While September 15 - October 15 is celebrated as "Hispanic Heritage Month," let's take a moment and look at some great books for those interested in the cultures found in the Latin America before Columbus claimed the Americas for Spain.
Jungle of Stone is the story of two intrepid adventurers in the 19th century, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood, who, in 1839, heard rumors of stone cities mired in the rainforests of Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. They decided to explore the area themselves. Their expedition transformed the way the world saw history. Before, very few academics believed that any kind of true "civilization" existed in the Americas before Spanish arrival, that the indigenous populations were savage, universally lacking in intelligence and sophistication. When Stephens and Catherwood published their "discoveries," all that began to change. It became clear that Mayan cities had existed and developed at the same time as the ancient Greeks and Romans, that Mayans were, in fact, quite sophisticated, and that Mayan cities had declined well before Spanish arrival. William Carlsen's book recounts all the hardships that the two men had to endure in their quest and brings their contributions into the light.
The Lost City of Z is a real adventure story that rivals anything Hollywood could come up with; in fact, it was made into a Hollywood movie a few years ago. Grann tells the story of British adventurer, Percy Fawcett, and his visit for what he called the "City of Z." While Fawcett hoped and believed that "Z" could have been the inspiration for the legendary golden city of El Dorado that Spanish conquistadors sought in vain. However, when he set out on an expedition to discover "Z" in 1925, none of his colleagues believed that he would find anything; they were universally under the impression that there had never been a city or large population center in the Amazon jungle, that there was no way the Amazon Indians had the ability or resources to build a city. Fawcett, and his son, unfortunately disappeared without a trace. Several expeditions attempted to trace their footsteps over the next decade, but nothing was found to fully explain what happened.
Brazilian Adventure is one of the old books in my collection, published in 1933, and I picked it up somewhere years before Grann even started his research. It happens to be the story of one of those expeditions that went out in search of Fawcett. It's quite a read itself, in fact still in print and available on Amazon and in other places.
Maybe the most amazing part of the Fawcett - Z story is that 75 or so years later, archaeologists began using 21st century tools and technology to discover evidence that there were actually cities in the Amazon, and that the indigenous population of the region was, in fact, quite large in the past,
Douglas Preston, a journalist and best-selling author of fiction and nonfiction, had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in 2012to accompany an expedition into the jungles of Honduras in search of the ruins of a city called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. His book is a stunning eyewitness accounts of one of the greatest archaeological discoveries made in the Americas, because the expedition did, n fact, discover the ruins of what was once a large city.
The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes tells the story of a Brazilian expedition that sets out to learn about the "Arrow People," an Amazonian tribe that had never had contact with the outside world. Yes, even in the 21st century, there are some uncontacted groups. Of course, as the outside world encroaches deeper and deeper into their world, these groups may be in danger of extinction, or at least exploitation. Wallace tells the story of the dangers facing the expedition, but he also reveals the real conflict within the ranks of the "experts": do they risk contact and the dangers that may bring to the Arrow People? It is an interesting read.
The Fifth Sun is very new book, published in 2020, and it brings a whole new perspective to the history of the Aztecs, one based solely on the texts written by the Aztecs themselves. I haven't read this yet, but it has gotten some very positive reviews and has found its way on my to-be-read list.
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