In Arts of the Contact Zone, Mary Louise Pratt discusses a conflict, which she has labeled the "contact zone". Pratt defines the contact zone loosely as the social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other. In 1613 Guama Poma, a native Andean of Incan descent, wrote a twelve-hundred page letter addressed to King Philip III of Spain. Although the letter never reached its destination, we are now recognizing it as a contact zone in which two languages and cultures meet, and misinterpret each other. Poma had adopted the Spanish language as his means of communication of King Philip III.
             Poma's work is autoethnographic, which means that he describes his own society in a way, which he thinks the other society views his culture, using their language while incorporating his own culture and ideas. Poma's accomplishment is astonishing when one considers that the Incas had no system of writing. His only means of written expression is the Spanish language. Poma has taken it upon himself to learn enough Spanish so that is able to express his thoughts fluently. However, his written language will be subject to much interpretation, and it is likely, misunderstanding.
             Language is subject to much interpretation, and, at first glance, it seems Poma writes in his letter some harsh opinions of the Spanish. The Spanish, he writes, brought nothing of value to share with the Andeans, nothing but "armor and guns con la codicia de oro, plata oro y plata, yindias, a las Yindias ('with the lust for gold, silver, gold and silver, Indies, the Indies, Peru')". Here Poma uses the Spanish language to criticize the Spanish in his letter. Pratt was also interested in "Guama Poma mirrors back to the Spanish an image themselves that they often suppress and will therefore surely recognize". Here Poma has taken a great risk of offending the Spanish in his letter, which he intended to help bridge the gap between the two cultures. However...