Mansio Serra de Leguizamón has been called a rogue and a liar. As an encomendero in early colonial Cuzco, Peru, he told elaborate tales of his exploits in the conquest of the Inca empire. Among other boasts, he claimed to have received the Incas’ golden idol of the sun, stolen from their temple in Cuzco, and lost it gambling that very night. This reckless deed became legendary, inspiring a popular expression “to gamble the sun before the dawn” (p. iv). But modern scholars of the conquest, such as Raúl Porras Barrenechea and James Lockhart, have rejected Serra’s claims as tall tales.
This biography, by a British journalist who is a descendent of Mansio Serra, attempts to vindicate his honesty. While Serra’s name does not appear on official lists of the distribution of treasure, Stirling argues that these early records are not complete enough to rule out his ancestor’s version of...
