The «Epistle of Amarilis to Belardo», a Missive from Mestizo Peru to Spain

Abstract

This article is a new interpretation of the Epistle of Amarilis to Belardo. Using a close reading of text and a detailed analysis of the text’s sources, we discover that it is more than just a complaint from one of Lope’s female admirers, finding that the letter by Amarilis, in the tradition of El Inca Garcilaso, is the Peruvian mestizo’s cry (Amarilis) for «another» homeland ­—«Spain», as symbolized by Lope.