The 1834 French translation of the 1788 first edition of Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra’s history of Puerto Rico was done by the French consulate in Havana, Cuba. Here it is published for the first time under the editorship of the pharmacist M. Albert-André Genel, who has a special interest in medicinal plants and flora. His introduction adds nothing new to the definitive Spanish edition of 1959 (which has an additional chapter), published by the University of Puerto Rico under the care of the late distinguished historian Isabel Gutiérrez del Arroyo. She also made an exhaustive and thoroughly documented study of the turbulent life of the author.
A French translation can only lend authority to the importance of this first history of Puerto Rico to appear in any language. The present edition notably lacks two important tables, one on population and the other on land use; and contains several discrepancies, many corrected in footnotes (p. 20) but others undetected (1709 instead of 1769, p. 95). Specialists therefore should consult the original edition of the work in Spanish.
Olga Jiménez de Wagenheim has done a commendable job on the completely revised second edition of her excellent history of the Grito de Lares, first published in 1983 in the form of a typescript thesis. She has cut away the trappings of a dissertation, condensed a chapter, bowed to fewer history icons, and, as a result, has produced a much better work in half the number of pages. She has enhanced her professional stature even further, recognizing the recent valuable contributions of colleagues like Laird Bergad and Ricardo Camuñas Maderas, by adding new material that provides additional documentation on the economic aspects of this important event in Puerto Rican history.
Having lived for more than a year in the shadow of the Guilarte peak, this reviewer recognizes the special attraction of this area and its people. Dr. Wagenheim might further document her conclusions by extending the history of the area, adding material on the second half of the nineteenth century to that already provided by Vivian Carro and others. That material has appeared in recent doctoral dissertations from Spanish universities, such as those of Ana Rivera (Complutense de Madrid), Luis Díaz (Navarra), and the above-mentioned Camuñas Maderas (Valladolid). Some of these dissertations have been published. This documentation would further strengthen Wagenheim’s partial explanation as to why Puerto Ricans still today manifest their political ambivalence.
