The Discursive Encounter of Spain and America
The Authority of Eyewitness Testimony in the Writing of History
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3375965 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rolena Adorno (0009-0004-2437-5963, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 210 |
| Publication date | 1992-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2947270 |
| OpenAlex | W2335582855 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
WIC HEN Bernal Diaz del Castillo wrote the Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espaia, he feared, he said, that his readers would take as fictional his accounts of ninety-three days of battle because they would seem like the tales in a novel of chivalry.1 A participant in the Vazquez de Coronado expedition of I 540-I 542, Pedro de Castafieda de Na.jera, expressed a similar concern.2 For men like Bernal Diaz and Pedro Castafieda, the challenge of writing history was not only to be believed but also to be acknowledged as authoritative. The relationship between historical testimony and historiographic authority was, without a doubt, one of the central issues in the histories and relations (relaciones) written by participants in the Spanish conquests in America. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, conquistador of Mexico and encomendero of Guatemala, Alvar Nifiez Cabeza de Vaca, shipwreck survivor of Painfilo de Narvaez's expedition to conquer Florida and governor of Rio de la Plata, and Fray Bartolome de Las Casas, ex-encomendero, friar, missionary, bishop, and activist at court on behalf of the natives of America, not only made history but wrote it. Each of them recorded, refuted, and transmitted it, and in doing so, each played a key role in the process of elaborating the discursive encounter of Spain and America. The episodes of this encounter occurred not on the battlefield or at court but in the library, not against the din of battle or the stridency of conciliar debates but in the silence of reading and reflection. Neverthe
Political science · Early Modern Spanish Literature · History · Latin American history and culture · Libraries, Manuscripts, and Books
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Recent Literature in Discovery History
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Plotting Indigenous Stories, Land, and People
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| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,52 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2023 (31) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |