The Inca Garcilaso, source of The Pizarro Trilogy by Tirso de Molina

Abstract

The Peruvian conquest and the critical involvement of the Pizarro brothers in it are the core topic of a dramatic trilogy composed by Tirso de Molina around 1626-1631 (Todo es dar en una cosa, Amazonas en las Indias and La lealtad contra la envidia). The phenomenon of the literary assignment and the vindication of the Pizarro’s lineage, exempting them from any stain of rebellion before the Spanish Crown, mark the ideological frame of Tirso’s trilogy. The main source –but not the only one– is the Historia general del Perú (1617) by the Inca Garcilaso, with whom Tirso shares the epic vision of the Pizarro conquerors.