Juan de Castellanos (1522-1607) was a Spanish priest, explorer and military man who went down in history through the chronicles he wrote in relation to his trips to Nueva Granada, now Colombia. He dedicated a good part of his life to carry out several expeditions around the New World, some of them were along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Paria..
Castellanos dedicated himself in his younger years to serve as a soldier in the so-called New Continent. For a time he was dedicated to the Indian trade (whom he sold as slaves) and also participated in the pearl trade. His priestly vocation was late and he received the habits at the age of thirty-seven..
Regarding his performance as a writer, Juan de Castellanos produced three works based on the process of conquering America. He incorporated his own expeditionary experiences and the stories of other explorers. His works were: Speech by Captain Francisco Drake, Elegies of Illustrious Men of the Indies and History of the New Kingdom of Granada.
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Juan de Castellanos was born on March 9, 1522 in the town of Alanís in Seville. About his parents it is known that they dedicated themselves to the work of the field but, however, their names are unknown.
Juan de Castellanos' education took place in the city of Seville. There he enrolled in the School of General Studies and was under the teaching of Miguel de Heredia, with whom he learned about grammar, poetry, Latin and other subjects. Later he began his life as a military man and began his expeditions, while still a teenager..
With only fourteen years of age, Castellanos joined the troops of the ruler Antonio Sedeño, and under the command of Rodrigo Vega he sailed to the Island of Trinidad to fight against the conqueror Jerónimo Ortal. Vega's side defeated that of Ortal and then they went to the Meta region with the intention of catching and selling the Indians..
Castellanos arrived in Curaçao in 1540 after the division of the troops when Sedeño died in 1538, and a year later he went to the Island of Cubagua. There he dedicated himself to trading pearls and then went to Margarita Island. Some time later he arrived at Cabo de la Vela (1544), and at that time he had a daughter whom he named Gerónima.
The explorer passed through various territories in Nueva Granada (now Colombia), including Santa Marta and Cartagena de Indias. There he dedicated himself to the mining industry and collaborated with Lorenzo Martín in the founding of the town of Tamalameque. In 1546 he returned to Santa Marta to process permits for the exploitation of mines.
Juan de Castellanos took the first steps to become a priest in the middle of the 16th century. In 1550 the explorer founded the town of Valledupar together with Hernando de Santana, and at that time he received the priestly robes when he was approximately thirty-eight years old..
Castellanos decided to become a priest because he felt exhausted from the long expeditionary trips. One of his first functions was that of priest in Cartagena, where he officiated his first mass. From 1562 he was the parish priest of Tunja Cathedral, where he served for more than three decades..
The priest culminated during his religious life some of the texts that he began in his work as an expeditionary. In 1585 he concluded the chronicle on Santa Marta and a year later he began to develop the history of that city, just when the Englishman Francis Drake invaded Cartagena.
Juan de Castellanos had a special talent for letters, which he knew how to take advantage of to record the process of conquering Spain to America. This is how his famous work was born Elegies of illustrious men of the Indies, a writing with poetic nuances and historical content.
In the work there were texts in both Spanish and Latin, in which the priest narrated the events that some of the Spanish conquerors lived through. The author had the opportunity to see a part of the work published, which was produced in 1589 in the city of Madrid, Spain.
The last years of Castellanos' life were spent dedicated to the priesthood and writing. For forty-five years he was in charge of the church of Santiago de Tunja. The Spanish kept writing about the colonization of America.
Juan de Castellanos died on November 27, 1607 in the city of Tunja in the old New Granada (today Colombia) at the age of eighty-five..
The literary style of Juan de Castellanos was characterized by the use of a cultured, clear and precise language, in accordance with the words of the 16th century. In his works, the author's scientific, archaeological and historical knowledge was notorious..
The explorer developed his writings from the truth of the facts, without additions or biases, his texts were truthful.
The particularity of his works lay in narrating the events of the Spanish conquest of American territory in the literary genre of the chronicle and in verses. Castellanos also wrote about the Spanish conquerors and especially about the Antilles, Popayán, Nueva Granada and Costa Firme..
- History of the New Kingdom of Granada.
- Indian history.
- Book of Octaves and Rhymes of Life.
- Speech by Captain Francisco Drake.
- San Diego de Alcala.
- Elegies of illustrious men of the Indies (1589).
This work by Castellanos arose as a result of the invasion of the Englishman Francis Drake to the city of Cartagena in 1586. The author began the narrative in prose and finished it in verses. This text was part of the writer's annotations on the town of Cartagena de Indias, but the Council of the Indies ordered that it be extracted.
Among other things, the expeditionary and Spanish priest made several negative criticisms of his compatriots. The text became known in Spain in 1921 thanks to the work of the intellectual González Palencia, who was in charge of ordering and editing it in a meticulous way..
It was one of the most important and well-known works of Juan de Castellanos, in which he narrated the events that occurred during the colonization process of the Spanish in America. The author made use of the chronicle and poetry to tell the historical facts.
The work was structured in four parts, which at the same time were composed of elegies and songs. The first phase dealt with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and other exploits of the navigator. Castellanos incorporated the colonization of Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
In the second section he narrated his experiences in Venezuela, specifically in Cubagua and Margarita, as well as his stays in Santa Marta and Cabo de la Vela. The third part covered the Colombian scenarios of Antioquia, Popayán and Cartagena. The last one was related to the events that occurred in Santa Fe, Tunja and Guane.
This work by Castellanos consisted of 113,609 hendecasyllable verses and only the first part was published while its author was alive. The edition took place in Madrid in 1589 and in 1874 the second part was released, also in Spain.
"Although it seems dry dismissal
do not proceed here later,
I determine to return more to the east
of Paria and the surrounding land,
to deal with 'Ordás' and his people,
of whom I intend to give reason enough,
Well, of the highest honor of the good
the 'Ordás' is owed nothing less.
In Castroverde were their births
of the kingdom of León, and in New Spain
was one of the main captains.
The one with the highest value and the best skill;
on the islands his deeds were such
that each one is sold by feat,
and I crave courteously for its merit
gave him a great deal.
But he was not satisfied with this luck,
no less honorable than grown,
and to claims another becomes,
which was a certain very extended region.
Cause to die narrow death,
when he could enjoy a wider life ... ".
"To things of Cubagua and Margarita
Aspired, reader, my skinny pen
to give such an infinite relationship
some collection and brief sum,
but give me Sedeño so much scream
begging her cause to be summed up
that first of them is forced
finish what I have started with him.
… He took out five hundred chosen men,
all very brave soldiers,
of horses and weapons provided,
of necessary things repaired.
Of high thoughts they are moved,
of high hopes encouraged
with attempt to see golden temple
where Phaethon's father is worshiped.
... He made Sedeño go other ways
people who seemed to be quite,
divided into three captaincies
so that they would discover ahead,
and he stopped for a few days
closer to the sea with the rest
in the town of El Cojo, that I already count,
because it seemed a fertile seat ... ".
"Thank heaven I give that I see myself
in the poor corner of the house
that by the mercy of God and the King I possess
in this New Kingdom of Granada,
after the tedious rodeo
What did I do with my badly cut pen?
singing various deeds and feats
of our people and of strangers.
And then my low lyre plainly
truly formed pure consonance
in three other volumes written,
where did i celebrate funerals
of men in Indies designated,
with many of which I did not have
more friendship or more knowledge
of the common hobby, well deserved,
by public proclamation and certainty
that of his deeds gave a loud horn,
ingratitude would be great mine
if the Adelantado were to shut up,
Don Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
whose value was notorious to me
for the conversation of many years,
and of the brave knights
below your sign militants,
some of which are today
present by credible witnesses
of the laborious speech
where, with a desire to serve you
the truth has led me ... ".
- “Benevolence cannot harm those who were very fortunate; but I have for sure the sentence said by those present and past, that prosperous events with prudence are seldom accompanied ... ".
- "Is it possible to have such softness sad and afflicted hearts? Is it possible for me to lose revenge for such great wrongs? ... ".
- “Come back, put your weapons back in your hands and claim your lost freedom. Finish up the most cruel tyrants, the cause of our bad life, the young men and the gray-haired boys make an effort to take the deserved amendment ... ".
- “He who suffers pain and pain, oblivious to the rest he had, forced from his own troubles, often loses fear and cowardice. And so (thus) not infrequently fears engender and produce daring ... ".
- “Never ever does envy deviate from the most eminent prosperity. Before, both were born in one day and both are growing together ... ".
- “These people, women and men, are for the most part well-disposed. Of very well kneaded proportions, with a certain gallantry not misplaced, skilled in their warrior squads ... ".
- “Sedeño, as I am a good witness, he was a good captain and a good soldier; but it was from friend and foe too trusting ".
- “Sufferings are not impossible when fortune plays hard games; but the pains will be more endurable and of less pain such trances, if they did not bring other more terrible ones that always usually go in the reaches. Well, whole forces are broken if one after the other gets up ".
- “If you see the strongest fighting dying, reason does not ask you to be amazed. But if dying of grass was luck, it is wrong that a thousand evils have names, and so death is more than death, and those of such war more than men. Well, a very slight sting is enough to give the grave ".
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