Los españoles combaten la injusticia. La tragedia Atahualpa (1784) de Cristóbal Cortés

Resumo

Atahualpa, a tragedy written by Cristóbal María Cortés, was awarded by the Madrid City Council in 1784. Several reasons justified this recognition: formally, the work complied with the “rules of art” that the Enlightenment intellectuals tried to impose for the theater. From the point of view of the content, its author, despite correcting the truth of what happened, claimed to have followed the stories of the conquest of Peru, especially that of the Inca Garcilaso. The conflict between Huáscar, the legitimate Inca, and Atahualpa, the bastard brother who tried to dethrone him, allowed the author to present the Spanish as conquerors more concerned with resolving the civil war than with seizing the gold, implicitly responding to the permanent accusation of greed. In addition, the confrontation between brothers introduced the timely reflection on the need for an exercise of sovereign power without limits, so much to the liking of enlightened despotism.