This is a valuable book. It is original, with a scholarly introduction, ably written and well organized. Of more than a dozen descriptions or reports of early Santa Cruz—founded in 1561— four have been selected and are here published, each with an erudite introduction. These four—Diego Felipe de Alcaya, Lorenzo Caballero, Alonso Soleto Pernia, Pedro de Arteaga— were selected because they were natives of Santa Cruz, because they wrote in colorful prose which contained unknown and often minute details, and finally, because some of these men had been cited by other authors.
The introductions for the four chroniclers were written by Sanabria Fernández, Germán Coimbra Sanz, Marcelo Terceros Bánzer, Leonor Ribera Arteaga. All of them have done a most commendable job. The main introduction is by Sanabria Fernández, who gives a fine summary of the history of Santa Cruz. Lately Sanabria Fernández is rapidly emerging as a scholarly and productive historian in the best Santa Cruz tradition of René-Moreno, Finot, and the Vázquez-Machicaos.
