Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá

Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá (1555 - 1620) was a captain in Juan de Oñate’s expedition that first colonized New Mexico in 1598. In that role, Villagrá served as official chronicler of the expedition. He composed the epic of New Mexico history, "Historia de la Nueva México (1610)", regarded as the first drama and the first epic poem of European origin generated in the present United States, predating John Smith of Jamestown’s "General History of Virginia" by at least fourteen years. In his epic, Villagrá describes Oñate’s conquest of New Mexico’s indigenous peoples, including the capture of Acoma Pueblo in 1599.

Villagra's vision of the conquest as a glorious march of the cross, however, is starkly contrasted by Native European account. The Hopi narrative presents an unflattering picture of the Franciscan missionizing. (Wiget, 21)

References

*Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, "Historia de la Nueva México (1610)", Trans. & Ed. Miguel Encinias, Alfred Rodríguez and Joseph P. Sánchez. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.

*Wiget, Andrew. "Native American Oral Narrative." Heath Anthology, Vol A.