This is a fascinating study of the quite improbable exploits of a very strange person. A vagabundo from Andalusia, Pedro Bohorques attained no less than regional lordship status as an Inca descendant allegedly destined to lead the Calchaquí Indians of Tucumán to overthrow the Spaniards. Those who wish only to read the almost unbelievable story of how the central character made his way through the marginal communities and geographical peripheries of the colonial world should skip immediately to chapter 3, page 99. From there the author provides, in a very elegant English translation, a comprehensive geo-biographic study of Bohorques (or Chamijo — even his name is subject to some controversy). Arriving at Pisco, Peru, around 1620, he married the daughter of a mulatto and moved to Castrovirreina to tend cattle. There he quickly learned Quechua from the local Indian community and also slowly but surely entered the mythic worlds of...

Issue Section:
Background
You do not currently have access to this content.