Two Approaches around Indigenous Philosophy in Colonial Latin American

Historical and Literary Sources for a Philosophical Inquiry

Our proposal seeks for approaches to the philosophical reflections accounted into
historical and literary texts coined by Indigenous people from the Latin American
colonial period. These type of texts have been neglected not only by the Western
tradition but by the current Latin American philosophical canon. Several difficulties
collaborate in this matter, in particular, those related with prejudments around the
subaltern subjectivities (in this case: Indians) and their production of sophisticated
written materials (alphabetic texts in Spanish language like letters, chronicles,
relations, accounts, geographical descriptions, et al.). We steer some strides towards
these types of sources and their discourses where we may find out philosophical
elements and contents. Accordingly, the study will approach the matter at hand in
three correlative sections. We shall focus our efforts on two examples and a
propositive conclusion. The first delves into the analysis and interpretation on the
figure of Nezahualcóyotl, the great king, poet, and philosopher of prehispanic Texcoco.
The analysis of this figure will be grounded on the historical and literary works of two
chroniclers from New Spain: Juan Bautista Pomar’s “Relación de la ciudad y provincia
de Texcoco” (1582) and Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl’s “Historia de la nación
chichimeca” (1625). Among the references and proposals about the figure of
Nezahualcóyotl, recorded in these accounts, it is possible to underline certain
philosophical topics and reflections. In this sense, we remark -at an ontological level-
his notion of a monotheistic divinity (in Tloque in Nahuaque) as well as his ideas about
political issues concerning his proposals around a prehispanic civility and its
correlational “good government”. The second engages the imaginary of the Inca. To
this purpose we consider two chronicles of the colonial Andes. On one hand, we may
integrate the words of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and his famous “Primera parte de
los comentarios reales de los Incas” (1609) where the representation of the Inca
points out the runa (Andean inhabitant) as a rational being and, particularly, relieves
the role of the Inca as civilizers of other nations and geographies. On the other hand,
we shall expose the claim of Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala’s “Primer nueva corónica y
buen gobierno” (1615) in which he addresses a narrative of the Inca`s historicity from
an utopian point of view, regarding the success of the Inca “good government” before
the Spanish Conquest. In both chronicles we may acknowledge how the imaginary of
the Inca is built following the idea of an ancient wisdom and civility (specially on the
Inca’s way of ruling). Lastly, the third concluding section proposes a critical reading
on both examples that raises new questions from a multidimensional and
interdisciplinary perspective, which expands the historical philosophical canon
towards this sort of colonial texts, and sheds light on what can be called an
“alternative philosophical project” in motion (Echeverría 2001, 2005, 2010) taking
place in the New World during the early Modernity.
Bibliography:

Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, Fernando. (1625) “Historia de la nación chichimeca”. Obras

Históricas. Vol. II. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1978.
De la Vega, Inca Garcilaso. (1609) Primera parte de los comentarios reales de los Incas.
Lima: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2005.
Echeverría, Bolívar. Las ilusiones de la modernidad. Quito: Tramasocial, 2001.
_____________________ La modernidad de lo barroco. México: ERA, 2005.
_____________________ Modernidad y blanquitud. México: ERA, 2010.
Guamán Poma de Ayala, Felipe. (1615) Primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno.
México: Siglo Veintiuno, 2010.
Pomar, Juan Bautista. (1582). “Relación de la ciudad y provincia de Texcoco”.
Relaciones Geográficas de la Nueva España. Vol. III. México: Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México, 1986: 13-113.