Barbara De Marco

The earliest written histories of the American Southwest are contained in archives in Spain and Mexico. To the extent that this original Spanish documentation has been published, it has been available, for the most part, only in English translation. This is the first Spanish edition of a complete set of documents from the Archivo General de Indias, Seville (AGI Patronato Real, legajo 22, ramo 13), that pertain to Juan de Oñate and the exploration and settlement of "La Nueva Mexico" in the early 1600s. This edition expands on the published translations by Herbert Bolton, Adolph and Fanny Bandelier, and George Hammond and Agapito Rey, and includes a study of the methods of transmission and archival preservation of this essential American history.