Account of the Martyrs in the Provinces of La Florida
Account of the Martyrs in the Provinces of La Florida
Few English-speaking readers are familiar with the life or the writings of the sixteenth-century Franciscan chronicler Luis Jerónimo de Oré, particularly his neglected Relación, about the early Spanish presence in territories now part of the United States. His account of La Floridaâ€"an area that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries included present-day Florida as well as territory north to Virginia and west into Kansasâ€"reflects the desire of the Spanish Crown and various religious orders to explore and to establish a presence in the region. This edition of Luis Jerónimo de Oré’s work presents readers with a new introduction and an annotated translation that place the text in the broader context of international politics. The narrative develops our understanding of the early Spanish presence in the continental United States while documenting frontier life and the contacts with Native Americans in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.
An interesting, at times exciting, and readable story that relates Spanish military activities, Franciscan interactions with the indigenous peoples, the effects of Spanish government oversight, the clash of cultures, and the amazing linguistic achievements of the missionaries.…Account of the Martyrs in the Provinces of La Florida offers rare insight into the actions, motivations, and thinking of the early conquering and colonial forces.
With a thorough introduction and the ample scholarly apparatus supplied by Raquel Chang-Rodríguez and Nancy Vogeley, this lively text comes to us like a puzzle whose missing piece is finally restored.…[A] timely, definitive, and handsomely produced edition.
“Raquel Chang-RodrÃguez and Nancy Vogeley do a superb job in making available to English-speaking audiences a modernized and annotated version of a foundational narrative about the history of Spanish contact in the North American continent.â€?â€'Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas
Chang-Rodríguez and Vogeley’s [translation] contains an up-to-date and extensive critical apparatus that situates Oré’s historiographical piece in the international politics of the time while incorporating recent scholarship as well.
Raquel Chang-RodrÃguez is a Distinguished Professor of Hispanic literature and culture at the Graduate Center and the City College of the City University of New York. Her latest book is CartografÃa garcilasista. Nancy Vogeley is a Professor Emerita of Spanish at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of Lizardi and the Birth of the Novel in Spanish America.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Account of the Martyrs in the Provinces of La Florida
Bibliography
Index
