Historia de la Nueva Mexico, 1610: A Critical and Annotated Spanish/English Edition

Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá
Miguel Encinias , Editor and translator
Alfred Rodriguez , Editor and translator
Joseph P. Sánchez , Editor and translator

One of the first travel journals of its kind to be published, this epic poem about Juan de Oñate's entrada that led to the founding of Nueva M?xico in 1598 (to become the state of New Mexico 314 years later) is full of the hopes and dreams of those who traveled with O?ate. Historia de la Nueva M?xico, 1610 was written fourteen years before John Smith's History of Virginia. Its thirty-four cantos have long been considered a key source for early New Mexico history and this bilingual Spanish/English version presents it as literature.

By situating Historia de la Nueva México, 1610 within the Hispanic literary heritage, the work is restored to the canon of American literature.

"And now the horses, being blind,
Did give themselves most cruel blows
And bumps against the unseen trees,
And we, as tired as they,
Exhaling living fire and spitting forth
Saliva more viscous than pitch,
Our hope given up, entirely lost,
Were almost all wishing death."

"Y tanto, que ya ciegos los caballos
Crueles testaradas y encontrones
Se daban por los árboles sin verlos,
Y nosotros, qual ellos fatigados,
Vivo fuego exalando y escupiendo
Saliva más que liga pegajosa,
Desahuziados ya y ya perdidos,
La muerte casi todos desseamos."

--from Historia de la Nueva México, 1610, Canto XIV, 92-99

"Pérez de Villagra's epic poem chronicles his journeys with the Oñate expedition as the legendary group traveled from El Paso to explore New Mexico, experiencing hunger, thirst and deprivations and gory conflicts as they struggled to reach Santa Fe. The language is rich, eloquent and often lovely, but, like the original expedition, this is not a journey for the fainthearted. The author pulls no punches about the violence and agonies of the expedition."--Las Cruces Sun-News

"This classic history of New Mexico is recommended for students of history and literature, as well as for the general reader interested in the early Hispanic settlement of the southwestern United States."--Colonial Latin American Historical Review

"This handsome critical and annotated edition..sets the bar impressively high..for all subsequent scholarship dedicated to the colonial period in the American Southwest."--Catholic Southwest

Miguel Encinias resides in Albuquerque.

Alfred Rodríguez is professor emeritus of Spanish and Portuguese, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Joseph P. Sánchez, longtime director of the Spanish Colonial Research Center, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, is currently superintendent of the Petroglyph National Monument.

Paso Por Aqui Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage

8.5 x 11 411 pages 2 halftones, 3 maps