Spanish colonial literature in South America

"Spanish colonial literature in South America" by Bernard Moses is a historical-literary study written in the early 20th century. It surveys the written record of Spanish South America across the colonial era, broadly including chronicles, relaciones, poetry, geography and natural history, ecclesiastical writings, legal treatises, and administrative texts. Through these works, and within the contexts of imperial governance, censorship, printing, education, and social hierarchy, it profiles key authors and texts to reveal how colonial society saw itself. The opening of the book argues that to grasp colonial life one must read what contemporaries wrote, since official documents and later histories miss the texture of thought and feeling. The introduction sketches Spain’s administrative framework (Council of the Indies, viceroyalties, audiencias), the Inquisition’s chilling effect on free expression, the late and limited rise of printing in the Andes and Jesuit missions, and the resulting dominance of history, geography, and church writings—alongside a vogue for epic verse sparked by Ercilla. It contrasts Lima’s courtly literary circles with pervasive social stratification, economic restrictions, and a conservative cultural inheritance, and explains why the colonies nonetheless produced abundant texts. The first case studies set up opposing lenses: Las Casas’s fierce advocacy for Indians and sweeping critique of colonial practice versus Oviedo’s official chronicling and cooler treatment of abuses (illustrated by divergent accounts of pearl fishing), with Andagoya’s narrative linking Isthmian exploration to Pizarro’s enterprise. The next chapter turns to eyewitness reports of Peru’s conquest—Xerés’s and Sancho’s vivid accounts of Atahualpa’s seizure and the treasure—alongside moral appraisals (Tomás de San Martín) and defenses (Peñalosa), with further testimony from Pedro Pizarro and Cristóbal de Molina. It closes by introducing Cieza de León’s early life and enlistment, foreshadowing his major chronicling of the Andean world.