The writer Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and the relationship with the name Sullana

At the juncture of the celebration of Book Day, in which the triumvirate Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Garcilaso de la Vega, it is important to know details that involve Peru with the latter. For example, there is a relationship between Spanish-Peruvian and the word Sullana, currently known as the name of one of the most important cities in the Piura region, located in the north of the country.

The facts date from the beginning of the 18th century, when the first mention of the word was recorded. Miguel Arturo Seminario Ojeda, honorary president of the Tallán Cultural Association, said that Garcilaso de la Vega himself recognized the quichuization of the word Solana, noting that geographical names would be written in the writer's mother tongue, Quechua Runasimi.

How was the name relevant? It is known that the mention of the Sullana Valley appeared in 1609 for the first time, the year in which Garcilaso de la Vega's most important work, Royal Commentaries of the Incas, came out .

“The Chira Valley appears in the Royal Commentaries of the Incas, divided into two, that of Poechos, and that of Sullana, equivalent to what other previous and later writings recorded as Puchiu and Solana, whose incorporation into Quechua runasimi is Poechos and Sullana,” Miguel Seminario wrote in an article for El Regional Piura.

EMPHASIS ON THE USE OF THE NAME

In that vein, he recalled that Garcilaso de la Vega wrote Sullana, and not Solana, because he believed that dictions should have been written as he did. A controversy over the annotations of the Spaniards and the Quechua chinchaysimi together with the Quechua runasimi that Garcilaso speaks. In that sense, Solana was written and not Sullana.

Thus, Garcilaso de la Vega, while the Inca conquest had the presence of the Inca Huayna Cápac in the area, listed the valleys in ascending geographical order. “So Sullana is the quichuization of Solana, as Dr. Carlos Arrizabalaga Lizárraga, a well-earned Spanish linguist in Peru, also understands it,” Seminario said.

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE INCA GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

First we must remember that his mother is a native Peruvian, and that is why he was considered an illegitimate child. To the point that he had to fight hard to earn the right to use his father's surname, Garcilaso de la Vega. Time passed and as a writer he added the name Inca, with which he signed from 1563. How did he do it? Well, he brought together his two cultural heritages in the same firm and proudly showed them to an audience that did not see the mestizos with good eyes.

Another curiosity is that Garcilaso de la Vega lived in Peru until he moved to Spain at the age of 21. He was a military man and participated in several military campaigns until he became interested in religion, history and literature. Although he asked King Philip II's permission to return to Peru and granted it, he never returned to perform the service, because he preferred to continue his passion: writing.

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