Felipillo (or Felipe) was a native Amerindian interpreter who accompanied Spanish conquistadors
Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro González, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of Peru.
Born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Trujillo, Spain to a poor fam ...
and
Diego de Almagro on their various expeditions to Peru during their
conquest of the Inca Empire. His real name is not known.
Biography
There is discrepancy between the Spanish contemporary sources about the town of birth of Felipillo. According to some of them, he was a native of Tumbez, whilst, according to others, he was born in the region Poechos, an Tallan ethnicity. An isolated version places him from the island of
Puná. Felipillo learned
Quechua in
Tumbes from natives who spoke it as a second language and he also learned basic Spanish from Pizarro's soldiers. He was later taken back to
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
by Pizarro.
[Prescott, W.H., 2011, The History of the Conquest of Peru, Digireads.com Publishing, ][Leon, P., 1998, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru, Chronicles of the New World Encounter, edited and translated by Cook and Cook, Durham: Duke University Press, ]
On his return to Peru, Felipillo continued serving as a translator for the Spanish as the conquest of the country carried its course,
[ although historians agree that the interpreting provided by Felipillo was far from faithful or even helpful for the Spanish. After Francisco Pizarro captured the Inca Atahualpa during the Battle of Cajamarca in 1532, Felipillo was the main translator for Pizarro and Atahualpa during their first meeting. Since Felipillo belonged to a rival tribe and was having an affair with one of Atahualpa's concubines, he deliberately translated Pizarro's messages in an inaccurate manner to the Inca king, and spread false rumours.][ Felipillo later betrayed Almagro during his expedition to Quito.][
In another incident, Felipillo betrayed Almagro during his expedition of ]Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
by secretly telling the local natives to attack the Spanish since they only wanted their gold and urged them to attack them or run away. Some accounts say that when Almagro found out of Felipillo's betraying motives and his confession about purposely misinterpreting Pizarro's message to Atahualpa, he ordered his soldiers to capture Felipillo and tear his body apart with horses in front of the region's Curaca.
Nowadays, among Peruvians, the word "Felipillo" has taken a meaning similar to "traitor."
See also
*La Malinche
Marina or Malintzin ( 1500 – 1529), more popularly known as La Malinche , a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, became known for contributing to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521), by acting as an interpreter, ad ...
References
External links
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* Inca Empire
The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...
* Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, also known as the Conquest of Peru, was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish so ...
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Colonial Peru
Peruvian people of indigenous peoples descent
Indigenous people of South America
Peruvian translators
16th-century Peruvian people