Romney (2011) Guaman Poma'SContact With The Rhetorical Tradition

Indian Ability (auilidad de Indio) and Rhetoric's Civilizing Narrative: Guaman Poma's
Contact with the Rhetorical Tradition

Author(s): Abraham Romney
Source: College Composition and Communication, Vol. 63, No. 1, Indigenous and Ethnic
Rhetorics (September 2011), pp. 12-34
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23006894
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Abraham Romney
Indian Ability (auilidadde Indio) and Rhetoric's

Civilizing Narrative: Guaman Poma's Contact with
the Rhetorical Tradition
This essay invites a critique of contact zone theory and rhetorics origin story based
on a reading of Guaman Poma's First New Chronicle and Good Government. I read this
writer s argument for indigenous ability and reshaping of space through picture, map,
and text as a multimodal effort that invites attention to classroom rhetorical power
dynamics and standards.
T
JL he concept of the contact zone has been around for some time and deserves
reconsideration. As a gesture toward this reevaluation and as an exploration of
indigenous rhetoric, I take up Felipe Guaman Pomas El primer nueva coronica

y buen gobierno (The First New Chronicle and Good Government), the text that
Mary Louise Pratt credits as a model for her initial formulation of the idea.
Guaman Poma deserves attention because relatively little has been said of him
in relation to composition studies, despite the popularity of Pratt's concept.

Recently, this indigenous writer even appears as a negative example for Steven
Parks and Nick Pollard in their article on writing collectives, in which they
call for replacing the contact zone with collaborative writing within working
class communities as a better way of empowering marginalized working-class

students. The authors read Guaman Poma by way of Pratt as a collaboration
CCC 63:1 / SEPTEMBER 2011

12
ROM N EY / I N Dl AN ABILITY (AUILIDAD DE INDIO)
among elites that still excludes other forms of discourse, suggesting t
man Poma "writes ... within a complex set of legitimate discoursesA
royal heritage, Christianity, and an official government position" (4
spite the oppositional nature of these discourses in the colonial conte
authors argue that "they are all legitimate in their respective domains
makes the Incan writer's text "more a negotiation between ... histori
gitimate discourses than an intervention that would speak to the need
unrepresented mass of the Inca (or Spanish, for that matter)" (485). A
represents him, the authors argue, Guaman Pomarather than initia
mass independence movementcalls for a "partnership among elites,
the authors ask us to imagine as "established literacy institutions neg
how resources will be distributed across the network" (485). They are r
noting the limitations of Pratt s representation of Guaman Poma as op
indigenous elite writing to a distant king. However, while Guaman Pom
not call for the type of mass resistance that would appeal to Marxist s
ties, his text shows an engagement with the rhetorical tradition in a w
speaks to the situation of todays underrepresented students and espe
students for whom English is not the only or primary language, preci
cause his text responds to the way one rhetorical history would delegiti
indigenous rhetoric that Parks and Pollard claim has self-contained leg
In other words, even if indigenous discourse does have legitimacy, G
Poma shows us the difficulty in justifying that legitimacy in the face
without the institutional forces bound up in traditional rhetoric. Furth
we must grant that Guaman Poma represents himself as royalty, there
reason that we should give this claim any more credence than his cla
the Incans were thoroughly converted to Christianity before the Spa
arrived. He also argues for linguistic instruction for Andean peoples,
importance of artisans and workers, and for valuing indigenous lang
Whatever his rhetorical self-positioning, and despite the bravado wit
he imagines himself dialoguing with the king of Spain, the historical r
his situation should prevent us from claiming flatly that he is particip
"historically legitimate discourses" when he is actually breaking new

with a mixture of generic and rhetorical approaches.
Readers unfamiliar with Guaman Pomas chronicle (only recently av
in two partial translations into English), may find some historical back
helpful. Guaman Poma wrote and illustrated his nearly 1,200-page man
during the first decade and a half of the 1600s, seventy years after Fe
Pizarro in 1529 had been authorized (or contracted) by the Spanish
13
to conquer and colonize Peru in a document refer
of Toledo. In the years following Pizarro's conque
subsequent efforts to gain control of the viceroya
became a popular genre, one that was taken up by
even some authors of indigenous descent. The genr
a historical narrative, not a firsthand account (Pe
his contemporary the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, w
father and an Incan mother and whose Royal Com
importance as a historical account, Guaman Poma
never traveled to Spain. Additionally, his writing
(by unknown means the manuscript crossed th
Denmark until being rediscovered
Guaman Poma's struggle for

largely unheard voice addressing Ki
legitimacy in what we could callSpain
a
(king from 1598 to 1621) in an
multimodal writing situation proves

straight the record of the chroniclers
instructive for composition studies

half century. Though Guaman Poma
from both Incan and non-Incan royal

when we think of the challenges
by translating his indigenous t

that his text provides to notions touts
of
his own account and the historical record indicate
clarity and rhetorical ability.
that he served only minor local officials in the vice
regal government andpennilessfaced exile and punishment at the hands

of indigenous enemies after the loss of a lawsuit over land titles (Adorno and
Boserup 46-49).
Guaman Poma's struggle for legitimacy in what we could call a multimodal
writing situation proves instructive for composition studies when we think of

the challenges that his text provides to notions of clarity and rhetorical ability.
Not long after Pratt's MLA speech in 1991, Don Paul Abbott published Rhetoric
in the New World in whichamong important readings of indigenous and

mestizo textshe compares Guaman Poma negatively against el Inca Garcilaso
de la Vega, a child of an indigenous mother and a Spanish father, who moved
to Spain, where he achieved lasting acclaim through his chronicles. While
recognizing some of Guaman Poma's rhetorical appeals, Abbott complains

that he lacks clarity and seems to show less faith in the power of rhetoric than
does Garcilaso. He suggests that Guaman Poma's lack of proficiency in Span

ish and his intermingling of indigenous languages results in a lack of clarity:
"Guaman Poma's prose is as opaque and awkward as Garcilaso's is translucent
and graceful" (96). Abbott describes the text as "long and cumbersome," sug
14
gests it lacks coherence, and views Guaman Pomas universe as "compl
confusing," lamenting that despite his interest in the truth, Guaman

has "little interest in, or appreciation of, chronological accuracy" (97).
one hand, the critical impulse is to rescue this text from misunderst
but on the other hand, we can hardly say that the nearly twelve-hundr
manuscript is manifestly clear. As Ian Barnard has recently argued, howev

much praised and yet illusive standard of clarity we desire from student
(and we might extend this to the indigenous writer) can itself be am
and clarity can hide both deceit and faulty reasoning. Barnard suggest
ing that gets demonized for its supposed lack of clarity may be 'unc
of necessity or accident. It might be working to create new or unconv
understandings and new or unconventional ways of making understa
recognizing in the process that strange language and innovative ways o
language must embody these understandings" (447). Viewed in this light
"could simply stand for the conventional, the known, the old" (447). B
call for more difficult thinking is not new to composition studies an
some resemblance to Bichard Ohman's suggestion that sometimes an em
on clarity of language and concreteness of detail pushes students awa
important abstract thinking (Ohman 250). Guaman Poma's text pu
against older forms of rhetoric and old arguments for the legitimacy o
occupation as he attempts to write a reality that challenges authority
indigenous discursive modes, and opens up space for new commu
emphases in a difficult writing situation. In addition, his text touches
rhetorical tradition that threatensthrough polarizing ideals such as
and civilizationto exclude writing that challenges the dominant way
ing things. Ultimately, such a challenge should invite us to consider the
which the rhetorical structures of our own classrooms might valorize
established types of writing over more difficult writing our students m
in emerging discursive and generic realms. Thus, not only is our read
Guaman Poma benefited by recognizing the limitations of notions of
but reading his text as a complex rhetorical response to a difficult writ
ation could even allow us to think of some "bad" student writing as ex
complex rhetorical strategies that draw upon available tools.
One important point that Guaman Pomas text reminds us of i

rhetoric itself comes from a tradition that sees those who possess it as
ers and keepers of civilization, while those without are excluded as b
Abbotts preference for Garcilaso is based on Garcilasos adoption of W
15
ideals of eloquence, rather than indigenous ones: it i
that Garcilaso could have achieved so compelling a pictu
without employing the rhetorical resources of the Old W
bott's preference for Garcilaso's polished prose echoes th

rhetorical tradition: "Garcilaso, far more than Guaman
civilizing power of language Garcilaso offers a glimpse

Spaniards, Americans and Europeans,
civilized while
when they resort to rhetoric ra
By using indigenous languages
force"
(98, emphasis added). Though
at the same paying homage
to Spanish
choose
rhetoric
over force, we must n
ideals for literacy, Guaman Poma resists
the force of the rhetorical tradition for

ambivalently the idea that Castile,
erished indigenous writer. By using in
Christianity,and the classical tradition
at the same paying ho
constitute the center of languages
the world.while
His
Spanish ideals for literacy, Guaman Po
text dramatizes and questions problems
ambivalently the idea that Castile, Ch
of place and language and
highlights
and the
classical tradition constitute the center
the tensions in a tradition that at once
of the world. His text dramatizes and questions

promises to provide a way
of speaking
problems
of place and language and highlights
while at the same time it threatens to
the tensions in a tradition that promises to
delegitimize the speech provide

of those
found
a way
of speaking while, at the same
outside its borders.
time, that tradition threatens to delegitimize
the speech of those found outside its borders.

Similarly, the writing classroom promises to provide students with rhetorical
know-how commensurate with an academic standard of writing. This standard
is often connected to civilization, whether in our belief that writing teachers
have a duty to educate future citizens for participation in a public sphere or in
our touting of the capitalistic utility of written communication skills.
Haunting Guaman Poma's engagement with Spain's epistemic forces is

the symbolic authority of classical rhetoricians, the presence of whom has
not been thoroughly discussed in criticism. I suggest that Guaman Poma's

allusion to the classical tradition deserves closer attention, especially since
other chroniclers made use of this tradition to compare both the Spanish and
Incan empires to Rome (MacCormack, "Classical" 24) and because the classi
cal tradition enjoyed significant cultural cachet in the colonies and at the very
least, existed as "cultural baggage" (Pease, "Temas" 33). As I discuss later, some
sources suggest that the classical tradition enjoyed a lively cultural presence in
the viceroyalty of Peru, to the point that one documented public parade in Lima
16
ROMNEY / INDIAN ABILITY (AUILIDAD DE INDIO)
had thousands of participants marching in costumes representin

classical and rhetorical figures.
Before reading Guaman Poma more closely, I address current
to non-Western rhetoric and consider the origin of rhetorics ci
rative. I then examine moments in which El primer nueva coron
gobierno observes the connection between language (especially w
civilization, dramatizes issues of spatial representation and lingu
and advocates persuasive uses (mostly for doctrinal purposes) of o
and visual modes while also turning to pedagogy and advocating f
instruction for both male and female Amerindians. Throughout, I
Poma's key term ability as a liminal word that, with Aristotelian

serves as a descriptor for both Western and non-Western forms
Indigenous Rhetoric
Most critics who have written about Guaman Poma haven t done so from
the perspective of the rhetorical tradition, but due to his overt attempt at
argument and persuasion, critics in a number of fields refer to his work as
rhetorical. Rolena Adorno calls his many drawings "Silent Orators" who work
to mediate the text while the ecclesiastic rhetoric he adopts often "overtakes
and supplants [his] storytelling impulse" and descends into what she calls an
"attitude of negation" that finally doubts the possibility of communication
(77). What might be more effective in the hands of the preacher, she argues,
"becomes a pathetic instrument in the book of the disenfranchised Andean

petitioner [in that] as valiant as his efforts were, Guaman Poma's reliance on
religious rhetoric ... constitutes an admission of the lack of effective means
with which he can defend his people" (79). In contrast, critics of his text from a
subaltern studies perspective see Guaman Poma as a subaltern who defies his
silenced position. Lipi Biswas-Sen, for example, suggests that Guaman Poma
and Garcilaso show us that "not only can the subaltern speak, but he adopts
different rhetorical strategies to do it" (497, emphasis added).1 Following the
general trend of subaltern studies, which tends to read the subaltern as filling
an empty space, she suggests that when he decides to "break the silence" the
subaltern "fills the void that appears in the official discourses" (498).
Rhetorical scholars approaching non-Western texts from the perspec

tive of the rhetorical tradition risk reducing indigenous persuasion to lesser
lowercase "rhetorics" in the face of the Greco-Roman tradition of uppercase
Rhetorike (Raca, "te-ixtli" 4-5). They also risk essentializing, trying to "get at
what is quintessentially Chinese," for example (Mao
Baca reads Mestizo/a rhetoric as opening up symbo
and non-Western ways "beyond the mere coming t
Mao's approach to non-Western rhetorics, on the ot
them as coterminous with the rhetorical tradition, s
(Western rhetoric) "is bound to impinge upon the

cannot help but find ways to dialogue with or speak
I want to bring both of these approaches together b
Poma rearranges symbolic space within rhetoric, r
rhetoric or another. In his case, despite the fact that
ence and resists the civilizing force of rhetoric, he a
debate that is strikingly local, a reshaping of space
and combining the colonizer s conventions. This use
what led Pratt to classify this tex
We Can appreciate the historical connected- ethnography
neSS of the rhetorical tradition while at the and appropria
same time questioning the positioning Of its or the conque
narrative. One way to do this is to consider is similar to
the rhetorical tradition spatially, indigenous literat
ing produced when an author of
cultural identification manages successfully to mer
cultural formation with forms external to it, but pr
delegitimate it" (Krupat 214). Like Mao, Krupat speak
but the locations of rhetoric shift when the rhetori
to encircle and civilize the recipients of its colonia

writer who both upholds and resists is both insider
an instructive way of approaching non-Western, c
Mao's word coterminous while emphasizing the doub
non-Western rhetoric in a colonial situation not on
Western tradition of rhetoric but isat least local

and vying for control of the same space.
We can appreciate the historical connectedness of
while at the same time questioning the positioning
to do this is to consider the rhetorical tradition sp

following Homi K. Bhabha, uses the term locus of
critique the West as the "epistemic location from wh
and ranked" through language (42). The location of
18
critique. After all, rhetoric s own story for centuries has seen eloquence
a cause of civilization. A variation of the myth in which Prometheus
humans by furnishing them with fire,2 the story goes, according to Ci

Inventione, that men wandered the earth in an uncivilized state until a
man discovered eloquence:
He, laying down a regular system, collected men, who were previously dis
over the fields and hidden in habitations in the woods into one place, and
them, and leading them on to every useful and honorable pursuit, tho
first, from not being used to it they raised an outcry against it; he gradu
they became more eager to listen to him on account of his wisdom and elo
made them gentle and civilized from having been savage and brutal. (Cicer
In Ciceros version, this implantation of language is what permits the p
of civilization. The brutes, who will eventually become civilized and u
are linguistically relegated to the realm of protest. But a spatial met
also at play in the Latin phrase unum in locum, rendered here as "unite
place."3 This myth provides for a sense of community but also implies
place, locus, from which the empowered speaks and to which the wo
civilized must enter. The binary of inside and outside constructed by t
tial metaphor for civilization leaves the uncivilized outside of its circle.
uncircumscribed, the implications (when pedagogical interest occurs
are clear: listen and learn. Those outside of the commonplace and ign
the dominant commonplaces appear in greatest need of instruction. H
F. Plett has described the way this origin story was repeated in rena
humanist rhetorics as a justification of the discipline (396). Abbott's
in the New World has also mentioned this civilizing narrative's circulati
Americas as a justification for Spanish imperialism. This origin myth
an important, if obvious, question: Does rhetoric, as a regularized sys
rules, exclude writers such as Guaman Poma from community? If not, t
should rhetorical scholars, returning to non-Western texts and using
cal theory, reconcile the exclusionary tension in rhetoric's own story?
Poma's narrative shows us not just rhetorical agency or literary consci
but ambivalence toward the rhetorical tradition and its civilizing press
humble prefatory self-deprecation and his later claims about the epis
practices of the pre-Incans will lead us into a discussion of some of t

that he dramatizes disputes over space and place and further into ways
we glimpse his view of the function of indigenous rhetoric.
19
Speaking Well
I have mentioned current debates about clarity and
Poma; I now discuss a contemporary criticism of i
show that a preference for clarity could align us with
de Murua's disdain for the disorder of indigenous s
Pomas ambivalence to Murua in his chronicle an
that Guaman Poma was employed as an artist for th
example is worth mentioning. Guaman Poma may
general del Piru Murua's description, which follow
about the Incan queens alongside their husbands, a
tradition of discussing the men and women separa
Pomas chapters do not take up Murua's innovation
Although ordinarily when the Incan Lords of this k
things are moved about including the success of the C
still, to be more particular and to give greater clarity to
to place the chapter of each Coya and Queen together
because, making a later treatment of each particular q
for the readers, which is what I most wish to escape, an
very difficult and has required the most work and s

mix and confuse some things with others and some
with much effort and terrible difficulty that anyone hea
it can attempt to bring something to light from them
Guaman Poma also describes the writers labor, but for Murua, the oral and
indigenous mode of history is read as inferior to what promises to be a more

rational and less confusing approach. With clarity as his
In addition, Guaman Poma's ideal, the Spaniard sees himself as bringing knowledge
inclusion of indigenous
languages results in a lack of
clarity for his Spanish audience
from darkness to light.
In addition, Guaman Poma's inclusion of indigenous

languages results in a lack of clarity for his Spanish audi
but may serve an empowering ence but may serve an empowering rhetorical function.
rhetorical function.
Although Guaman Poma's text may have been read by
other literate indigenes, his primary audience is Spanish,

which makes his use of indigenous languages all the more fascinating. Guaman
Poma's writing is not merely rhetorical but also gestures toward the rhetorical
tradition itself. The word rhetoric is not mentioned in the text, but it is clear that
a classical tradition, especially a written one, poses a threat. The text's prefa
tory letter from Guaman Poma's father describes its style as serving religious
20
RO M N E Y / I N D I A N ABILITY (AUILIDAD DE INDIO)
purposes. The style, he says, 'is easy, serious, and substantial and beneficia
the Holy Catholic faith" (5). And the author's prefatory remarks, while on
one hand an example of a convention of feigned humility, on the other all

to the classical tradition of rhetoric as well, mentioning invention, style,
ornament, hoping "the pictures and the invention and drawing," which are "w
ten and drawn" by his hand, will improve the difficulty of "a reading that
invention (enbincion) and that ornament and polished style {ystilo) found
the most ingenious writers" (10). Despite qualifiers, Guaman Poma sees him
as a writer whothough perhaps not skilled in the invention and ornam
of the greatest rhetorical writersstill has some capacity for invention,

of the canons of Roman eloquence. He excuses himself for both personal
institutional shortcomings, apologizing for both his "crude wit (rudeza d
ingenio)" and his "blind eyes that see and know little" and for his "not b
a scholar, or doctor, or a graduate, or possessing Latin" (8). Still, despite
humility, he asserts his authority as someone who possesses multiple langua
saying that he has chosen "the phrases of Castilian, Aymara... Quechua" (
and, by his claim, fourteen other languages and dialects. Perhaps this list
languages attempts to reverse the disadvantage of the other s linguistic kn

edge. Thus, if Guaman Poma feels limited in his mastery of languages and
understanding of ornament, style, and invention, he nevertheless asserts a

demonstrates his authority and rhetorical ability.
Without Writing or Letters
Guaman Poma gestures toward indigenous lack of writing with similar am
bivalence, emphasizing the authorial work of converting an oral to a wri
history as a kind of extraction and then later comparing non-alphabetic te
to writing. In the preface, he reports that he had doubted his ability to m
the effort that "is owed to histories without any script (escriptura), no m
than from the khipus [knotted strings], and memories, and the accounts
very old Indians" (8). He returns to the same phrase a few pages later to hi
light the amount of work that was required to "extract (sacar en limpio)" th
histories because they are "without any writing or letters whatever" (11).
as the text progresses, Guaman Poma thinks of the word writing in associat
with Andean epistemological practices, including the use of khipu (72). O
whether or not the khipu can be considered writing, El Inca Garcilaso ma

similar and more elaborate claim, which Gary Urton, an expert on khipu,
addressed, suggesting that the fact that "Garcilaso may have felt a power
21
rhetorical and political urge to give alphabetic w
seen as parallel to Guaman Pomas desire to argue th
Christianity before the arrival of the Spaniards (Q
Urton is cautious, however, about whether or not G
the khipu actually constituted a system of writing (1
believed that khipu deserved the status of writing, a
could have allowed him to elaborate on their worki
and mentions the khipu, he says very little about h
argue, Urton provocatively suggests, that this is stra
reason Guaman Poma wants to conceal these working
similarly wrestles with Garcilaso s contradictory de
cording to Urton, sometimes Garcilaso
My concern at the moment is less as a mere memory aid,
with whether or not Guaman the khipu as somethin
Poma reveals anything about the that they record alphab
Workings Of the khipu and more last claim). Regardless,

about how his comparison of able, the khipu did serve
khipu to writing is mingled with those trained in the ar
references to both classical and possibly even narrativ
rhetorical figures Guaman Poma upholds them

his knowledge of the Third Council of
in which the khipu were controversially banned as
of their connection to Andean ritual practices.4
My concern at the moment is less with whether

reveals anything about the workings of the khipu
comparison of khipu to writing is mingled with re
and rhetorical figures. Early on in the text, when G
ages of the world, he juxtaposes lists of the success

Persian kings with those of the Incan emperors. A
Guaman Poma discusses the fourth age of the Indian,
or warrior people, prior to the advent of the Incan
wants to elevate the civilization of the Incas, Guama
a descendant of two different royal lines, one of th

roots of civilization back further and wants to assert
ample, stretches back to the first generation of Am
this fourth age, he bypasses a lack of writing by re
22
ROMN EY / I N Dl AN ABILITY (AUILIDAD DE INDIO)
are normally associated with writing, calling Andean sages philosoph
grammarians. At this point classical history reemerges as a compari
how they were philosophers, astrologers, grammarians, poets with th
knowledge (su poco sauer), without any letters (cin letra nenguna), fo
difficult for an Indian to be Pompey, Julius Caesar" (68). Linguistic
here is tied directly to Andean social status in the face of the tradition
as analphabetism threatens to discredit the comparison between Rom
Amerindian leaders, humbled by their lack of knowledge and writing
When the text later offers a more sustained description of this g

warrior Indians, the author notes their ability to gather information
signs of nature, a functional system that serves those who are not lit
observing the signs of nature, the "philosophers and astrologers" ar
know when to plant, "and in that way to this day the Indians, the old an
who do not know how to read or write, understand and make their w
emphasis mine). Not only do the signs of nature provide them with kn
of seasorial planting, but they also give these philosophers knowledg
Spaniards before the Spaniards come to know about them. The "disc
shifts directions, placing the power of knowledge in indigenous hand
They saw these signs and said that there would be deaths of great kings in
and in other nations of the world, uprisings, hunger, thirst, death, pestile
or a good year or a bad year. And thus they knew of Castile and thus they ca
said ancient Indians Vira Cocha because they were advised that they de
from Vira Cocha from the first people their father Adam and the multi
of Noah from the flood. (72)
The page ends with a more forceful description of the Andean system
and an assertion of "Indian Ability":
And thus the philosophers, Pompey and Julius Caesar and Marcos Flav
Glavius, Aristotle, Tulius [Cicero] and the said Greeks, Flemish and Gal
the poets declared it and wrote it, seasons and years to know when to
this people knew how to read and would plant and would write their c
(curiosidad), genius (engenio), and ability, they knew it by khipus, stri

signs, Indian ability (auilidad deyndio). (72)
Here the juxtaposition of Greeks and Romans with the Andean philo
leads to a hypothetical question about writing, one that ends with a
tion of ability, rather than a negation. With or without writing, in
23
ability allows for the power of knowledge, curiosity, an
this system includes poets, philosophers, and gramma
its status, suggesting another way of
With or without writing, indigenous , . . , ,

3 3 rhetorical ability.
ability allows for the power of knowl- Curiosity wit and ability are
edge, Curiosity, and wit, and the fact that for Guaman Poma's positive descrip
this system includes poets, philosophers, orthodox religious piety and verbal
and grammarians equally elevates skill, if we look at the other passa
its status, suggesting another way Of Guaman Poma uses the term auilidac
conceiving rhetorical ability, importance, not only as it relates to th

of other chroniclers and his own status as a
chronicler, but that it is also directly connected with capacity for Christian
worship. He refers to the ability of the chroniclers just as his father's pref
tory letter praises his son's great ability and his curiosity (5). Guaman Poma
claims the text deserves publication based on his "ability and work" (11). In th
chapter entitled "on how God ordained the writing of this book," he attribut
his family's religious piety in response to the teachings of his half-brother t
the fact that they "had much ability and faith in God" (20, my emphasis). Par
of this teaching was learning to read. Religion and language are intimately
intertwined, just as linguistic knowledge and religious piety are combined in

Guaman Poma's proposed reforms for the viceroyalty:
Let the said principal caciques and Indian men, Indian women, children in this
kingdom everyone know the language of Castile, to read and to write like Spanish
men and women. And let whoever does not know how be taken for a barbarou
animal, horse-, such cannot be a Christian man or woman. And so that the service
of God increases in the land, knowing letters, it can be and increase and we may
have Indian men and women for saints of any kind.... 0 that there were already
scholars (letrados) much more curiosity and Christianity... the fact that this has
not happened and that there is so much evil, all is caused by the corregidors and
the fathers and the encomenderos. They put all their effort into making sure this
doesn't happen. Encountering an Indian ladino [who knows Castilian] they throw
him from the world and punish him cruelly, calling him ladinejo. (796, emphasis
added)
Here Guaman Poma employs the inside/outside metaphor of barbarism and

appears to accept the civilizing narrative of language in dismissing as barbarous
those unable to learn the Castilian tongue. However, he suggests that, given the
chance, his people could equal the Spaniards as letrados. By placing the blame
on the priests and governmental officials, he highlights the inconsistencies of
2-:
colonialism, promising to bring civilization and Christianityboth of which
are bound up in languageand then withholding these very offerings and pun
ishing those who acquire them. The promise of rhetoric, that language will let
one into the civilized world, actually has the opposite effect. Being thrown out
of the world operates as both reality and trope for the other side of rhetorics
civilizing force. In the end, while Guaman Poma
In the end, while Guaman Poma values
values the symbolic authority of the classical
the symbolic
authority of the classical
tradition and praises rhetorical ability,
he re
and praises rhetorical ability,
sists rhetoric s civilizing narrative tradition
by adopting
it for his own critique of colonization.

Guaman
he resists
rhetoric's civilizing narrative by
Poma highlights what Aime Cesaire

calls it
the
adopting
for his own critique of colo
"decivilizing" of the colonizer through
the
ills
nization.Guaman Poma highlights what
of colonialism. In the next section I move from
Aime Cesaire calls the"decivilizing"of the

discussing the way that linguistic confronta colonizer through the ills of colonialism.
tion becomes a contest over epistemic ability
(or the ability to access and control knowledge through language) to the way
such conflicts are also verbal disputes over place, an idea that brings us back
to the contact zone.
"Place to Speak and Govern"

Contact zone theory recognizes that disputes in these zones occur in social
spaces with uneven relationships of power (Pratt, "Arts"). But has contact
zone theory taken into account the power that drew up the zone, the colonial
cartographer who demarcated some "empty" space as a zone in the first place?
Again thinking of Cesaire, who admits that contact itself is positive and that
"exchange is oxygen" for civilizations (33), we should aim for ways of encourag
ing contact without the resemblances to colonialism present in the idea of a

zone, recognizing the relationships of power in our own narrative of rhetoric
and the fact that empty spaces do not create themselves. Pratt's term contact
was a reference to the linguistic term for contact languages, or pidgins and
Creoles that develop as a result of commerce and interaction between people
of different languages (Imperial 8). The theory was also modeled on Fernando
Ortiz's term transculturation, a term that Mark Stein explains Ortiz employed to
"undermine the homogenizing impact" implied by acculturation as a "unilateral

process" (Schulze-Engler and Helff255). In Cuban Counterpoint, Ortiz refers to
the devastating impact of the Spanish presence on the indigenous inhabitants
of Cuba, who did not survive the encounter: "it was a transculturation that
failed as far as the natives were concerned" (100). Here, the impact of contact
25
literally emptied the land of indigenous people just as the co
had often already done. Bill Ashcroft has suggested that th
place operate in paradoxical tension in colonial and post
"The understanding of a place as a site has been essential to

establish colonial sites of its dominance, at the same time as
of the world map have allowed European modernity to empt
dimensions of space" (76). Speaking of the postcolonial wor
language systems "invent, rather than reflect, the reality o
discourse enables observers to imagine their worlds (includ
places) as stable, reliable, and certain" (77). Thus, in the pos
"possession occurs in language," where both colonizer and c
the ability to produce and reproduce place (77). Guaman
dramatizes conflicts over place while his visual reworking of
maps and drawings resists European conceptions of colonia
As I have mentioned, he claims that his ancestors were ab
knowledge of places and peoples through their interpretat
nomena. In addition, by speaking to Incan leaders, the Inca
in the narrative (inanimate objects or geographical landmar
deities) create a concrete connection between place and l
tion that gets disrupted by the arrival of the conquistador
recounts that the tenth Incan leader who possesses the abilit
huacas is able to learn of future events from them, including
Spaniards long before it occurred: "he spoke with the huac
demons and knew thereby their past (pasado) and their fut
of all the world and of how Spaniards were to come to gover
Inca was called Vira Cocha Inca" (264). Thus, Tupanqui I
through knowledge. But when his successor, Huayna Capac
the same, and the huacas refuse to speak to him, Huayna C
destruction. Only the greatest huacas escape. One powerful
(actually a large mountain peak), responds to the action by
leader "that there was no longer place (lugar) to speak or t
the men called Vira Cocha [the powerful ones] were to gov
very great Lord in his time or shortly after, without fail" (264
the Spaniards' arrival, the loss of power over place contrib

government's demise.
Guaman Pomas retelling of Atahualpas death at the han
iards shows us that despite the narrative of Castile as center
26
ROMNEY / INDIAN ABILITY (AUILIDAD DE INDIO)
conflict over place becomes more certain than the distant shores
During Pizzaros conquest, Atahualpa refuses to speak with the S
spite of Pizarro's repeated attempts and responds by way of a me
the Christian Spaniards return to their land (tierra)" (382-83
Almagro's responsethat "there is no place (lugar) to return to"
that the conquistador too needs to take control of local places an
argument and force. Atahualpa contends strongly that "they sho
return. And there was no remedy (rremedio)" (383).5 Here Guam
refrain about the inability to find a remedy (repeated often in th
seen not just as a complaint over injustice (as it usually appears)
nouncement of the impossibility of going back to a preconquest c
places. Though Spain still exists, the conquistadors are right in tha
between Western and non-Western ways makes a return impossib
Finally, we should notice Guaman Poma's creative reshaping of
well-known Mapa Mundi of the kingdom of Peru adapts the Eur
Terrarum maps to Andean sensibilities, reshaping the New Wor
all its own, with Cuzco (instead of Jerusalem) at the center (100
drawing of the Pontifical World (see figure 1) places the Andes ve
Castile with the textual labels: "The Indies of Peru above Spain"
below the Indies" (42). This representation of the Indies in the up
of the drawing follows the Andean mode of visual representation
upper location shows dominance over the lower and fits his asse
was the richest of all lands because it was higher or closer to the
alto grado del sol") (43). The artist frames these vignettes and d
border between the two hemispheres, ignoring in this imaginary
Above the horizon and hovering over the sun, we find the visually
inscription "Pontifical Mundo" as both written word and pictur

a stunning reordering of the world, as if the Incan conception
sun) would rule jointly but beneath the papal authority of the l
dominance is also complicated in the drawing of the Incan and hi
in Potosf, the town housing the rich silver mine that brought impo
to Spain (see figure 2). The Incan kings, who occupy the upper po
drawing or dominant position, support the Spanish coat of arm
heads. Guaman Poma links all of these places together through hi
sertion of the Christian world s dependence on the wealth of the
textnotably placed above the drawingarguing, "Because of th
Castile exists, Rome is Rome, the Pope is the Pope, and the king
of the world (1065). Guaman Poma combines the languag
with Andean and European visual conventions that he adap

argument by rearranging space.
Artifice in the Service of God
I move now from contentions over space, which we have seen are tied to writing
and indigenous ability, to a closer look at the historical presence of rhetoric

and the classical tradition during the beginning of the viceroyalty of Peru and
finally to Guaman Poma's vision of religious, visual persuasion. With regard

to Guaman Poma's use of the classical tradition, Sabine MacCormack briefly
Figure I.Guaman Poma's drawing of Peru and Spain placing Peru in the upper, dominant position.
Source: Felipe Guaman Poma, El primer nueva cordnica y buen gobierno, 42. Used by permission of the
Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books,The Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark.
AS
,yn^b i txiyy+n
PLVSlgS
^jVLTRA
^cvmiASBtaj
EOOFVLCiOm
?Mm
tfyintj)<ys* Wrjl
*" i M
Figure 2.The rich city of Potosi',site of an important silver mine, shown with the Inca and his four kings
supporting the Spanish coat of arms .Source: Felipe Guaman Poma, El primer nueva coronica y buen gobi
erno, 1065. Used by permission of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books,The Royal Library,
Copenhagen, Denmark.
notes the passage above in which Guaman Poma lists classical authors and
suggests, "Although Guaman Poma had access to Spanish libraries, he is most
unlikely to have consulted any of the classical authors he mentions" (Wings
63). MacCormack sees Guaman Poma throwing Aristotle and Cicero in "for
good measure" (63), but the fact that rhetoricians are mentioned in the text
and that terms such as ornament, style, and invention hold importance points
to the influence that these aspects of the classical tradition had on the popular
imagination. Franklin Pease and Teodoro Martinez's collection of essays on the
classical tradition in the viceroyalty of Peru suggest that Cicero's writings on
rhetoric were available at the time and clearly indicate that Cicero and Aristotle
29
had relevance in popular religious celebrations in Lima n
man Poma's writing. On the latter, Ramon Mujica Pinilla
historical continuity, has discussed a recently discover
in honor of the Immaculate Conception in which 1,300
organized by the University of San Marcos marched in
1656, portraying an entire gamut of classical authors h
marian Antonio de Nebrija, whose preface to his Gram
suggested to the crown that a common language would
in maintaining its empire. He is followed by Demosthe
declare that they are "more content to celebrate in Lim
pure Conception than to find ourselves in the celebrat
and Gorgias" (qtd. in Mujica Pinillo 204-5). They further
not fit within the right use of rhetoric (pronuncion de
say that your Conception was marred (maculada) (205).
statements (the disavowal of dissoi logoi with regard to

the suspicion of the sophists) demonstrate the need for
its use of the classical tradition by parading its harmon

an audience familiar with the major players.
I have already mentioned that Guaman Pomas style i

for the Christian faith and that ability is tied to both
religious piety. Given the presence of the classical tradi
we have good evidence for Guaman Pomas at least curso
That Guaman Poma ties rhetoric to Christianity is not
does impress is the range of persuasive modes he imagin
Christian ability is the stated reason for his plan for th
people. Rocfo Quispe-Agnoli has observed the partic
Guaman Poma places on alphabetic letters in his plan t

signs affixed for public instruction (58). Pro-Christian
Poma relies heavily on the visual arts as well:
Painter, Sculptor, embroidererartifice (arteficios) in the
in this kingdom: Let Christians work together for the wo
(hechura y semesanja [sic] de Dios). Let all the world com
and of his Majesty and for the good of souls and health
these holy works, we remember the service of God. Let em
dukes, counts, marquees, gentlemen in the world learn thi
holy churches and temples of God let there be curiosity

paintings of the saints. (688)
5L)
ROM N E Y / I N Dl AN ABILITY (AUILIDAD DE INDIO)
Here we have a description of the pious feelings produced by particularly vi
arts, artificial as opposed to natural. Thus despite his reticence and humil
at the beginning of his narrative, Guaman Poma's text, by using both writ
language and graphic representation, embodies the type of persuasive mode
advocates. Some of these elements were already classical and evangelical to
of instruction and persuasion, but if these are European modes for religio
persuasion, the "curiosity" for which he wishes echoes the way in which
describes the earlier Andeans writing "their curiosity." And as with alphab
literacy, he imagines universal implementation
Guamanlearn
Poma's textwith its bold
of these arts in his desire that everyone
to use them for pious persuasion.assertions regarding colonial history, its
Emphasizing art over nature,

Guaman
documentation
of indigenous ability, and
Poma destabilizes the notion that its
indigenous
argument over space and placeis
rhetoric would be a raw, natural ability. As art
not simply a rejection of the Spaniards or
historian Kelly Donahue-Wallace observes, this
of their culture but, rather, is an assertion
manuscript shows that "native peoples were
that, with different administration, every
not tabulae rasae upon which to inscribe new

one would benefit from education in the
information, and were instead savvy intellects
persuasive arts both written and verbal.
who used all of the tools at their disposal to ne
gotiate the new context" (66).7 Guaman Poma's
textwith its bold assertions regarding colonial history, its documentatio
of indigenous ability, and its argument over space and placeis not simpl
rejection of the Spaniards or of their culture, but rather is an assertion th
with different administration, everyone would benefit from education in t
persuasive arts both written and verbal. Whatever his specific knowle
of the classical tradition and rhetoric, Guaman Poma clearly sees rhetoric
figureheads as symbolic of an ability he wishes to claim for his people as w
Above all, Guaman Poma takes the colonizers to task for not making good
rhetoric s pedagogical promise carried in their own culture, with its paradox
promise of inclusion and its threat of exclusion. My reading of his bold eff
not only challenges our conception of the contact zone and our easy dismiss
of Guaman Poma as a writer lacking clarity, but also challenges compositi
models that would imagine students as blank slates upon which we inscrib
the proper rules. Indeed, we should encourage student contact (with us an
with each other) in a way that, rather than challenging the legitimacy of th
writing, would encourage them to identify, use, and add to the abilities t
already possess while also encouraging them to challenge and reshape both
established and emerging writing genres.
31
Notes
1. This and all other translations from the Spanish are mine. In the case of Guaman
Poma's text, I have chosen to provide my own translations because at the time of
writing, available translations only cover part of the text and do not include all
the pages I refer to. The online version of Guaman Poma's text provides beautiful
photographs of the original manuscript along with critical notes and a corrected
text of the 1987 transcription published by Adorno, Murra, and Urioste. I am in
debted to Ivan Boserup, archivist at the Royal Library of Denmark, for permission
to reproduce page images as well as for the excellent work that he, Rolena Adorno
and others have done in making this manuscript publicly available for research. In
order to save space, I have provided only unusual or key words from the Spanish
in parentheses. Readers interested in the original can refer to the online version.
2. As R.Johnson noticed years ago, this metaphor has a long trajectory in which it
takes on a fully Christian faith in the spiritual progress associated with the study
of the word (in the case of J. L. Vives).
3. The spatial metaphor here, from the perspective of the rhetorical tradition, inverts
Mao's classification of the rhetorical tradition as external and the non-Western as
internal.
4. John Charles provides a discussion of the way khipu were used in confessions
and evangelization as well as the controversy surrounding their ban in the Third
Council of Lima.
5. Patricia Seed refers to Guaman Poma's version of Atahualpas encounter with the
Spaniards and the book as "perhaps the most charming (and probably apocryphal)"
(27). For an overview of the way that different chroniclers retell the story, see her
'"Failing to Marvel': Atahualpas Encounter with the Word."

6. Atahualpa plays both a kingly and pathetic figure who fails the Spaniards test
when he is underwhelmed by their silent book that the friar claims has told him
that Atahualpa should forsake his gods. Combining this episode with the preceding
passage about the huacas, we see that Guaman Poma's narrative subtly likens the
Spanish use of texts to Andean idol worship as Atahualpas servants report comi
cally that "day and night each one [of the Spaniards] would speak with his papers,
quilca [quechua word for graphic representation]" (383). Atahualpas letting the
book fall to the ground because it does not speak to him is no more severe than
Huayna Capac's response to the taciturn huacas.

7. Donahue-Wallace examines the way in which Andean artistry and weaving un
dergoes changes in the colonial context (67-71).
3/1
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Abraham Romney
Abraham Romney holds an MA in English from the University of Oregon and an
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34

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Indian Ability (auilidad de Indio) and Rhetoric's Civilizing Narrative: Guaman Poma's

Contact with the Rhetorical Tradition

Indian Ability (auilidadde Indio) and Rhetoric's

dynamics and standards.

indigenous rhetoric, I take up Felipe Guaman Pomas El primer nueva coronica

in relation to composition studies, despite the popularity of Pratt's concept.

class communities as a better way of empowering marginalized working-class

CCC 63:1 / SEPTEMBER 2011

ROM N EY / I N Dl AN ABILITY (AUILIDAD DE INDIO)

among elites that still excludes other forms of discourse, suggesting t

man Poma "writes ... within a complex set of legitimate discoursesA

royal heritage, Christianity, and an official government position" (4

spite the oppositional nature of these discourses in the colonial conte

gitimate discourses than an intervention that would speak to the need

represents him, the authors argue, Guaman Pomarather than initia

mass independence movementcalls for a "partnership among elites,

the authors ask us to imagine as "established literacy institutions neg

noting the limitations of Pratt s representation of Guaman Poma as op

indigenous elite writing to a distant king. However, while Guaman Pom

ties, his text shows an engagement with the rhetorical tradition in a w

speaks to the situation of todays underrepresented students and espe

In other words, even if indigenous discourse does have legitimacy, G

Poma shows us the difficulty in justifying that legitimacy in the face

without the institutional forces bound up in traditional rhetoric. Furth

we must grant that Guaman Poma represents himself as royalty, there

the Incans were thoroughly converted to Christianity before the Spa

arrived. He also argues for linguistic instruction for Andean peoples,

importance of artisans and workers, and for valuing indigenous lang

Whatever his rhetorical self-positioning, and despite the bravado wit

he imagines himself dialoguing with the king of Spain, the historical r

his situation should prevent us from claiming flatly that he is particip

"historically legitimate discourses" when he is actually breaking new

Readers unfamiliar with Guaman Pomas chronicle (only recently av

Pizarro in 1529 had been authorized (or contracted) by the Spanish

CCC 63:1 / SEPTEMBER 2011

to conquer and colonize Peru in a document refer

of Toledo. In the years following Pizarro's conque

subsequent efforts to gain control of the viceroya

became a popular genre, one that was taken up by

even some authors of indigenous descent. The genr

a historical narrative, not a firsthand account (Pe

his contemporary the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, w

father and an Incan mother and whose Royal Com

importance as a historical account, Guaman Poma

never traveled to Spain. Additionally, his writing

(by unknown means the manuscript crossed th

Denmark until being rediscovered

Guaman Poma's struggle for

multimodal writing situation proves

instructive for composition studies

from both Incan and non-Incan royal

by translating his indigenous t

clarity and rhetorical ability.

that he served only minor local officials in the vice

regal government andpennilessfaced exile and punishment at the hands

writing situation proves instructive for composition studies when we think of

in the New World in whichamong important readings of indigenous and

to Spain, where he achieved lasting acclaim through his chronicles. While

recognizing some of Guaman Poma's rhetorical appeals, Abbott complains

does Garcilaso. He suggests that Guaman Poma's lack of proficiency in Span

ROM N EY / I N Dl AN ABILITY (AUILIDAD DE INDIO)

gests it lacks coherence, and views Guaman Pomas universe as "compl