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Jonathan D. Steigman. La Florida del Inca
and the Struggle for Social Equality
in Colonial Spanish America.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005. 125p.
José I. Suárez
University of Northern Colorado
In their accounts, many 16th-century chroniclers depicted Amerindians as murderous savages;
those who did not, treated them superficially. Reasons for their negative portrayal ranged
from ignorance of indigenous cultures to downright bigotry. It was not until El Inca Garcilaso
de la Vega (1539-1616), the first mestizo (half-Spanish, half-Amerindian) writer to
attain literary fame, that European readers were able to gain a more impartial perspective
on the conquered natives. Steigman's purpose is to analyze what prompted El Inca to write
La Florida del Inca and to what extent this work altered the prevailing discourse.
The book is divided into six general areas: Introduction, Chapter 1 (Prelude), Chapter 2
(Purpose, Style and Themes of La Florida del Inca), Chapter 3 (El Inca's Native
Americans), Chapter 4 (La Florida's Ideal Conquerors), and El Inca's Prophetic Voice.
In the Introduction, as expected, Steigman states the purpose of the study: "In La Florida,
El Inca presents Amerindian and European ethnic and cultural representations and presents his
rationale, both explicitly and implicitly, concerning his presentations. The current book is
a critical inquiry into these representations and into El Inca's supporting rationale and
motivations" (ix). Although the text seems free of typographical errors, it is in this
section where the first of two obvious oversights occurs in a citation in Spanish:
"... y los alcances posteriors del Inca Garcilaso" (ix). The second appears
in Chapter 1, also in a citation in Spanish: "En sus postulados fundamentales la
lingística moderna" (26).
Chapter 1 provides a succinct background of the historical realities of the period as well as
biographical information on El Inca. His intellectual development, which took place in Peru
and Spain, is well detailed and germane to the scope of the study. Readers are reminded that,
because his Spanish father acknowledged him as a legitimate son, he enjoyed educational
advantages denied mestizo children. (The fact that his mother was of royal Inca stock
also afforded him privileges unavailable to most Amerindians).
Steigman analyzes La Florida del Inca in Chapter 2, aiming to give readers an overview
of El Inca's style and his motivation for writing the work. He comments on chroniclers of the
Hernando de Soto expedition to the area that is today the southeastern United States. Because
El Inca never set foot on North American soil, Steigman also mentions those explorers whom
El Inca consulted. His conclusion regarding La Florida -- and one he frequently restates
-- is that El Inca, besides desiring recognition for himself, wrote in order to elevate
natives to the same cultural level as Spaniards, and that their conquest was justified to
fill the sole lacuna in Amerindian civilization: their ignorance of the one true religion,
Catholicism.
In Chapter 3 Steigman restates El Inca's desire to present the Native Americans in a favorable
light. He classifies chroniclers' works thus:
El Inca, [Fidalgo de] Elvas, [Hernández de] Biedma, and [Rodrigo] Rangel can be
categorized as de Soto chroniclers. El Inca, [Bartolomé de] Las Casas, Alonso de
Ercilla, Juan de Castellanos, and [Álvar Núũez] Cabeza de Vaca can be
categorized as chroniclers of indigenous Americans as well as of Europeans. All the de
Soto chroniclers except El Inca accompanied de Soto to the New World. No indigenous
chronicler except of Cabeza de Vaca ever visited the La Florida natives. The de Soto
chroniclers, with the exception of El Inca, record what they learn through personal
experience with the La Florida natives.... (64)
Categorizing of this sort, although necessary to understand El Inca's uniqueness and merit,
produces a halting tone that detracts from the flow of the reading. (Perhaps columns or
graphs would have made reading less tedious.) Further on, while again comparing chroniclers,
Steigman stresses that El Inca was the only writer of the period who believed that
Amerindians were civilized and that to reach their "human potential" they needed
"Christian redemption." He describes indigenous lifestyle, customs, physical attributes,
war tactics, and weaponry -- an analysis that leads him to concur with El Inca that Native
Americans, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, are universal beings worthy of respect and
more humane treatment. He ends the chapter by commenting on El Inca's style; his conclusion
is that, though a historical account, La Florida is also and foremost a literary
work: "Some [of its] scenes, according to the critics, appear to have been taken straight
from the chivalric romances" (93).
Chapter 4 addresses the remaining characters, the Spaniards, and how El Inca, by depicting
them as religious, well-meaning heroes, hopes to positively influence Spanish policy toward
the natives. Steigman rightfully argues that in this failed attempt, El Inca comes across
as a misguided apologist for Spanish misdeeds and atrocities in the New World.
In his concluding section, Steigman adeptly condenses the main points of earlier pages.
Perhaps this brief paragraph supports his thesis best:
El Inca is visionary in his evaluations. Through his universalist ideal, he sees the
New World natives with equality in the world community upon their conversion to the
Catholic faith. He sees their moral and intellectual stature elevated. He sees the
conflict between Native Americans and Europeans overcome by dialogue between the two.
He sees Spaniards and Amerindians coexisting in peace in La Florida, each culture
enhanced by the other. (112)
Although original and well researched, this study is redolent of a doctoral dissertation.
The rehashing of observations coupled with an abundant number of citations (those in
Spanish followed by English translations) lengthens what would have been an excellent
article into a somewhat less interesting book. All in all, however, it is clear and
logical and provides welcome new insights to historians and literary scholars alike.
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