‘Never seen before, and never to be seen’: Fray Francisco’s La conquista del Perú and the Royal Celebrations for Ferdinand VI

Abstract

AbstractSince 1723, the year that the nuptials of Prince Luis Fernando with Louise Elizabeth d’Orléans were celebrated in the viceroyalty of Peru, the indigenous population of Lima had been contributing as a separate guild with its own festivities to monarchical celebrations. At the heart of these new festivities was the royal procession of twelve Incas, impersonated by local coastal lords, who paraded around the plaza mayor offering their crowns to the Spanish king in a gesture of submission. This procession of Inca kings was also performed in 1748 in honor of the proclamation of Ferdinand VI. The official festival report sent to Spain, however, suggests that the Indians of Lima had originally intended to organize a different spectacle to their new monarch, something “never seen before, and never to be seen”. I propose that the anonymous author of the report is referring to Fray Francisco del Castillo’s La conquista del Perú, a play that had been commissioned from him by the Indians specifically for the proclamation of Ferdinand VI. Based on this assumption this article analyzes the comedia and its corresponding loa against the backdrop of previous royal celebrations in Lima under the Bourbon reign and vis-à-vis the Inca Garcilaso’s Comentarios reales (1609) and Historia general del Perú (1617). I intend to show that the historical context, as well as the inter-textual relationship with Fray Francisco’s most important source, bring to the fore the potentially dangerous ambiguities of the play and allow a hypothesis to be put forward that may explain why neither loa nor comedia were performed in 1748.