Pizarro, Pedro (1515–1587)

A soldier and a chronicler, Pedro Pizarro had an active role in the Spanish Conquest in Peru. Originally from Toledo, he was the cousin of Francisco Pizarro, to whom he referred as "el Marqués." Upon his arrival in Peru in 1530, Pedro Pizarro was only fifteen years old. He fought against Diego de Almagro and won the victory in the battle against Gonzalo Pizarro, Francisco's half-brother, and also helped to frustrate the rebellion of Manco Inca Yupanqui in 1536. He was committed to his mission as conquistador and was granted the encomiendas of Tacna and Arica. Later in his life Pedro Pizarro settled in Arequipa, where in 1571 he completed the Relacion del descubrimiento y conquista de los reinos del Peru, one of the most reliable documents about the conquest.

Pizarro's work is not only a narrative of conflict and warfare; it also contains anthropological material about the everyday lives of the Andean people (including the women) and a detailed description of Atahualpa. Pizarro stresses that he is a direct witness of the events he reports, unlike such chroniclers as Pedro de Cieza de León, who writes on what he hears "en una coronica que ha querido hacer de oidas, y creo yo que muy poco de vista" [in a chronicle that he tried to do through hearsay and, I believe, not much by truly seeing] (p. 176). Pizarro consistently provides references to his sources, thus assuring the reader of the accuracy of his information.

See alsoConquistadores; Pizarro, Francisco; Pizarro, Gonzalo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Work

Pizarro, Pedro. Relación del descubrimiento y conquista de los reinos del Perú y del gobierno y orden que los naturales tenían, y tesoros que en ella se hallaron, y de las demás cosas que en él han subcedido hasta el día de la fecha. Buenos Aires: Editorial Futuro, 1944.

Secondary Works

Carrillo, Francisco. "Tesis, historia y fábula en la crónica de Pedro Pizarro." Revista de Critica Literaria Latinoamericana 20 (1984): 29-43.

Dowling, Lee H. "The Chronicle of Pedro Pizarro." La Chispa '87: Selected Proceedings, edited by Gilbert Paolini, 99-105. New Orleans, LA: Tulane University Press, 1987.

Fossa, Lydia. "Los primeros encuentros entre las huestes de Pizarro y los indígenas: Apuntes para una tipología." Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 60 (2004): 71-98.

Huber, Elena, and Miguel Alberto Guérin. "La crónica de Pedro Pizarro (Arequipa, 1571): El manuscrito de la Huntington Library y su edición (Lima, 1978)." Filologia 21, no. 1 (1986): 77-91.

Moses, Bernard. Spanish Colonial Literature in South America. London and New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1922.

                        Yolanda Chavez-Cappellini