Juan de Betanzos began writing his Narrative of the Incas around 1551 in colonial Peru. Married to an Inca noblewoman, he had access to Quechua-speaking informants and royal memory. His work attempted to translate Andean history into Spanish prose after conquest had shattered the Inca state.

The Narrative is vital because it channels oral testimony and Indigenous historical memory through a colonial text. It helps readers see how epic, genealogy and political legitimacy survived in voices mediated by translators and conquerors.