September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month. Why does it start in the middle of the month? September 15 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the declaration of independence of five Hispanic countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, who all declared independence in 1821. Hispanic heritage, of course goes back to the conquest of Latin America by the fortune- and glory- hunting Spanish conquistadors, who transformed Latin America and the world. One might even argue that the conquest of Latin America was the biggest transformation in world history. As a result of Spanish conquest, millions of people died and were enslaved - American and African, whole civilizations and cultures were destroyed, and the stolen riches made Spain a superpower, directly affecting the political and economic structures of Europe for centuries. They initiated the Columbian Exchange, which transformed the world biologically. And, over 500 years later, Latin American culture still reflects its Spanish conquest through language, religion, architecture, political structure, and arts.
Here are a few books I recommend.
In 1527, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca joined an expedition led by Panfilo de Narvaez, with the mission to explore La Florida, the southeastern part of the U.S. today. The expedition consisted of 600 men in five ships at its start. Unfortunately, the expedition met with one disaster after another. Storms, shipwrecks, and Indian conflicts, had reduced the expedition to 15 men, including de Vaca, in November 1528, probably near modern-day Galveston Texas. These fifteen were captured and enslaved by various tribes over the next four years; eventually, only de Vaca, two other Spaniards, and an enslaved African survived. The four men made an escape and wandered for the next four years across the southwestern U.S., interacting with various tribes. De Vaca even developed a reputation as a trader and healer among the tribes they interacted with. Finally, they reached a Spanish settlement in northern Mexico and reached Mexico City in 1536. After returning home to Spain in 1537, de Vaca wrote about his experience. The result is A Land So Strange. It's a remarkable survival story.
Conquistador's Wake is about an archaeologist's search for the trail of another conquistador who explored Florida and the Southeast, Hernando de Soto. If you are interested in the work of archaeologists, this book is for you. Blanton's work on recently discovered Spanish sites in Georgia challenges previously held beliefs about De Soto and his route, and he makes a convincing case.
If you're looking for really good and respectable histories of the conquests of the Aztecs and the Incas specifically, these three recent books fit the bill. Conquest by Hugh Thomas and When Montezuma Met Cortes by Matthew Restall and Kim MacQuarrie's The Last Days of the Incas.
If you're looking for a classic, The Broken Spears is for you. Not only is it recognized as a classic about the conquest of the Aztecs, but it is also unique because it tells the story from the Aztec point of view, not just relying on Spanish accounts. As we all know, history has many sides, and the indigenous view of the the Spanish conquistadors was too long ignored.
Buddy Levy has written two books about conquistadors, Conquistadors and River of Darkness. Conquistador is about Hernan Cortes' conquest of the Aztecs. River of Darkness is the story of the search for El Dorado - the legendary city of gold. In 1541, Pizarro, conqueror of the Incas, and Francisco Orellana set off from Quito Ecuador to find the treasure. The two men decided to split their forces after facing setback after setback. Pizarro eventually returned to safety, but Orellana and his men face a much longer trek, eventually becoming the first known group to navigate the entire length of the Amazon River. It was also Orellana who named the river, inspired by clashes with Indians along their journey. Indian women fought alongside men, and Orellana likened them to the Amazon female warriors of Greek mythology. A word of caution: Levy's work has been called out for being inaccurate and too politically correct by some reviewers. They were not my favorite books, but I found them readable.
(Salvador Dali, The Discovery of America, one of my favorite Dali paintings)
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