Canarian slaves at Valencia (A tribute to Vicenta Cortés Alonso)

2016-06-11Cultura colonial, Cultura indígena, Documentos públicos, EstudiosEsclavitud, Slavery, Valencia, Vicenta Cortés Alonso

Professor Vicenta Cortés Alonso in Colombia among some yagua indigenes in 1959 (source: Archivo Histórico Nacional – Archivo Vicenta Cortés).

As it has been repeatedly emphasized, the conquest of the Canaries is like the test tube in the first reaction between two elements that were to intermix very soon and in greater proportions as the large oceanic routes unfold: the European and the aboriginal, each with its own material and spiritual baggage.

Vicenta Cortés Alonso^[1]CORTÉS (1955), p. 501. (This translation by PROYECTO TARHA)

Past the International Archives Day‘s celebration, we would like to pay a humble tribute to Professor Vicenta Cortés Alonso (Valencia, 1925), a tireless master of archivists, recalling one of her most significant work for the Canarian historiography: The conquest of the Canary Islands through the sales of slaves in Valencia.

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Diego García de Herrera's signature

2016-05-19Cultura colonial, Documentos públicos, Patrimonio colonialDiego García de Herrera, Pedro García de Herrera, Seigneury of the Isles of Canaria, Señorío de las islas de Canaria, Testamentos, Testaments

Signature by Diego García de Herrera, consort Lord of the Isles of Canaria, in 1457 (source: Archivo Municipal de Burgos, catalogue number C3-3-16-27, fol. 5v.).

Studying public documentation is extremely useful when reconstructing historical events, since it provides us with an officially attested vision thereof. Unlike chronicles and histories, being these accounts written from the subjectivity of either an observer or, at most, a remote-in-time inquirer, public documents, being drafted by such a group of professionals in writing data down –scribes and notaries–, offer a direct testimony by those events’ main persons or at least by firsthand informants.

This is why in the course of our research we try to locate a larger quantity of public deeds, and although some of them are not directly related to the history of the Canary Islands, the possibility that these end up providing unknown, unnoticed or at least curious data always does exist. This is the case of the testament of Pedro García de Herrera, Marshal of Castile and father of the last consort Lord of the Isles of Canaria, Diego García de Herrera.

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The Guanil herds

2016-04-15Cultura indígena, Documentos públicos, Etnografía, Patrimonio indígenaConde de Niebla, Count of Niebla, Enrique de Guzmán, Ganadería, Ganado guanil, Guanil cattle, Livestock, Maciot de Béthencourt, Seigneury of the Isles of Canaria, Señorío de las islas de Canaria, Teberite

Gathering goats (apañada) at San Juan de Sisetoto, Fuerteventura (source: Revista BienMeSabe).

Still hot in the media and social networks the controversial measure adopted by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria consisting of exterminating the guanil goats living in a number of protected natural areas on the Island, we deal here with the origin of such an autochthonous term.

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The Essentials: Chronicles, histories, public documents and studies

2016-03-31Crónicas, Documentos públicos, Esenciales, Estudios, HistoriasCanarian Chronicles, Crónicas canarias, Crónicas europeas, Documentos públicos, Estudios, European Chronicles, Historias, Histories, Public Documents, Studies

An example of a public document relevant to the ancient history of the Canary Islands: a fragment of the only-known copy of the so-called Treaty of Bufadero (source: Archivo Histórico Provincial de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Historical Section of Notarial Protocols , 1178 , fol . 55r )

Under The Essentials epigraph we intend to widespread a series of documents we consider to be cornerstones in understanding the ancient history of the Canary Islands.

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Category Archives: Documentos públicos