La Florida del Inca and the Struggle for Social Equality in Colonial Spanish America.

La Florida del Inca and the Struggle for Social Equality in Colonial Spanish America. By Jonathan D. Steigman. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, c. 2005. Pp. x, 125. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8173-5257-0; cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-8173-1483-0.)

Few Iberian chroniclers of North America's early colonial period have received more scholarly attention over the centuries than Garcilaso de la Vega, also known as El Inca. Despite his having left numerous and varied writings, El Inca's depiction of Hernando de Soto's sixteenth-century journey through what is today the southeastern United States, entitled La Florida del Inca (1605), is his most influential work in terms of both the impact it had on European imaginations at the time of publication and the controversy it has stirred up among modern academics concerned with historical accuracy. In style and purpose, El Inca's work differs significantly from those written by other chroniclers of the de Soto expedition and contradicts notions of native inhumanity common in other New World accounts of the time. Jonathan D. Steigman grapples with the controversies in this book, though from the perspective of the literary context of La Florida del Inca and the motivations of its author.

Like many scholars before him, Steigman contends that El Inca's portrayal of de Soto's journey, although based on firsthand accounts, is replete with fabrication and distortion. Nonetheless, Steigman lauds the work for its utilization of "the critical method and patriotic-intent style that was used in humanist historiography of the sixteenth century" and for El Inca's desire to provide "an ennobling portrayal of the Native American based upon his belief in the equality of all humanity" (pp. 46, ix). In short, El Inca used the contemporary literary techniques of classical universalism and individual/ society idealization to convince readers that indigenous peoples of the Americas were not simply barbarians and should be accepted by Europeans with tolerance and respect.

Steigman's assessment of La Florida del Inca and its goals is convincing and deviates little from earlier interpretations offered by Frances G. Crowley and John G. Varner. Problems do hinder Steigman's analysis, however. Historian John H. Hann is referred to as John H. Nann in the text, and the viewpoints of other scholars concerned with El Inca frequently provide the substance, rather than background, of Steigman's arguments. Moreover, El Inca's mestizo identity is often used as the sole basis for validating his contentions regarding Native American-Spanish interaction. For example, Steigman contends that El Inca's "status as a mestizo" allowed him to "provide an accurate interpretation of the ceremonial mounds" viewed by Spanish explorers in La Florida, including "details about their proportions and manner of construction," despite the reality that the chronicler had never visited the region and knew little about the indigenous people who lived there (p. 78).

These problems aside, Steigman's effort should be useful to students and scholars hoping to gain greater insight into the complex motivations and practices involved in chronicling New World colonization.

DANIEL S. MURPHREE

University of Texas at Tyler