Felipillo

Non-contemporary representation: Vicente de Valverde questions Atahualpas shortly before the ambush of the Spaniards, with Felipillo as translator. (Right, with nose ring, name on the left arm) ( Waman Puma de Ayala , early 17th century)

Felipillo (also Felipe ) was an Indian in the 16th century who, as an interpreter, accompanied the conquistadors Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro on various expeditions to Peru . He played an unclear role in the imprisonment and death of the Inca Atahualpa and was later stylized as a traitor .

Its original name is not known. The name Felipillo is made up of the Spanish name Felipe and the diminutive form -illo . In the contemporary context, this name formation towards blacks and natives can be read as a form of infantilization rather than a sign of affection.

Life

The numerous competing information on Felipillo's origin exemplify the poor source situation (see also Chronicles of Peru ). After Agustín de Zárate from the valley of the Chira , after Waman Puma de Ayala from Huancavilca , after Pedro Gutiérrez de Santa Clara (a chronicler of the Peruvian civil wars, 1521? -1603) from the Tumbez people , who had maintained their military independence from the Inca empire, populated Isla de Puná north of Peru, for Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (administrative officer in Tierra Firme and Santo Domingo , royal chronicler, 1478–1557) Almagro met him on the coast of New Castile , for López de Gómara he comes from Poechos on the Chira river (This Region was inhabited by the Tallán ).

He learned the basics of Quechua in Túmbez , served as a teenager in 1523 Pizarro when he conquered the country and followed this to Panamá and Spain.

An eyewitness report written in 1527/28, which, according to R. Porras Barrenechea (1897–1960), could have been Pizarro's secretary Francisco de Xerez , reports that Bartolomé Ruiz was on an exploration trip from the mouth of the San Juan River at what would later become Buenaventura to the south on behalf of Pizarro On the way back north 3½ 'north latitude, an Indian boat with a crew of about 20 was brought up. Half of the crew were thrown into the sea, three people were kept as future interpreters and the rest were abandoned on the coast. These are associated with the later interpreters Martinillo, Felipillo and Francisquillo. The author says about their origins as follows: “They probably came from an area called Çalangane; the people in this region are on a higher level of culture than the [other] Indians; they are very understanding and have a language similar to Arabic. The Indios from Atacames and from the Bay of San Mateo [...] are probably subject to them. "

Martinillo and Felipillo were taken along with others by Pizarro at the beginning of 1528 when Pizarro set off for Spain with some lamas and a collection of Peruvian treasures from Nombre de Dios on the Atlantic coast of Panama to collect support for an expedition to Peru.

In Spain, the future translators spent about two years in a special convention and were taught about the Spanish language and religion. Felipillo probably spoke Spanish far better than Quechua.

He accompanied Pizarro in 1530 on the exits from Panama to Isla de Puná and to Túmbez . On September 24, 1532 he broke with this from San Miguel de Piura into the interior of Peru, reached Cajamarca on November 15 . According to Miguel Estete (chronicler, 1507–1550) it was he who translated the address of the Dominican Vicente de Valverde to Atahualpa ; after Pedro Pizarro , however, Don Martinillo translated.

Felipillo's role in Atahualpa's captivity and condemnation and reception

What influence Felipillo's translation activity had on the end of Atahualpa remains unclear. Based on rumors that his falsified translations sealed Atahualpa's death, the character Felipillo quickly developed into the prototype of the traitor in Peru .

Already in the testimonies of chroniclers of the 16th century who spoke to eyewitnesses but were not present themselves, Felipillo is described as "malicious" and "lying" (for example López de Gómara ).

According to Zárate , Felipillo had started a love affair with one of Atahualpa's wives while Atahualpa was Pizarro's prisoner in Cajamarca . A sacrilege and shame for the Inca that made him feel humiliated. Atuahualpa's complaint about this, however, was not met, as Pizarro was dependent on Felipillo and Felipillo had only followed the example of some Spaniards. Felipillo was also possibly the originator of the rumor reported by the eyewitness Christóbal de Mena that Atahualpa was planning an attack on the camp after he learned of the planned shipment of the gold, which was based on the questioning of some Indian witnesses and the Spaniards, probably translated by Felipillo, as a pretext for Atahualpa's condemnation to death served.

John Hemming explains that in the 1550s the first conquistadors were stylized into glorious heroes. Atahualpa's assassination, which had generated widespread criticism and revulsion, did not fit this picture. The story of Felipillo as a traitor, on the other hand, exonerated the conquerors of moral guilt and was gladly believed.

Inca Garcilaso de la Vega , son of the Spanish conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega and the Inca princess Chimpu Ocllo , who had access to good oral traditions through his relatives, paints a somewhat more positive picture of Felipillo . He emphasizes Felipillo's role as a mediator between the Indian and Spanish sides and emphasizes that Christian terms such as Holy Spirit , Faith , and Sacrament have no equivalent in Quechua. Garcilaso explains that Atahualpa spoke several languages ​​and, because Felipillo's Quechua was not enough, spoke to Felipillo in a language he understood better.

In the story Das Gold von Caxamalca from 1923, for which Jakob Wassermann used the History of the Conquest of Peru by William Hickling Prescott as a template , Felipillo finally becomes - in accordance with the template - the literary figure of the devious apostate whose egoism the It was only possible for Spaniards to commit the judicial murder of Atahualpa.

In Felipillo's assessment there are parallels to the Aztec Malinche , who interpreted for Hernán Cortés and is often portrayed as a traitor to the natives.

death

The monk Pedro Ruiz de Naharro reports in his chronicle Relación sumaria de la entrada de los españoles en el Peru… from the 17th century that Felipillo was later killed by Diego de Almagro on his expedition to Chile after he had the local population in front of the warned unrestrained looting Spaniards and in a questioning confessed to the falsification of testimony speaking for Atahualpa.

literature

• William Hickling Prescott: History of the Conquest of Peru . Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, 1862. (German edition: William Hickling Prescott: History of the Conquest of Peru: with an introductory overview of the state of education among the Incas . Translated by H. Eberty. FA Brockhaus, 1848.)
• Lieselotte and Theodor Engl: The conquest of Peru in eyewitness accounts . German paperback publisher, 1975.
• Georges L. Bastin: Por una historia de la traducción en Hispanoamérica. In: Íkala , Volume 8, No. 14, pp. 193-217, 2003. ( Online ).

Web links

• Interview with Lydia Fossa (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lolita Gutiérrez Brockington: Blacks, Indians, and Spaniards in the Eastern Andes: reclaiming the forgotten in colonial Mizque, 1550-1782 . University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska 2007, ISBN 0-8032-1349-2 , p. 120 .
2. ↑ Historia General del Departamento de Tumbes: Felipillo ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Information on the persons according to L. and T. Engl. 
3. ^ ^{A b} Prescott, Volume I, p. 162.
4. ↑ L. u. T. Engl, p. 40.
5. ↑ Quoted from L. and T. Engl, omissions and additions from the same place, the location information contained in the text is described by L. and T. Engl as "severely distorted".
6. ↑ Entrevista a Lydia Fossa por Alberto Loza Nehmad Lima, October 2006
7. ↑ Britt Diegner: Continuities and (up) breaks. The Peruvian Novel of the 1990s: The Peruvian Novel of the 1990s. Martin Meidenbauer Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-89975-616-9 , ISBN 978-3-89975-616-6 . (books.google.com) .
8. ↑ "diciendo que mas sentia aquel desacato, que su prisión." Agostino Zárate, Conquista del Perú, II, chap. VII.
9. ↑ L. u. T. Engl, p. 118.
10. ^ John Hemming: The conquest of the Incas. Macmillan, 1993, ISBN 0-333-10683-0 , p. 82
11. ↑ Frances Meuser-Blincow ( Oakland University ): Identity Construction in El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's Historia general del Peru. In: Romance Languages ​​Annual (RLA) 4 (1992), p. 521.
12. ↑ L. and T. Engl, p. 207
13. ^ Prescott. Volume I, p. 178.