Blas Valera
Blas Valera (1544 – 1597) was a Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit Order in Peru, a historian, and a linguist.
In the words of biographer Sabine Hyland, Valera had "concern for the welfare of the indigenous people of Peru" and he made "courageous efforts to defend their civilization and forge a new vision of Andean Christianity.
As a child, Valera spoke Quechua and he studied Latin and Spanish in the city of Trujillo and became a competent linguist.
[2] Valera joined the Jesuit Order in Lima in 1568 and was described as "humble" with a "stable personality and much practical wisdom."
In 1573, Valera was ordained as a priest and in 1576 he was a Latin teacher and preacher to the Andean (Indian) indigenous population in Cuzco.
The nobles in the Name of Jesus confraternity formed an alliance with the Jesuits to preserve their royal privileges and to promote the centrality of Cuzco and the Incas to the Catholic faith.
In prison, Valera was forced to pray, perform menial tasks, and undergo weekly "mortifications," which probably included flagellations.
[7] Although the ostensible reason for Valera's imprisonment was sexual indiscretions, his punishment was far more severe than that of other priests accused of the same offense.
The more likely reason for his imprisonment was his view that the Incas were the proper rulers of Peru and that Quechua was superior to Spanish and equivalent to Latin as a language of religion.
Author Hyland speculates that the Jesuits wished to avoid antagonizing Philip II of Spain and suppressed Valera's opinions.
Prior to Toledo's rule, the indigenous culture of Peru had mostly survived the 40 years since Francisco Pizzaro's overthrow of the Inca Empire.
He finally arrived in Spain in May 1596 where he was initially imprisoned but, on 3 June 1576, Father Cristóbal Mendez wrote Acquaviva that Valera had reformed.
The "Vocabulario" was a source, sometimes not attributed due to Valera's poor standing with the Jesuits, for Giovanni Anello Oliva in his histories of the Incas.
