New World Postcolonial incorporates Garcilaso's figure and works him into a new arena of cultural debate (postcolonial studies). New World Postcolonial brings Garcilasismo to the study of political thought, a trend that is well established in the English-speaking academic world, but in which Garcilaso and his works are mostly unknown. Following J. A. Mazzotti's seminal studies, Fuerst assumes the existence of an audience of Andean readers for the Royal Commentaries (1609) that would be particularly touched by certain elements that carry Indigenous connotations beyond the literal meaning of Garcilaso's text. In that way, Fuerst's study recognises diverse associations between European concepts or images that recall an Indigenous counterpart. These associations should be read through an Andean perspective, as the project of Royal Commentaries, according to Fuerst, actually encloses two texts, addressed to two opposing audiences (the European/Hispanic and the Andean).
Due to the novelty that Garcilaso's figure and works represent in the field of postcolonial studies, Fuerst's first chapter is dedicated to the reconstruction of the main episodes (both personal and political) of the Peruvian historian's life and their possible influence on the development of his intellectual interests, textual practices and ideas. The second chapter explores that which the author terms ‘mestizo rhetoric’, a dual reading approach that Garcilaso developed. While recalling Cicero's notable influence in the Renaissance, the author also understands the use of rhetorical decorum in Garcilaso's aims to reach Andean readers with properly Indigenous references. This chapter concludes with the analysis of the association between the quipu and writing, as a strategy that Garcilaso exploited to become a Mestizo writer of Peruvian history.
The third chapter of Fuerst's book analyses the multiple layers of meaning for ‘Viracocha’, as used in the Royal Commentaries as well as in Andean culture. The author identifies ambivalent meanings for the name ‘Viracocha’ in the text. Interestingly, the analysis connects the term ‘Viracocha’ with ‘Pachacámac’, another name with opposite features in Andean culture. Along with these two words, the chapter also explores the concept of pachacuti, ‘the world upside down’, a key concept in the Andean world that, while a destructive force, also opens the opportunity for rebirth and restoration. In fact, for Fuerst, the structure of the Royal Commentaries would be the path of pachacuti, instead of the Western concept of tragedy. This idea becomes useful in the fourth chapter, entitled ‘Auca’ (‘Traitor’), in which Fuerst discusses the complex character of Atahualpa, who experiences a transition between the first part of the Royal Commentaries (as a tyrant) and the second one (as a melancholic king victim of his captors). Fuerst demonstrates that Atahualpa's death reveals a pachacuti, a time of chaos that might bring a promising future, or a utopia with Andean roots.
Fuerst dedicates the fifth chapter to Gonzalo Pizarro's rebellion, an episode that (following D. Brading and Mazzotti) could be seen as Garcilaso's proposal for a harmonious and intercultural government for Peru, with the alliance by marriage between conquerors and native nobility, coexisting and ruling, with Mestizo descendants. The proposal would be very risky if true. Fuerst explores possible connections between the bellicose discourse of the Peruvian rebellion and some ideas from the comunero revolt against Charles V. This interpretation sounds extreme, as the author admits that it would have been imprudent for Garcilaso to make a comunero argument so transparent, due to the reputation of that revolt in his time. The many aspects of Pizarro's rebellion are as complex and as charismatic as the caudillo is depicted by Garcilaso, and his actions are explicitly condemned by the historian. Fuerst aims to identify the episode of Pizarro as another pachacuti, a defeated project that would contain the political project to achieve social justice in a divided Peru.
The last chapter of the book deals with political thought, in this case not applied to government but to education and social reform. In ‘Jesuit Amautas’, Fuerst explores the presence and programme of the Jesuit order in colonial Peru. Although a sort of protégé of the Jesuits in Andalusia, Garcilaso includes subtle critiques of the evangelist plans developed by the order in his native land. Fuerst reveals this perspective in the Royal Commentaries, analysing quotes as well as omissions that Garcilaso made in his text when dealing with the Natural and Moral History of the Indies (1590) by José de Acosta. Garcilaso would have developed a new association between the Andean and European worldviews, intertwining the role of the Jesuits with the figure of the past amautas, scholar-teachers of the former Inca Empire. The purpose of Garcilaso exploiting this association would, again, be to gain the empathy of the Andean reader for his political project beyond the literal meaning of the text and its general appeal to a Hispanic audience.
In summary, through Fuerst's critical lens, the Royal Commentaries becomes a political treatise within a historical account, a plan of government and reformation that would have envisioned a new Peru. Fuerst is aware that this perspective is still only a possibility without clearer evidence. As a result, the author often employs expressions like ‘possibly’, ‘seem to be’, ‘indirectly’, ‘implicitly’, etc., as his arguments rely strongly on intricate interpretations based on potential meanings or connotations from the Indigenous worldview that we must assume the Andean readers not only would have detected, but also would have assimilated to create an alleged critical message that may oppose what Garcilaso was literally stating elsewhere. Besides this caveat regarding its methodology, Fuerst's analysis is valuable and innovative, for it explores a new set of concepts and allusions for Andean readers, and revaluates and expands previously discussed ones.
