A rhetoric of testimonies: Chronicles of the Indies, Historic Texts and Heroic Epic in José de la Riva-Agüero's Paisajes peruanos (1955)

Abstract

In Paisajes peruanos (1955), José de la Riva Agüero's travel book, the Peruvian polygraph treats differently two battles of the civil wars between the conquerors of 16th century Peru. While that of Jaquijaguana (April 8, 1548) receives a «positivist» approach, that of Chupas (September 9, 1542) is described as an epic or a chivalric novel, as proved by the presence in the narrative of an epic topic: the «catalog of cavaliers». In the end, an explanation for the different treatment of the chronicles of the Indies in the travel book is conjectured.