Aguirre: The Re-Creation of a Sixteenth-Century Journey Across South America

by Stephen Minta

Book Overview

In the late 1550s a Basque adventurer named Lope de Aguirre set out in search of El Dorado. He joined an expedition led by Pedro de Ursua and embarked upon a great journey that would take them across... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805031030
• ISBN13: 9780805031034
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding in various ways.

As a travelogue the book is both insightful and engaging. As a history excellent; as it retraces the tragic and doomed journey of Pedro de Ursua and Lope de Aguirre through across the South American continent (1560). This book chronicles one of the most bizarre mutinies to rock 16th Century South America. He narrates the grandiose ambition and blinding pride that gripped Spanish Peru in the 16th century; not forgetting to lauds as well the "clever, ruthless and courageous" men and women that invaded and then settled South America. Stephen Minta, British, and a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of York, writes brilliantly about Peru in the late 1980's and early 1990's (Peru hasn't changed that much since). His writing is full if insights into human nature, and has the occasional biting satire, tongue-in-cheek humor and a candid and critical evaluation of an applaudable travelogue. This book is in the company of the best modern South America travelogues/history (IE White Rock by Hugh Thomson and Chasing Che by Patrick Symmes - see my reviews). For afficionados and students of South America (especially Peru) this book is a must read. Highly recommended.

Far more exciting than the Herzog movie

My first introduction to the story of Lope de Aguirre was with the Werner Herzog film "Aguirre - Wrath of God". This I found profound, yes, but also needlessly indulgent and slow. I knew there was more to the story. Then I read this book, and it made me wonder that even if this is "speculative history" (according to the jacket) based on fact (or chronicles - everyone has an agenda), then this is far more interesting than a few people drifting down a muddy river on a raft looking intense. Don't get me wrong - I love Herzog ("Nosferatu", "Heart of Glass", "Fitzcarraldo", et al), and I give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe the source material for this book wasn't available to him, and I can take a lot of meditative shots of trees passing slowly, but when I read that this book is criticised for not being as true as the film, then I say - Herzog clearly had nothing to go by but a raft, a river, and Klaus Kinski in armour. If you are at all interested in this tale (that is all we seem to have now), read this book. It is more informative than the more famous film, and thus more rewarding, unless you like prefer a couple of hours of languid brown water, slow trees, and really cragged faces looking intently at the continually renewed horizon.