The History of The Indies of Friar Bartolomé de las Casas in Vigil of The Admiral of Augusto Roa Bastos

Sumario: This article analyzes the intertextual presence of friar Bartolomé de las Casas’s History of the Indies in Vigil of the Admiral of Augusto Roa Bastos. Hence, it means to locate and analyze how the different intertexts function in Vigil. Particularly, the intertextual game contributes to the creation of the different images related to the Admiral, and Las Casas, originated on several polemic aspects derived from the commemoration of the quincentennial of the discovery of America. In the case of Columbus, the issues concerning the fact of being the true discoverer, and if he acted motivated by true evangelizing motives, are answered. In Vigil, the answers are negative, in clear opposition to Las Casas, who saw in the Genoese the intermission of the providence and his good intentions. In addition, there is a caesura towards Las Casas’s apology of Columbus, staging his radicals as a consequence of his fight for the indigenous people’s rights. In both cases, a humorous bias is noted. Roa plays with history by using the fictional persuasion in order to consolidate his project of presenting a more “common” side of Columbus (contrary to his mythical or emblematic image), and by using the fictional persuasion rather than the accuracy of the aforesaid history. Thus, confronting those points of view unwilling to notice the colonialist bias of the glorious image of the admiral.