When and where was Inca Garcilaso de la Vega born?
Gómez Suárez de Figueroa arrived in the world on the 12th of April 1539 within the city of Cuzco. His mother was Palla Chimpu Ocllo, a princess descended from Túpac Huallpa and Tupac Yupanqui.
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Gómez Suárez de Figueroa arrived in the world on the 12th of April 1539 within the city of Cuzco. His mother was Palla Chimpu Ocllo, a princess descended from Túpac Huallpa and Tupac Yupanqui.
The death of his father in 1559 triggered a major shift in Gómez's life trajectory that led him to leave Peru for Spain the following year at the age of twenty-one. He traveled to Montilla to meet his father's brother Alonso de Vargas who acted as a protector helping the young man navigate Spanish society.
De la Vega entered Spanish military service in 1570 to serve the Crown directly and fought against the Moors in the Alpujarras following the Morisco Revolt. His services earned him the rank of captain within the Spanish army structure while he remained in Spain throughout these years.
His first major work appeared as La Florida del Inca published in Lisbon in 1605. The book described Hernando de Soto's expedition and journey through Florida using available records gathered over many years before writing the account.
The first volume focused primarily on Inca life based on stories from his maternal relatives and appeared in Lisbon in 1609. The second volume about the conquest of Peru was published posthumously in 1617 drawing upon remnants of history by Blas Valera destroyed during the sacking of Cádiz in 1596.
Modern monuments honor his memory across multiple continents including South America and Europe with a statue dedicated to him standing near Villa Borghese gardens in Rome erected in 1967. Another similar statue dated 1973 exists in Plaza República del Perú in Buenos Aires Argentina while Cusco's main stadium bears his name Estadio Garcilaso de la Vega.