalcázar he toured the
current Ecuador and Peru, where he participated in the foundation of cities. His trip
allowed him a particular contact with the indigenous cultures. Close to the pro Almagro
trend he was appointed by the President of the Royal Local audience, Pedro de la Gasca,
as "chronicler", in spite of the fact that he had only basic studies and had no training as a
lawyer. This gave him the possibility to perform as a writer who registered his perceptions
about the biological and socio-cultural environment in which he found himself.
His main work, Crónica del Perú —of which only the first part was published in his
life—, was the literary production that allowed him to immortalize that world of
sensations that produced the cultural and political confrontations in that geographical
region that was then explored and occupied by the Spaniards. For this task, he also relied
on comments and descriptions from others, especially to present the first moments of
exploration, before his arrival. The other references on the foundation of cities and
cultural contact with indigenous people, come from his experiences, while the chronicles
about the Inca reality prior to his contact are mostly based on collected stories...