Felipe Guáman Poma de Ayala

(c. 1535 - c. 1615)

Born into an elite Incan family, Felipe Guáman Poma de Ayala worked as an administrator for the Spanish colonial government in Peru. Amid a lawsuit over land titles, he was accused of misrepresenting his lineage and forced into exile for two years. The experience drew his attention to the colonial administration’s mistreatment of Indigenous people, and he composed a 1,200-page text, The First New Chronicle and Good Government, in response. Guáman Poma worked on it between 1567 and 1615, writing in Quechua-influenced Spanish.