Background
Hernando de Alarcón was probably born in Trujillo, Spain, about 1500.
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book
Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentílicas que hoy viven entre los indios naturales de esta Nueva España (Memoria) (Spanish Edition)
(El Libro de buen amor, extensa composición de 1728 estrof...)
El Libro de buen amor, extensa composición de 1728 estrofas escrita hacia 1330, en la Castilla de antes de la Peste negra donde cristianos, judíos y musulmanes todavía convivían en paz, es una de las obras más notables del mester de clerecía y de la literatura medieval. En ella, el autor ofrece un relato supuestamente autobiográfico donde expone de forma tan didáctica como pormenorizada los avatares del amor carnal, así como sus peligros morales y espirituales. A través de una sucesión de fábulas, apólogos y alegorías ejemplares, se describen y examinan las aventuras y el aprendizaje que conducen al protagonista del amor concupiscente al amor verdadero, y se le ofrece al lector una metáfora del camino espiritual para alcanzar la caritas y la salvación de su alma. Sin embargo, la ambigüedad sigue siendo uno de los rasgos más notables de este texto: ¿cómo saber si el relato de las aventuras del protagonista es una invitación a los placeres carnales o una advertencia contra los vicios y las debilidades del alma humana? No en vano el autor, consciente de la ambigüedad de su obra, apela desde el comienzo a la sensatez del lector para discernir el sentido profundo de lo que se dispone a leer. La presente edición parte del códice de Salamanca (S), que corresponde a la segunda versión de la obra e incorpora pasajes que no aparecen en los otros dos códices que se conservan, el de Gayoso (G) y el de Toledo (T).
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Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions: That Today Live Among the Indians Native to This New Spain, 1629 (Civilization of the American Indian Series) (The Civilization of the American Indian Series)
( The Treatise of Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón is one of the ...)
The Treatise of Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón is one of the most important surviving documents of early colonial Mexico. It was written in 1629 as an aid to Roman Catholic churchmen in their efforts to root out the vestiges of pre-Columbian Aztec religious beliefs and practices. For the student of Aztec religion and culture is a valuable source of information. Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón was born in Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico, in the latter part of the sixteenth century. He attended the University of Mexico and later took holy orders. Sometime after he was assigned to the parish of Atenango, he began writing the Treatise for his fellow priests and church superiors to use as a guide in suppressing native "heresy." With great care and attention to detail Ruiz de Alarcón collected and recorded Aztec religious practices and incantations that had survived a century of Spanish domination (sometimes in his zeal extracting information from his informants through force and guile). He wrote down the incantations in Nahuatl and translated them into Spanish for his readers. He recorded rites for such everyday activities as woodcutting, traveling, hunting, fishing, farming, harvesting, fortune telling, lovemaking, and the curing of many diseases, from toothache to scorpion stings. Although Ruiz de Alarcón was scornful of native medical practices, we know now that in many aspects of medicine the Aztec curers were far ahead of their European counterparts.
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Hernando de Alarcón
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His ability as a navigator brought him to the attention of the viceroy of Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza; in 1540 Mendoza sent him with two ships to give naval support to Francisco Coronado's overland expedition, which was seeking the mythical Seven Cities, an El Dorado of the American Southwest. Alarcón was instructed to supply Coronado's men at specified ports along the way and to gain access by water to Cibola, the capital of the Seven Cities. In May 1540 Alarcón sailed from Acapulco, but, failing to establish contact with Coronado, he proceeded to the head of the Gulf of California and entered the Colorado River in August. With great difficulty his men portaged launches upstream as far as the junction of the Colorado and Gila rivers (the present site of Yuma, Ariz. ). Alarcón returned to his ships in September and shortly thereafter set out on a second attempt to reach Cibola, which took him again only as far as the Gila. Here he tried to get messages to Coronado but, realizing the futility of the attempt, returned to his ships and sailed back to Mexico, reaching Colima in November 1540. Melchior Díaz, one of Coronado's officers, later found dispatches from Alarcón and an inscription carved on a tree near the mouth of the Gila. AlarcónAlarcon wrote an account of his experiences which was first printed in Ramusio's Navigazioni e Viaggi.
Achievements
Works
book
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Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentílicas que hoy viven entre los indios naturales de esta Nueva España (Memoria) (Spanish Edition)
(El Libro de buen amor, extensa composición de 1728 estrof...)
-
Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions: That Today Live Among the Indians Native to This New Spain, 1629 (Civilization of the American Indian Series) (The Civilization of the American Indian Series)
( The Treatise of Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón is one of the ...)
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Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentílicas que hoy viven entre los indios naturales de esta Nueva España (Memoria) (Spanish Edition)
Personality
He is described as being adventurous, good-natured but vain about his appearance, liking to dress in fancy clothes. He was fond of pomp and ceremony, and wanted his food served on silver dishes.
