400 Year Anniversary Celebration of El Inca Garcilaso's Royal Commentaries at Library of Congress

Posted by Susanna at 10:37 AM, Nov 21, 2009 (Comments)

Category: Events

The Ambassador of Peru to the United States and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Luis M. Valdivieso, and the Head of the Peruvian Embassy Public Diplomacy Department, Mr. Luis Chang Boldrini

THIS YEAR, 2009, is the 400th anniversary of the publication of El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's masterwork, "The Royal Commentaries of the Inca," in Lisbon 1609. His work was written in classic Castillian Spanish, and not only was it a seminal work on the culture of the Americas, it also chronicled the Inca Empire's dramatic disintegration during the Spanish conquest. It was the first book ever published by an American mestizo writer.

EL INCA GARCILASO de la Vega was the son of an Inca noblewoman and a Spanish conquistador. He was born in Cuzco on April 12, 1539. His mother was Chimpu Ocllo, a descendent of Inca royalty, and his father was Captain Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega Vargas, a soldier of Queen Isabella's expeditionary forces. At the age of 21, Inca Garcilaso sailed for Spain to try to claim his aristocratic lineage. He never returned to Peru, and unable to establish a Spanish title for himself or his children, he died in 1616 in Cordoba, Spain.

ON THURSDAY EVENING, November 19, a celebration was held at the Library of Congress in Washington, with opening remarks by the Director of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress Carolyn Brown and U.S. Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington, welcome remarks by the Peruvian Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Luis M. Valdivieso, an introduction by the author and scholar Marie Arana, and presentations by the professors Raquel Chang-Rodriguez and Max Hernandez. The presentations were followed by a reception.

Linda Manus and Danny Marca

Professor Raquel Chang-Rodriguez and Eliane Karp-Toledo, wife of former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo

Ambassador Luis M. Valdivieso gives the welcome remark.

El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, whose masterwork, The Royal Commentaries of the Inca, was published in Lisbon 400 years ago.

A copy of the original 1609 Lisbon publication in Spanish of the Royal Commentaries.

A copy of the first English translation of the Royal Commentaries, published in London in 1688.

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