A Hero for the Americas: The Legend of Gonzalo Guerrero - Softcover

Calder, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0889775095 ISBN 13: 9780889775091

Publisher: University of Regina Press, 2017

Synopsis

A group of shipwrecked Spaniards washed onto the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1512, leading to first contact between the Spanish and the Maya. Two men survived the ordeal: Jerónimo de Aguilar, who became a translator for Hernán Cortés in his conquest of the Aztecs, and Gonzalo Guerrero, who, as legend has it, embraced the Mayan way of life and skillfully led the opposition to the Spanish take-over of the Yucatán.

Reviled in 16th-century Spain as an apostate and a traitor, Guerrero is today remembered all over the Yucatán with statues and images, and as the symbolic father of millions of Mexican mestizos. But like Robin Hood and King Arthur, Guerrero's story has become embellished by legend and myth. The product of fifteen years of research by a Governor General's Award winner, A Hero for the Americas is the first comprehensive investigation of this controversial figure.

About this title

Book Description:

After being shipwrecked on the Yucatán Peninsula in 1512, Gonzalo Guerrero, as legend has it, adopted the Mayan way of life and became the mythic father of a people--the mestizos. A Hero for the Americas investigates this controversial figure.

About the Author:

Robert Calder is an award-winning author of four books including Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction. Calder lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Regina Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0889775095
• ISBN 13: 9780889775091
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208