FULLERTON : Historic Letter to Be Shown at Museum

The Declaration of Independence wasn’t the first New World document to express frustration with European rule.

In 1585, a native Andean began writing an illustrated letter to the king of Spain criticizing the brutality and incompetence of the conquistadors.

One drawing in the letter shows a Spanish horseman trampling an Andean who lies moaning on the ground.

Guaman Poma de Ayala spent 30 years working on his letter, which grew to 1,188 pages. No one knows if King Philip III of Spain ever received it, or if he did, whether he read it. But Poma was thrown out of his hometown for political activities.

Reproductions of parts of his letter will be on display Sept. 19 through Nov. 29 in an exhibit at the Fullerton Museum Center.

The letter shows that native Peruvians tried to defend their culture with pens as well as pikes and that their defense, though unsuccessful, was complex and articulate.

Not only did Poma criticize the Spanish rule, he also described the Andean civilization that had been there before and offered a plan for improved governing of the area.

Poma was educated about European culture and worked for the Spanish as a notary and translator.

He was later branded a subversive by the conquerors, according to historians, because he taught natives to write legal claims for their lost land.

Aimee Grodsky, coordinator of the museum’s Project Discovery, believes that the document will speak to modern-day children and adults, since California was also ruled by the Spanish for many years.

“We’re trying to make the museum experience part of the teacher’s curriculum,” she said.

Grodsky will bring students to the museum to see the exhibit. They will also be given pens and paper to write their own illustrated letter about something important to them. “It can’t all be look, look, look but don’t touch,” Grodsky said.

Project Discovery, which tries to make a museum trip a hands-on experience, is free to schoolchildren and other groups.

Joseph Felz, the museum’s director, said migrant farm workers and English-as-a-second-language students have also used the program.

“We’re really a museum of ideas,” Felz said. “We use the exhibition format to provide discussions.”