Book contents
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886
- Latinx Literature In Transition
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Transacting
- Part II Transcending
- Chapter 5 La Llorona’s Ghosts
- Chapter 6 From Mary Rowlandson to Lola Medina
- Chapter 7 Early Latinx Formation in Inca Garcilaso
- Chapter 8 “Tragic Time”
- Part III Transgressing
- Part IV Transcreating
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Chapter 7 - Early Latinx Formation in Inca Garcilaso
Spanish Encounters with the Lady of Cofachiqui
from Part II - Transcending
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2025
Book contents
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886
- Latinx Literature In Transition
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Transacting
- Part II Transcending
- Chapter 5 La Llorona’s Ghosts
- Chapter 6 From Mary Rowlandson to Lola Medina
- Chapter 7 Early Latinx Formation in Inca Garcilaso
- Chapter 8 “Tragic Time”
- Part III Transgressing
- Part IV Transcreating
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter explores a very early manifestation of Latinx people. Just as Goths, Celtics, and Andalusíes mixed to form something called “Spanish,” in the New World, pre-Latinx people formed when Indigenous, African, and European peoples encountered each other. A philological route to recover those realities is to read the archive, taking care to filter out colonial bias. Since chronicles about the New World were composed in Spanish or Portuguese, a neocolonial reworking of the archive occurs as it is translated into English. An early instance of what could be described as Latinx culture in a place called Cofachiqui in present-day South Carolina appears in Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s polished notes from his conversations with the conquistador Gonzalo Silvestre, La Florida by the Inca (1993). Other authorities add nuance and color to Garcilaso’s narrative, including The Account of the Gentleman of Elvas (1993), Luys Hernández de Biedma’s Relation of the Island of Florida (1993), and Rodrigo Rangel’s Account of the Northern Conquest and Discovery of Hernando de Soto (1993). When read together and reading between the lines, a fuller picture emerges of an early Latinx experience that happened in South Carolina at a place described in the chronicles as Cofachiqui.
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- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886 , pp. 167 - 189Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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