Distributed for University of Scranton Press
Report on the Island and Diocese of Puerto Rico (1647)
Composed at the request of the Royal Spanish Chronicler of the Indies, Don Diego Torres y Vargas’s Report on the Island & Diocese of Puerto Rico was the first history of Puerto Rico written by a native of the Spanish island colony. Torres y Vargas, a fourth generation Puerto Rican and descendant of Ponce de Leon, records here the history of the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico as well as the political, social, military, economic, and natural history of the island.
This translation—the first ever into English—includes three historical essays by eminent Puerto Rican and Latino Studies scholar Anthony Stevens-Arroyo and extensive translator notes to guide the reader through the realities of seventeenth-century Puerto Rican culture and society.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
General Maps
Puerto Rico and the Caribbean
Eastern Caribbean
Towns and Settlements Mentioned in Torres y Vargas
Essay One
“Understanding the Work of Diego de Torres y Vargas”
Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo
Map i – Early Settlement of Caparra & San Juan Islet with key bridges
Essay Two
“Soldiers, Heretics and Pirates: The Thirty Years’ War in the Caribbean
Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo
Map ii – Attacks by Drake and Cumberland upon the Islet of San Juan
Map iii – Dutch Attack of 1625 with key engagements
Essay Three
“Who Was Diego Torres y Vargas?”
Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo
Genealogy of Diego de Torres y Vargas
Notes on the Text and Translation
Jaime R. Vidal
Ana María Díaz-Stevens and Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo
Spanish Text and English Translation (Interfacing pages)
Jaime R. Vidal
Chronology of the Life of Diego Torres y Vargas
Appendix – “Questions on Chronology”
Sources for the Text
Glossary
Index