Blas Valera - Controversy About His Life and Works

Controversy About His Life and Works

Lately a few supposed new information on Blas Valera's biography have started to circulate. The most controversial one talks about "Nueva Crónica y Buen Gobierno" (A new Chronic and a Good Government), of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. According to specialist Laura Laurencich Minelli, there are three sheets of paper with drawings in the "Historia et Rudimenta Linguae Piruanorum" that have the signature of an "Italian Jesuit", Blas Valera. According to Minelli, these drawings were made before 1618, that is to say, some years after the official death of Valera.

Apparently, the objective of Valera in Europe was to tell the Pope the truth about the conquest of Peru made by Pizarro, who would have poisoned Atahualpa's soldiers with a mixture of arsenic and wine. This fact was told to Valera by another conqueror, his own father, Luis Valera. The general of the Compañía, Claudio Aquaviva, didn't agree with Valera's intentions, for this reason he was declared a dead person and was exiled. He went to Spain, where he supposedly shared part of his works with the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.

Later, it is said that Valera returned to Peru secretly with the intention of publishing his version of the Peruvian conquest. he got in touch with other two Jesuits: Joan Antonio Cumis and Joan Anello Oliva. To carry out their intention, the three of them had to hide the identity of the real author, so they used the name of Huaman Poma de Ayala. When he carried out his assignment, Blas Valera would have returned to Spain in 1618, where he supposedly died a little time later.

The enigma of knowing who was the real writer of "Nueva Crónica y Buen Gobierno" and also about the biographical mess of Blas Valera have not still been solved.