One of the first "mestizos" of the New World, "el Inca" Garcilaso de la Vega (1539 - 1616) was a well-known writer on the subject of the Inca people. He was the son of Spanish conquistador Sebastian Garcilaso de la Vega and Inca princess Isabel Suarez Chimpu Ocllo, who was a niece of the powerful Inca Huayna Capac. A native Quechua speaker born in Cusco, de la Vega wrote accounts of Inca life, history, and the conquest by the Spanish.

Garcilaso de la Vega was educated in Spain after his father's death in 1560. At the time, marriages between the Spanish and native people of the Americas were not recognized in Spain. De la Vega had to present his case in the Spanish courts in order to receive payment for his service to the crown. Embittered by his illegitamacy in Spain and proud of his Inca heritage, Garcilaso de la Vega took on the name "El Inca." He remained in Spain and did not return to his native country (now Peru) due to the danger his royal Inca lineage presented in uncertain times. He entered the Spanish military service in 1570, and received the rank of captain.

It was in Spain that Garcilaso de la Vega wrote his famous Comentarios Reales based on stories he had been told by his Inca relatives when he was a child in Cusco. The Comentarios contained two sections: the first about Inca life, and the second about the Spanish conquest of Peru. Many years later, when the guerilla Tupac Amaru II gained traction, a royal edict by Carlos III of Spain banned the Comentarios from being published in Lima due to its "dangerous" content. The book was not printed again in the Americas until 1918, but copies continued to be circulated.

"El Inca" Garcilaso de la Vega died in April of 1616 at the age of 77.

External Links

Library of José Durand (http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/exhibits/durand/biographies/garcilaso.html) Biography of Garcilaso de la Vega