Inca Garcilaso de la Vega

The Inca Garcilaso de la Vega was born in 1539 in Cuzco, the old capital of the Inca Empire; his father was a Spanish conquistador and noble officer, his mother a grandniece of Huayna Capac, the last great Inca emperor. He spent his childhood and youth in Cuzco, hearing from his mother's kin the history, legends and customs of the Inca royal house, while receiving a Spanish education. After his father's death he left for Spain at twenty-one and never returned to Peru. He served in the Spanish army, fighting in the war against the Moriscos, and in later life settled in Córdoba in Andalusia, taking 'Inca' as his title and devoting himself to writing, putting into his books both his bloodlines and both his cultures. Regarded as the first great writer born in the Americas, he died in the same year as Cervantes.