Lope de Aguirre, Prince of Freedom

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Lope de Aguirre, Prince of Freedom ( Spanish Lope de Aguirre, príncipe de la libertad ) is a novel by the Venezuelan writer Miguel Otero Silva , published in 1979 by the Seix Barral publishing house in Barcelona .

overview

Otero Silva writes about 180 existing works on the descendants of Basque noblemen Lope de Aguirre (* 1511; † 1561). Almost all of the extremely numerous authors can not hide their "irreconcilable dislike" for the Spanish rebel. Otero Silva also faithfully traces the broad trail of blood that the "cruel tyrant" Lope de Aguirre leaves behind on his way through Peru, Amazonia and Venezuela. But the author gives the "bloodthirsty executioner" - ugly in the face - a second face. Lope de Aguirre is gathering a “fearless liberation army”, disappointed by the king , who wants to free the slaves of the viceroy of Peru . The Prince of Freedom, as Lope de Aguirre calls himself, fails because he does the same as his predecessors Gonzalo Pizarro , Sebastián de Castilla and Francisco Hernández Girón. Participants in the survey fall away from their caudillo after the first failure because they were promised a pardon by the opponent. Lope de Aguirre is shot dead by one of his own men on the way to Peru in Venezuela.

content

soldier

When the teenage Lope de Aguirre was scolded by his friend Antón Llamoso dwarf in his hometown of Oñate , the ensuing argument ended in a fight in which Lope de Aguirre asserted himself. Lope's father dies. “Go to India !” Advises the godfather to the boy. In distant Seville, Lope de Aguirre, who can actually only ride horses, learns to use sword, dagger, crossbow and rapier. For a transfer to the New World, however, Lope de Aguirre applies as a farm worker. Soldiers are not in demand. On May 12, 1534, the San Antonio set sail with the 22-year-old Lope de Aguirre on board Sanlúcar de Barrameda .

Until 1536 Lope fought for the Spanish crown in the New World. That year comes Regidor Lope de Aguirre to Cuzco , gives his conquistador enleben and gets in Lambayeque born locals Cruspa daughter Elvira. His loyalty to the king - Lope professes to the viceroy Blasco Núñez - costs him dearly. Lope has to leave his wife and child behind in Cuzco. He flees to Panama and can only return after four years. From then on, Lope moves through the country as a trader. Francisco Esquivel, the alkali of Potosí , punishes the short, misshapen trader with two hundred lashes for overusing the Indian as a porter. The nobleman Lope de Aguirre pursued the alkali for forty months from one place to another and finally stabbed the mortal enemy in his library in Cuzco. The murderer of an alkali faces the death penalty in the viceroyalty of Peru . Lope de Aguirre out of necessity accepts Marshal Alvarado's offer of amnesty . In the Battle of Chuquinga , Lope is badly wounded in the leg, patched up by surgeons and has been limping ever since.

Cruspa dies without complaint of intermittent fever . Viceroy Marqués of Cañete sends Spanish soldiers under General Pedro de Ursúa to Amazonia. The gold country of the Omagua is to be conquered. The general is accompanied by his mistress, the beautiful mestizine Inés de Atienza, a widow. Sergeant Lope de Aguirre takes his daughter Elvira with him on the trip.

traitor

In the native settlement of Santa Cruz de Capocóvar, the expedition members build brigantines for the trip to the Omagua. Meanwhile, General de Ursúa stayed away for a full eighteen months. He wants to get soldiers and money. After the general has finally returned, the journey of the three hundred Spanish soldiers, three monks, eighteen women, twenty-four negroes, six hundred Indians and twenty-seven horses runs across the Ucayali into the Amazon River . Sergeant Lope calls the river Marañón . The soldiers devoted to him become "his marañons".

Lope de Aguirre has faithfully served the Spanish king for twenty-four years and does not want to accumulate riches or convert Indians, but rather fame. The last brigantine sank in the Manicuri region. The journey continues on dugout canoes , boats and rafts. After nine days of hunger, the expedition members in the Machifaro area can eat their fill of the meat of giant tortoises.

Lope de Aguirre no longer believes in the gold country of the Omagua. He wants to kill the governor de Ursúa and his bosom friends and make Don Fernando Guzmán, a knight and nobleman from Seville, leader. Because - according to Lope - the Viceroy of Peru had sent him and other insubordinate soldiers into the jungle because he wanted to get rid of them. In early 1561, eleven conspirators killed the governor in Mocomoco in the Machifaro area. Guzmán is appointed general by the conspirators. The conspirators celebrate the king. Lope is appointed Feldzeugmeister and contradicts the cheering. He calls himself a traitor because killing a governor of the king is an insult to majesty. Lope wants to return to Peru and detach the country from Spain; so make Peru a free nation. Lope submits this plan to Guzmán of a rebellion against the viceroy and against Philip II : Margarita and Nombre de Dios are to be conquered over the sea with two newly timbered brigantines . Then the decisive battle must be fought in Panama . Finally, a powerful army is supposed to liberate Peru and Chile . Lope is hoping for the influx of runaway negro slaves. As a battle cry, Lope has “Death to the King of Spain!” Ready.

Guzmán turns away from Lope. Lopes Marañónen shoot Guzmán and proclaim Lope de Aguirre to be their general and caudillo. The villages on the Marañón, from which the rebels and shipbuilders set out in the direction of Margarita, are named Matanza and Las Jarcias. Lope striving for new shores calls himself a pilgrim.

pilgrim

On July 20, 1561, the Marañons reached Margarita and wrested power from the local lieutenant governor Juan Sarmiento de Villandrando for forty days. Lope has twenty-five islanders killed. But an auditor manages to escape to Cabo de la Vela . He sends news to Santa Marta , Cartagena and Nombre de Dios. A second refugee gives notice in Puerto Rico , Jamaica and Cuba .

Lope changes his plan; takes the way across the mainland. After a two-day voyage, he lands in Borburata, burns his ships and marches to Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. Behind Valencia and Valle de Chirua, Lope meets the opponent in Barquisimeto on October 22, 1561. These are the armed forces of Pablo Collado, the governor of Venezuela. When one of Lope's captains - Diego de Tirado - runs over to the enemy, Lope suspects that his last hour will soon strike. Before one of his own Marañons - a certain Cristobal Galindo - shoots him, Lope stabs his daughter Elvira and shouts: "Long live Lope de Aguirre, rebel to death, Prince of Freedom!"

Self-testimony

"Authenticity is important ... I am ... a writer with a Latin American ... education."

shape

The novel is shaped heterogeneously. Occasionally the first-person narrator Lope de Aguirre appears - for example in the chapter on pages 184 to 195 of the edition used. Most of the time, however, a rather omniscient anonymous narrator has his say. When the tension rises, Otero Silva prefers the dramatic form - so starts small scenes - for example on pages 53, 145 and 295 of the edition used.

Significant facts are repeated several times. For example, in three places Otero Silva mentions Lope de Aguirres also failed rebellious predecessors Pizarro, Castilla and Giron.

The novel only offers excerpts from Lope de Aguirre's life. Another overview of Lope de Aguirre's work for the Spanish crown is provided by a letter Lope de Aguirre to Charles V inserted in the novel from 1550 on pages 35 to 48 in the edition used. Accordingly, Lope de Aguirre's conspiracy against the king appears in response to the misdeeds of His Majesty's viceroys in the New World.

The abundance of facts and the almost unbearable wading in the blood of the victims of the mass murderer Lope de Aguirre over time, Otero Silva loosens up as soon as it gets too high. For example, when Lope de Aguirre submits his plan of campaign against the Spanish crown Guzmán, the great, deeply humane liberation project of the enslaved Indian peoples is first presented in a very serious way. In the same breath, however, Otero Silva makes use of the comic element when he brings up the megalomania of Lope de Aguirre.

Roman staff is more than sufficient. The story of most of these merely named people has not been narrated. Even more - in such a flood of characters, the occasionally sparsely interspersed story of relevant secondary characters is drowned out. Meant are Antón Llamoso, Inés de Atienza and Elvira. Why does Lope de Aguirre murder the beloved daughter Elvira in a hopeless military situation? The reader has to find the answer himself. Lope de Aguirre's childhood friend Antón Llamoso has risen to become Marañón captain and remains loyal to Lopes until the bitter end. This "executioner" murders the beautiful Inés de Atienza at the behest of his master. The latter mesticine is the daughter of Captain Blas de Atienza. This served under Vasco Núñez de Balboa .

The subtitles selected above soldier, traitor and pilgrim are in the headings of the three-part novel. Otero Silva put it in the mouth of his narrator Lope de Aguirre. The latter signs his letter to Charles V in 1550 with "Lope de Aguirre the soldier". After the murder of Pedro de Ursúa in early 1561, Lope signed another letter to the king with "Lope de Aguirre, traitor". And when Lope sets course for Margarita, he calls out: "I am Lope de Aguirre the pilgrim!"

reception

  • January 1981, Claus Hammel : Otero Silva, anything but a dilettante, parody in his text in a subtle way non-novel genres such as the “pathetic theater scene” and artfully alludes to this or that “colleague quirk”.

Text output

Used edition
  • Lope de Aguirre, Prince of Freedom. Novel. German by Wilhelm Plackmeyer. With an afterword by Claus Hammel. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1981 (1st edition), 326 pages, without ISBN

Web links

See also

  • 1964, La aventura equinoccial de Lope de Aguirre - Historical novel by Ramón J. Sender
  • 1989, Spain: Comic by Felipe Hernández Cava
  • 1992, Spain: Play by José Sanchis Sinisterra based on the above-mentioned letter Lope de Aguirres to Charles V.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Spanish Víctor Seix
  2. ↑ Edition used, footnote from p. 228
  3. ^ Spanish Sebastián de Castilla
  4. ^ Span. Francisco Hernández Girón
  5. ^ Spanish naming of the province of Machifaro
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 194, 2nd Zvu
  7. ↑ Matanza - Spanish carnage
  8. ↑ Las Jarcias - Spanish rigging
  9. ↑ Spanish reference to Villandrando
  10. ↑ span. Borburata
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 308, 11. Zvu
  12. ↑ Otero Silva, quoted in Hammel, p. 324, 16. Zvu
  13. ^ Spanish mention of Blas de Atienza
  14. ↑ Edition used, p. 48, 1. Zvu
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 159, 22. Zvo
  16. ↑ Edition used, p. 217, 4th Zvu
  17. ↑ Hammel, edition used, pp. 315–326
  18. ↑ span. La aventura Equinoccial de Lope de Aguirre
  19. ^ Spanish El Dorado
  20. ↑ Spanish Lope de Aguirre (historieta)
  21. ^ Spanish Lope de Aguirre, traidor