In 1947 Jesús Lara, the Communist scholar, wrote La poesia Quechua. It was a worthy study but with gaps and and amplification of the 1947 book. Lara, an able scholar when dealing with his specialty but a prejudiced and scornful man when dealing with international problems, admits the weaknesses of his 1947 book and says that they motivated him to write this newest study.
The book is a good one and should be read by Latin Americanists. While Lara has not found much new material, he has diligently searched through all available, often very rare, sources. He has located here and there interesting new data or has new interpretations. He has provided us with the whole sweep of Quechua literature from the Inca period through the Republic. Lara’s excellent knowledge of Quechua makes him the very person to have undertaken this study. His willingness to give comments and opinions is welcome to this reviewer. For example, he is convinced that the Khipus was the written language of the Quechuas. The lack of an index, as is usual in Bolivian books, is in this ease even more deplorable.