| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 32.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the WHQ online. About 206 words from this article are provided below; about 409 words remain.

If you are a individual subscriber to the Western Historical Quarterly, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Western Historical Quarterly, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Western Historical Quarterly (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Western Historical Quarterly.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 32.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Writing Violence on the Northern Frontier: The Historiography of Sixteenth-Century New Mexico and Florida and the Legacy of Conquest. By José Rabasa. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000. xiv + 359 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $59.95, cloth; $19.95, paper.)

Due to its complexity, this book by Berkeley professor of literature, José Rabasa, requires tremendous concentration. Nonetheless, once the message is understood, the reader will be rewarded by an insightful interpretation. Influence by the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group, Rabasa argues that the writings of sixteenth-century chroniclers of the Spanish colonial frontier established a Euro-centric pattern for accepting a violence that subjugated subaltern groups, as long as religious or Crown imperatives sanctioned the brutality. 1

The study deconstructs classics narratives written by Alvar Nuño Cabeza de Vaca, Gaspar de Villagra, Garcilaso de la Vega, Inca, and Bartolemé de Las Casas, Europeans celebrated within the Western tradition as sympathetic to the plight of indigenous subalterns. By Rabasa's standards, the writings of these "good" Europeans are simply extensions of violence sanctioned by the existing power structure. They sought to objectify the brutality of fellow European competitors not the pain of the Indians, as did Las Casas in his monumental exposé of the conquistadores. . . .

There are about 409 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.