Cristián A. Roa-de-la-Carrera
(Ph.D. Princeton University)
Associate Professor of Spanish
(312) 996-8522
roa@uic.edu
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I am interested in examining the role that cultural productions played in the colonization of the New World. My research focuses on Francisco López de Gómara’s Historia general de las Indias, mainly its peculiar conceptualization of imperialism and colonial relations as well as its participation in sixteenth-century debates about the Spanish conquest and the government of native populations.
Regarding oral and written traditions among indigenous peoples, I have a particular interest in the importance of native oral tradition and scriptural techniques in colonial culture. My interest is not only limited to European knowledge about these traditions, but also native efforts to shape colonial representations of the native past. In my teaching, I pay special attention to the impact of the introduction of written culture and its institutions in the native world, particularly in the challenges that oral traditions confronted in the colonial context. I include in my classes texts such as Inca Garcilaso’s Comentarios reales, Guamán Poma’s Nueva crónica, Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti’s Relación de antiguedades, the Huarochirí Manuscript, the Mendoza Codex, fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s Coloquios y doctrina cristiana, and the Popol Vuh.