Between "Chaos" and "Order": the Representation of the "Sounds" in the Work of Pedro Cieza de León, Primera parte de la Crónica del Perú

Abstract

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...