Spanish and Empire (review)

García-Romeral Pérez, Carlos. Bio-bibliografía de viajeros por España y Portugal (siglo XIX). Madrid: Ollero & Ramos Editores, 1999. López Estrada, Francisco. “La revisión de José María Blanco White acerca de la Embajada a Tamerlán, publicada en las Variedades o Mensajero de Londres (18241825 )”. Mélanges Luce López-Baralt. Etudes reúnies et préfacé par Abdeljetil Temimi . [n.c.] Editorial Zaghouan: Fondation Temimi pour la recherche scientifique et l’information, 2001. 393-401. López Estrada, Francisco. “Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo. La embajada a Tamerlán. Relato del viaje hasta Samarcanda y regreso (1403-1406”. Arbor (Madrid) 711-712 (marzo -abril 2005): 515-35. Martín, Timo y Douglas Sivén. Akseli Gallen-Kallevala. Watti-Kustannus OY: Sulkava , 1985. Mayrata, Ramón. Alí Bey el Abasí. Un cristiano en la Meca. Planeta: Barcelona, 1995. Pagés-Rangel, R. Del dominio público: itinerarios de la carta privada. AmsterdamAtlanta : Rodopi, 1997. Pérez Galdós, Benito. Prosa crítica. Ed. J.C. Mainer. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 2004. Romero, Leonardo y Patricia Almarcequi. Los libros de viajes: realidad vivida y género literario. Madrid: Universidad Internacional de Andalucía / Akal, 2005. Valera, Juan. Cartas desde Rusia. Madrid: Afrodisio Aguado, 1950. Echávez-Solano, Nelsy and Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez, eds. Spanish and Empire. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2007. Hispanic Issues, vol. 34. 272 pp. This volume comprises a total of thirteen contributions, including an introduction (xi-xxx) by the editors, an afterword (245-55) by Luis Martín-Estudillo and Nicholas Spadaccini, and eleven essays that make up the body of the work, which is supplemented by an annotated list of contributors (257-60) and an index of names and topics (261-72). The eleven essays are cogently arranged into three separate parts, i.e., Part I: “Imperial Legacy – Language and Power in the Spanish Colonial Sphere,” “Part II: “Language and Resistance – The Fight for National and Individual Identities,” and Part III: “Spanish in the Era of Multiculturalism and Globalization .” I will have more to say about this arrangement at the end of this review . The three essays in Part I all emphasize the fact that language policy was subordinate to religious policy in the Spanish conquest of America. In his essay “Languages, Catholicism, and Power in the Hispanic Empire (1500-1770)” (pp. 3-31), for example, Juan R. Lodares points out that the Spanish language did not function as a tool of empire for the first several centuries of Spanish domination, since official policy was to promote the use of indigenous languages , on the reasoning that this was the best way to reach large numbers of 104 Reseñas people with the evangelical message of Christianity. Ironically, the use of the Spanish language did not become widespread in Spanish America until Spain’s political power began to decline toward at the beginning of the 19th century, when the language was favored by continuing immigration from the Peninsula and educational policies enacted by the new republics. Fernando Ordóñez, in his essay “Echoes of the Voiceless: Language in Jesuit Missions in Paraguay” (32-47), shows how this same policy was applied by the Jesuits in their treatment of the indigenous peoples of Paraguay. The Jesuits found it convenient to establish a form of Guaraní – often called “Jesuit Guaraní” – distilled from the many local dialects of the language, since this insulated the community from the influence of both Europeans and other indigenous populations, thereby enhancing Jesuit control. To their credit, the brotherhood also fought against the many forms of oppression under which the Indians lived, arguing that this made them resent both Christians and Christianity, a strategy later sanctioned by Philip III. Juan C. Godenzzi’s essay, “Languages and Imperial Designs in the Andes” (pp. 48-65), focuses on the present-day linguistic situation in the region. Godenzzi shows that, especially in the Andean coastal area, linguistic history presents us with an evolving diglossic situation, in which early on coastal Quechua functioned as the “high” language, to be replaced eventually in this function by Spanish. Though highlands Quechua continues to be spoken, it is now in decline due to the...