This book is a study of the representations of the conquistador, the native inhabitants, and the landscape in two accounts of the conquest of Chile Pedro de Valdivia's Cartas de relación written to the Emperor Charles V between 1545 and 1552 and Gerónimo de Vivar's chronicle completed in 1558. Having had access to Valdivia's letters, Vivar transformed the conquistador's images of the conquest to suit his very different purpose for writing, his audience, and the genre in which he wrote. In order to set forth their different interpretations of this historic event, both writers availed themselves of rhetorical devices and techniques as well as familiar modes of narrative construction.

Autorentext

The Author: María de Jesús Cordero is Professor of Language and Latin American Literature at Utah State University. Born in Matanzas, Cuba, she emigrated to the United States with her family ten years after the Revolution. She was raised in Chicago, where she graduated from Loyola University with a B.A. in Spanish and English. Cordero received her M.A. in comparative literature from New York University and her M.A. and her Ph.D. in Romance languages at Princeton University.

Zusammenfassung
"Professor Cordero's research on Pedro de Valdivia's letters and Gerónimo de Vivar's chronicle will significantly contribute to scholarship on the accounts of the conquest of Chile. The theoretical framework she has chosen to apply in studying these accounts, though not frequent in current scholarship, serves her well to deal with the kind of problem that is wanting in consideration in the scholarship of colonial texts. Her research opens new areas of debate that will enrich our understanding of colonial writing." (Cristian Roa de la Carrera, The University of Illinois at Chicago)
"This area of studies has been glossed over or dealt with superficially for too long. It is good to see someone of María de Jesús Cordero's merit and her attention to detail and meticulous background work, not to forget patience, truly delve into this area. Her work will pave the way for younger scholars who are beginning to explore this field and are finding a treasure trove of materials that are interesting from many perspectives, historical and literary, not to forget either the psychological perspective of studying figures that determined the destiny of the area." (Albert C. Dawson, The University of Richmond, Virginia)