“People thought he was a Christian but he turned out to be a devil”: Protest and satire against Pedro de La Gasca in colonial Perú through Alonso de Medina (1549)

The actions of Pedro de La Gasca after his victory against the rebel Gonzalo Pizarro provoked the anger of several inhabitants of the Peruvian viceroyalty who criticized an unjust distribution of grants that forgot many loyalists and rewarded several conquerors who had supported the Pizarro side. This article focuses on the writings of the soldier Alonso de Medina addressed to La Gasca to denounce this action and other facts. Medina’s work is of great interest for several reasons, not only because of the uncensored information he provides about these events and their protagonists, but also because it would constitute one of the first documented manifestations of Peruvian colonial sociopolitical satirical literature.