Inca Garcilaso and the oath of Philip II in Cuzco

Abstract

This article analyses Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s participation in the celebrations that city of Cuzco offered in homage to the new monarch's pledge, Felipe II in 1557, departing from the “Letter of account” that the town council sent to the Crown, edited by María Luisa Domínguez-Guerrero in 2015. The young Gómez Suárez de Figueroa was one of the horsemen who competed during the rod games at the festivities. This work explores the value of this horse competition in New World territories and the close connection between Garcilaso and horses, both in his life in Spain as in his enthusiastic descriptions along his historiographic work.