The Books
As each of us individually conducted research on a specific Atlantic traveler, collectively we read these books and used them as our navigational tools to sail the Atlantic's historiographical waters. The books' histories and stories guided us through our own process. Each of the following books features a unique, comprehensive approach to the early modern Atlantic world and the people who traversed it. Their authors provided us physical, conceptual, and narrative maps that we used to navigate our own understanding of the global Atlantic world. These books also offered us a set of concepts to understand and interpret the world our travelers inhabited and the challenges and opportunities they encountered in their journeys. Scott and Hébrard’s “micro-history set in motion,” Sparks's "Atlantic Creoles," Restall and Fernández-Armesto's "armed entrepreneurs," Sweet’s “Black Atlantic,” Jasanoff's "spirit of 1783," Pérez Morales's "masterless Caribbean," and Colley's "biography that crosses boundaries" offered us fruit for thought and nourished our weekly discussions.
The Books
As each of us individually conducted research on a specific Atlantic traveler, collectively we read these books and used them as our navigational tools to sail the Atlantic's historiographical waters. The books' histories and stories guided us through our own process. Each of the following books features a unique, comprehensive approach to the early modern Atlantic world and the people who traversed it. Their authors provided us physical, conceptual, and narrative maps that we used to navigate our own understanding of the global Atlantic world. These books also offered us a set of concepts to understand and interpret the world our travelers inhabited and the challenges and opportunities they encountered in their journeys. Scott and Hébrard’s “micro-history set in motion,” Sparks's "Atlantic Creoles," Restall and Fernández-Armesto's "armed entrepreneurs," Sweet’s “Black Atlantic,” Jasanoff's "spirit of 1783," Pérez Morales's "masterless Caribbean," and Colley's "biography that crosses boundaries" offered us fruit for thought and nourished our weekly discussions.
The Books
The Books
Ramusio Map (1534). Courtesy of John Carter Brown Library
Isabel de Guevara (c. 1510 - c. 1565)
By Georgina Cedeño
Historical texts often neglect the narratives and experiences of women, and those written in sixteenth-century Spain are no exception. The life of Isabel de Guevara is remembered in the pages of history because of a single letter she wrote to the Spanish crown in 1556. Married to Spanish conquistador Pedro Esquivel, Guevara accepted an offer from the crown to accompany her husband in an expedition to conquer and colonize the Rio de la Plata province in contemporary Argentina. Under the leadership of Pedro de Mendoza, Guevara joined the few other women who sailed in a 1500-man expedition from Spain in 1534 and arrived at La Plata in 1536. In a harsh awakening, the team discovered that the region was void of precious metals and was instead covered in dry grasslands. To add to their concerns, nourishment and provisions were soon depleted, and the local indigenous community, the Querandí, did not welcome their arrival. In fact, the looming threat of starvation and raids by the Querandí led the expeditionary team to abandon their attempt to conquer the region and instead relocate to Asunción to advance the colonization efforts of Spanish priests in the city.
After crossing the Atlantic in 1534, Isabel de Guevara played a leading role in conquest expeditions in the interior of the Rio de la Plata.
As the group trekked and sailed through 1,288 kilometers of uncharted, wild terrain, a combination of persistent malnutrition, a sweltering climate, foreign diseases, and a failed mission crushed the physical and mental wellbeing of the men. While Isabel de Guevara and the rest of the women shared these same circumstances, they assumed the role of the conquistadors as well as caretakers of the dying men and led the fleet to Asunción, saving the lives of the 1,000 individuals who made it to the city. In 1536, Isabel de Guevara wrote a letter to Princess Juana, daughter of Queen Isabel of Castille and King Fernando of Aragon, recounting their journey and asking for a repartimiento (a land grant with the labor of all indigenous people who lived on it), arguing for these rights on behalf of her role as a conquistador and colonizer of Asunción. It is unknown whether she received a response.
Princess Juana, portrait by Sánchez Coello. Isabel de Guevara sent a letter to Princess Juana requesting a repartimiento. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
Letters to the Spanish Crown requesting repartimientos, albeit written overwhelmingly by men, were not uncommon. To argue effectively for their case conquistadors indulged in flamboyancy, exaggeration, and constant declarations of loyalty and allegiance to the Spanish King. Although not an official document, Guevara’s letter is significant because it challenges traditional narratives about conquistadors. The popular media portrays conquistadors as military men who survive a foreign environment against all odds based solely on their skills and courage. Meanwhile, history textbooks focus on the victorious conquests of the Aztec and Inca Empires, and attribute the conquistador’s success to diseases like smallpox and firearms. While both narratives contain some truth, as Guevara’s letter suggests, without the help or resources (whether willingly given or coerced) from indigenous communities, conquistadors became helpless explorers in an unfamiliar land. Given their limited provisions and their inexperience with the geography of the land, the success of conquistadors depended largely on their strategic alliances with indigenous groups. As the fleet of Mendoza exemplifies, without external support, conquistadors were highly susceptible to the threats of the New World and cast without a stable food supply, quickly succumbed to starvation.
Spanish Conquistadors attacked by natives in South America. Image from Bridgeman Education.
The Spanish Crown was initially drawn to the Americas for the exploitation of its precious metals, however, transient voyages evolved into permanent settlements as the Crown coveted an overseas economy and expansion of its empire and influence. Isabel and the other women, as the embodiment of stability and homemaking, received the Spanish Crown’s blessings to sail with Mendoza’s fleet and transform conquered land into colonies. In spite of the Crown’s desire for rapid colonization, at this time women from Spanish society rarely crossed the Atlantic, and those who did were charged with the traditional roles of washing, cooking, and tending after men. In a drastic turn of events, Isabel and her companions shouldered not only their inherent roles as caretakers of the men, but they also defied the social limitations placed upon them, namely adopting the responsibilities of conquistadors. The Spanish Crown never intended for Isabel and the others to gain the ability to combat and defend their camps against the hostile indigenous communities, nor were they supposed to command men. By accepting these duties, it is possible that they provided Isabel and her comrades with a sense of their own autonomy and laid a foundation for questioning their subservient roles in Spanish society. Indeed, in spite of the multiple limitations she faced as a woman, Isabel’s letter testifies to her empowerment since she demanded equal treatment to men for her services as a conquistador to none other than the Spanish Crown.
References
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Adams, Jerome R. Notable. Latin American Women: Twenty-Nine Leaders, Rebels, Poets, Battlers, and Spies, 1500-1900. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1995.
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Alzate, Carolina. “Isabel De Guevara y Cristóbal Colón: Demandas De La Conquista.” Cuadernos De Literatura 5, no. 9 (n.d.): 70–76. Accessed May 5, 2020.
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Gálvez, Lucía. Mujeres De La Conquista. Buenos Aires: Punto de Lectura, 2007.
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Jehenson, Myriam Yvonne. Latin-American Women Writers: Class, Race, and Gender. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
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Loaeza Pablo García, and Victoria L. Garrett. The Improbable Conquest: Sixteenth-Century Letters from the Río De La Plata. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015.
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Marrero-Fente Raúl. Al Margen De La tradición: Relaciones Entre La Literatura Colonial y Peninsular En Los Siglos XV, XVI y XVII. Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 1999.