Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala , was born around 1535 in the town of San Cristóbal de Sondondo, belonging to the Ayacucho province of Lucanas. His parents were Martín Guamán Mallqui and Curi Ocllo, the youngest daughter of Tupac Yupanqui. He had a mestizo brother, on his mother's side, named Martín de Ayala, a clergyman at the hospital for natives of Huamanga, who would have taught him to read, instilling in him religious principles. The respect and deference for this brother and for his stepfather led him to adopt the surname Ayala. In his youth he was an interpreter for church visitors, doctrineros and encomenderos, as well as secretary of the protectors of natives and scribes of the city of Huamanga. He rendered his services to the vicar Cristóbal de Albornoz, author of some famous Instructions to discover all the huacas of Peru and their camayos and haciendas , touring with him the towns of Lucanas and Soras, demolishing huacas and persecuting the idolaters who preached the Taqui Oncoy, a nativist movement that announced the return of the ancient gods. Accompanying Albornoz he also traveled to Cuzco, witnessing the entry into Vilcabamba made by the Spaniards to definitively put an end to indigenous resistance , and the execution of Tupac Amaru.
Loss of his properties
Upon the death of his father in 1580, taking advantage of his absence, some lands that he had in Lomas de Chaira were invaded by Spanish farmers and indigenous mitimaes from Chachapoyas. He then began a long judicial process, even traveling to Lima, where he appeared before the Royal Audience and obtained a royal certificate ordering that the lands be restored to him. This ruling was never carried out because Guamán Poma was in turn denounced by the chief of the Chachapoyas, being sentenced to exile for two years. Through the sentence dated September 18, 1600, Guamán Poma lost his lands, as well as his title of curaca.
Between 1596 and 1603 he made continuous trips to Lima, to insist on his demands for justice and also came loaded with lawsuits, memorials and other errands that the Indians entrusted to him, temporarily establishing his residence in the capital, where he earned his living as an interpreter.
Defense of the indigenous
He went on to live in Concepción de Huayllapampa, acting as attorney and defender of the natives, drafting memorials to address to the viceroy or petitions to the corregidor. Felipe Guamán Poma reinitiated the claim of property usurped from him and the restitution of his rank, at the same time that he began to publicly denounce the exploitation of the Indians by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. That attitude caused him difficulties with the officials of the Crown in the province and he was expelled from that corregimiento. In 1611 he denounced again before the viceroy the corregidor of Concepción and the doctrineros of Lucanas and Soras, in view of which he was imprisoned and expelled.
Chronicles of Guamán Poma de Ayala
After completing his sentence, he took refuge in the town of Santiago de Chipao, from where he wrote to King Philip III informing him that he had a general chronicle of Peru ready, which he presented in Lima to the viceroy's secretary, under the title of New chronicle and good governance , manuscript of 1190 pages and 496 illustrations. The first part covers from the creation of the world through the Incas to the Spanish conquest, while the second is an impassioned denunciation of the misrule of his land by the conquerors.
The writing of it must have begun around 1567, but it is believed that the author of it completed a new total or partial copy between 1611 and 1615, shortly before his death, probably at the age of 80. Totally unknown for almost three hundred years, the manuscript was discovered by Richard Pietschmann in the Royal Library of Copenhagen in 1908 and it was only in 1973 that an edition in current Spanish came to light, after which successive and increasingly thorough reissues appeared.