Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Inés Del Alma Mía (Inés Of My Soul) Or How To Retrain The Chronicle, Chris Schulenburg

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Among the multitude of lettered discourses employed to communicate Latin America’s marvels during the conquest, the chronicle constituted a particularly effective option. That is, its necessary framing for a Spanish or Portuguese courtly audience with heterogeneous contents mixing history and fiction allowed for a text that served to validate personal service to the crown. Part and parcel of these chronicles’ objectives, of course, consisted of portraying an indigenous population supposedly anxious to accept the work load of the encomienda as well as the Catholic conversions that accompanied this legislated slavery. Moreover, this Eurocentric perspective also boasted an almost completely masculine …