Jorge Eslava adapts indigenous chronicler’s lost work
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In Peru, Jorge Eslava is preparing to publish a new adaptation of “New Chronicle and Good Government,” a text from 1615 written by Guamán Poma de Ayala.
Eslava, a teacher, long hoped to make the complex work accessible to younger readers, a challenge because of its length and 400 illustrations. Previous editions existed, but few people read the original because of its difficulty.
Eslava rewrote the chronicle using modern language while preserving some older phrasing, and he compared editions from 1956, 1980, and 2015 to inform his work. The original text is notable for being written in a Spanish influenced by Indigenous languages like Quechua and Aymara, reflecting the author’s background. Eslava found the chronicle fascinating because it presents a view of history from the perspective of those who were conquered and marginalized. The chronicle itself had a long and unusual journey.
After Guamán Poma sent it from Lima to the court of King Philip III of Spain, it disappeared for 45 years before appearing in records from a library in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1660. It remained unopened for another 48 years until its rediscovery in 1908, and was later published in facsimile form in Paris in 1936.
Eslava believes Guamán Poma likely relied on a friendly relationship with a royal official to avoid censorship, as other chronicles of the time were subject to review by the Inquisition. The new edition, to be published in 2026, will also include a comic strip by Guillermo de Orbegoso detailing the manuscript’s discovery.
