Hero for the Americas: The Legend of Gonzalo Guerrero

With good research and skillful storytelling, Calder (Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham) delves into a fascinating, little-known piece of the history of Spanish colonization in Central America. He happened upon the story of Gonzalo Guerrero while vacationing in Mexico and set out to write a biography for English-speaking readers, most of whom have never heard of the 16th-century Castilian adventurer or his transformation to become a Mayan tribesman. Guerrero sailed to the New World in the era of Spanish conquest but was shipwrecked, and the local Mayans enslaved him. He eventually adopted their indigenous culture and became a warrior and military leader. He married a Mayan woman and fathered what may have been the first mixed-race children in Mexican history. Calder reconstructs everyday life in the Spanish city of Palos, where Guerrero was raised, and recounts the history of early Spanish voyages. He describes Darién, the first Spanish settlement on mainland America, as well as the atrocities of the conquistadors, the conquest of Aztec empire, and the battle for Yucatán, and he does it all in a concise, entertaining writing style that will appeal to any inquisitive reader interested in history and tales of adventure. (Oct.)