Invading Guatemala

The invasions of Guatemala -- Pedro de Alvarado's letters to Hernando Cortes, 1524 -- Other Spanish accounts -- Nahua accounts -- Maya accounts

In early April 1536, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada led a military expedition from the coastal city of Santa Marta deep into the interior of what is today modern Colombia. With roughly eight hundred Spaniards and numerous native carriers and black slaves, the Jiménez expedition was larger than the combined forces under Hernando Cortés and Francisco Pizarro. Over the course of the one-year campaign, nearly three-quarters of Jiménez’s men perished, most from illness and hunger. Yet, for the 179 survivors, the expedition proved to be one of the most profitable campaigns of the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, the history of the Spanish conquest of Colombia remains virtually unknown. Through a series of firsthand primary accounts, translated into English for the first time, Invading Colombia reconstructs the compelling tale of the Jiménez expedition, the early stages of the Spanish conquest of Muisca territory, and the foundation of the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá. We follow the expedition from the Canary Islands to Santa Marta, up the Magdalena River, and finally into Colombia’s eastern highlands. These highly engaging accounts not only challenge many current assumptions about the nature of Spanish conquests in the New World, but they also reveal a richly entertaining, yet tragic, tale that rivals the great conquest narratives of Mexico and Peru.

The Historical Dictionary of Guatemala contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture.

Rafael Carrera (1814-1865) ruled Guatemala from about 1839 until his death. Among Central America’s many political strongmen, he is unrivaled in the length of his domination and the depth of his popularity. This “life and times” biography explains the political, social, economic, and cultural circumstances that preceded and then facilitated Carrera’s ascendancy and shows how Carrera in turn fomented changes that persisted long after his death and far beyond the borders of Guatemala.

This volume, the first of its genre in English, brings together the pioneering work of scholars of urban Indians of colonial Latin America. An important, but understudied segment of colonial society, urban Indians composed a majority of the population of Spanish America's most important cities. The geographic range, chronological scope, and thematic content of urban native studies is addressed by examining such topics as the role of natives in settling frontier regions, interethnic relations, notaries and chroniclers, and the continuation of indigenous governance. In spanning the entirety of the colonial period, the persistence and the creation of urban Indian identities and their contributions to colonial society is brought to the fore. Scholarly contributions include chapters by Susan Schroeder, "Whither Tenochtitlan? Chimalpahin and Mexico City, 1593-1631" and David Cahill, "Urban Mosaic: Indigenous Ethnicities in Colonial Cuzco". The volume opens with commentary by John K Chance, pioneer scholar of urban Indians in Latin America and author of the highly praised Race and Class in Colonial Oaxaca and is summed up in "Concluding Remarks" by Kevin Terraciano, author of the widely acclaimed The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca: Nudzahui History. The diverse themes, time periods, and geographic regions discussed herein make this illustrated book essential reading for all those engaged in colonial and indigenous studies.

"Many Spanish language teachers have little understanding of the indigenous languages and cultures that are part of the Spanish-speaking Americas. This book proposes to fill that gap and help teachers include the history and culture of Indigenous Peoples using a social justice lens. Indigenous America begins with an overview of the history of colonialism throughout the Spanish-speaking Americas and ties it to language teaching curricula and standards. Each substantive chapter ends with a list of conclusions, a list of questions for discussion and debate, and a set of teaching topics and concrete classroom exercises. Fountain will include photographs of places, people, and artifacts to make this history tangible. Appendices with more details about incorporating some rich resources into the Spanish language classroom are included, as is a glossary of important terms. This book is the first resource of its kind and is timely--teachers are eager to include more voices in their courses"--

In this groundbreaking new study on ladinas in Guatemala City, Patricia Harms contests the virtual erasure of women from the country’s national memory and its historical consciousness. Harms focuses on Spanish-speaking women during the “revolutionary decade” and the “liberalism” periods, revealing a complex, significant, and palpable feminist movement that emerged in Guatemala during the 1870s and remained until 1954. During this era ladina social activists not only struggled to imagine a place for themselves within the political and social constructs of modern Guatemala, but they also wrestled with ways in which to critique and identify Guatemala’s gendered structures within the context of repressive dictatorial political regimes and entrenched patriarchy. Harms’s study of these women and their struggles fills a sizeable gap in the growing body of literature on women’s suffrage, social movements, and political culture in modern Latin America. It is a valuable addition to students and scholars studying the rich history of the region.