(MIS)Translating U.S. Southwest History

• Authors: Brian Imhoff
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Historians of the U.S. Southwest invariably rely on English-language translations of original Spanish documents for their interpretive work. However, a philological approach to the Spanish documents reveals all manner of translator shortcomings, some of which negatively impact the historical record. I document one such instance pertaining to the early history of Texas and argue that the failure to adhere to sound philological practice has produced an inaccurate historical canon. Data are taken from a Spanish expedition diary from the late 17th-century and from unpublished archival sources pertaining to it.

Keywords

EN

English-language translation; paleography; philological practice; Spanish colonial documents; U.S. Southwest history

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Romanian Journal of English Studies
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 165-173

Dates

published

2013-03-01

online

2013-02-22

Contributors

author

Brian Imhoff

• Texas A&M University

References

• Bolton, Herbert Eugene. 1916a. ‘Itinerary of Juan Dominguez de Mendoza, 1684’ in Spanish Exploration in theSouthwest, 1542-1706. Herbert Eugene Bolton (Ed.). NY: Barnes & Noble, pp. 320-343.
• Bolton, Herbert Eugene. 1916b. Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706. NY: Barnes & Noble.
• Castañeda, Carols. 1976. Our Catholic Heritage in Texas, 1519-1976. NY: Arno (7 vols.).
• Chipman, Donald E. 1992. Spanish Texas, 1519-1821. Austin: University of Texas.
• Craddock, Jerry R. and De Marco, Barbara (Eds). 1999-2000. Documenting the Colonial Experience, with SpecialRegard to Spanish in the American Southwest. Two-part Special Issue of Romance Philology 53.
• Foster, William C. 1995. Spanish Expeditions into Texas. Austin: University of Texas.
• Hickerson, Nancy Parrott. 1994. The Jumanos. Hunters and Traders of the South Plain. Austin: University of Texas.
• Imhoff, Brian. 2002. The Diary of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza’s Expedition into Texas (1683-1684). Dallas: Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.
• Imhoff, Brian. 2006. “Sobre un texto colonial del suroeste estadounidense: Un aporte filológico.” Lexis 30(2):211-230.
• John, Elizabeth Ann Harper. 1975. Storms Brewed in Other Men’s Worlds. College Station: Texas A&M University.
• Kessell, John L. (Ed.). 1989. Remote Beyond Compare. Letters of don Diego de Vargas to His Family from NewSpain and New Mexico 1675-1706. Vargas series, 1. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
• Naylor, Thomas H. and Polzer, Charles W. 1986. The Presidio and Militia on the Northern Frontier of New Spain: ADocumentary History. Tucson: University of Arizona.
• Wade, Maria F. 2003. The Native Americans of the Edwards Plateau, 1582-1799. Austin: University of Texas.
• Wade, Maria F. 2005. “Texts and mentalités: Reading the Mendoza-López Expedition Diaries” in unpublished ms.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/rjes-2013-0014