JUAN DE CASTELLANOS: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2024

Juan de Castellanos (1522-1607) was a Spanish priest, explorer and military man who went down in history through the chronicles he wrote in connection with his travels to Nueva Granada, now Colombia. He dedicated a good part of his life to carrying out several expeditions around the New World, some of them were along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Paria.

Castellanos dedicated himself in his younger years to serve as a soldier in the so-called New Continent. For a time he dedicated himself to the Indian trade (whom he sold as slaves) and also participated in the pearl trade. His priestly vocation was late and he received the habits at the age of thirty-seven.

Oil portrait of Juan de Castellanos, by the artist Ricardo Moros Urbina. Source: Ricardo Moros Urbina (1865-1942), via Wikimedia Commons

Regarding his performance as a writer, Juan de Castellanos produced three works based on the process of conquering America. He incorporated his own expeditionary experiences and the stories of other explorers. His works were: Speech by Captain Francisco Drake, Elegies of Illustrious Men of the Indies and History of the New Kingdom of Granada.

Biography

Birth

Juan de Castellanos was born on March 9, 1522 in the town of Alanís in Seville. About his parents it is known that they dedicated themselves to the work of the field but, however, their names are unknown.

Studies

Juan de Castellanos' education took place in the city of Seville. There he enrolled in the School of General Studies and was under the teaching of Miguel de Heredia, with whom he learned about grammar, poetry, Latin and other subjects. Later he began his life as a military man and began his expeditions, while still a teenager.

Heading to America

With only fourteen years of age, Castellanos joined the troops of the ruler Antonio Sedeño, and under the command of Rodrigo Vega he sailed to the Island of Trinidad to fight against the conqueror Jerónimo Ortal. Vega's side defeated Ortal's and then they went to the Meta region with the intention of catching and selling the Indians.

In the territory of the old New Granada

Castellanos arrived in Curaçao in 1540 after the division of the troops when Sedeño died in 1538, and a year later he went to the Island of Cubagua. There he dedicated himself to commercializing pearls and then he went to Margarita Island. Some time later he arrived at Cabo de la Vela (1544), and at that time he had a daughter whom he named Gerónima.

The explorer passed through various territories in Nueva Granada (now Colombia), including Santa Marta and Cartagena de Indias. There he dedicated himself to the mining industry and collaborated with Lorenzo Martín in the founding of the town of Tamalameque. In 1546 he returned to Santa Marta to process permits for the exploitation of mines.

Desires to be a priest

Juan de Castellanos took the first steps to become a priest in the mid-16th century. In 1550 the explorer founded the town of Valledupar together with Hernando de Santana, and at that time he received priestly robes when he was approximately thirty-eight years old.

First priestly functions

Castellanos decided to ordain himself a priest because he felt exhausted from the long expeditionary journeys. One of his first functions was that of priest in Cartagena, where he officiated his first mass. From 1562 he was the parish priest of Tunja Cathedral, where he served for more than three decades.

Bust of Juan de Castellanos in the Plaza de Bolívar in Tunja, Colombia. Source: Harold Crick / Boyacense 2.0 from Bogotá, Colombia, via Wikimedia Commons

During his religious life, the priest completed some of the texts that he began in his work as an expeditionary. In 1585 he concluded the chronicle on Santa Marta and a year later he began to develop the history of that city, just when the Englishman Francis Drake invaded Cartagena.

A renowned work

Juan de Castellanos had a special talent for letters, which he knew how to take advantage of to record the process of conquering Spain to America. This is how his famous work Elegies of Illustrious Men of the Indies was born, a writing with poetic nuances and historical content.

In the work there were texts in both Spanish and Latin, in which the priest narrated the events that some of the Spanish conquerors experienced. The author had the opportunity to see a part of the work published, which was produced in 1589 in the city of Madrid, Spain.

Last years and death

The last years of Castellanos's life were spent dedicated to the priesthood and writing. For forty-five years he was in charge of the church of Santiago de Tunja. The Spanish kept writing about the colonization of America.

Juan de Castellanos died on November 27, 1607 in the city of Tunja in the old New Granada (now Colombia) at the age of eighty-five.

Style

The literary style of Juan de Castellanos was characterized by the use of a cultured, clear and precise language, in accordance with the words of the 16th century. In his works the scientific, archaeological and historical knowledge of the author was notorious.

The explorer developed his writings from the truth of the facts, without additions or biases, his texts were truthful.

The particularity of his works lay in narrating the events of the Spanish conquest of American territory in the literary genre of the chronicle and in verses. Castellanos also wrote about the Spanish conquerors and especially about the Antilles, Popayán, Nueva Granada and Costa Firme.

Plays

- Elegies of illustrious men of the Indies (1589).

Brief description of some of his works

Speech by Captain Francisco Drake

This work by Castellanos arose as a result of the invasion of the Englishman Francis Drake to the city of Cartagena in 1586. The author began the narrative in prose and finished it in verses. This text was part of the writer's annotations on the town of Cartagena de Indias, but the Council of the Indies ordered that it be extracted.

Among other things, the expeditionary and Spanish priest made several negative criticisms of his compatriots. The text became known in Spain in 1921 thanks to the work of the intellectual González Palencia, who was in charge of ordering and editing it in a meticulous way.

Elegies of illustrious men of the Indies

It was one of the most important and well-known works by Juan de Castellanos, in which he narrated the events that occurred during the colonization process of the Spanish in America. The author made use of the chronicle and poetry to tell the historical facts.

Structure

The work was structured in four parts, which at the same time were composed of elegies and songs. The first phase was about the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and other exploits of the navigator. Castellanos incorporated the colonization of Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

In the second section he narrated his experiences in Venezuela, specifically in Cubagua and Margarita, as well as his stays in Santa Marta and Cabo de la Vela. The third part covered the Colombian scenarios of Antioquia, Popayán and Cartagena. The last one was related to the events that occurred in Santa Fe, Tunja and Guane.

Edition

Portrait of Juan de Castellanos, 1589. Source: Impressor de su Magestad, via Wikimedia Commons

This work by Castellanos was made up of 113,609 hendecasyllable verses and only the first part was published while its author was alive. The edition took place in Madrid in 1589 and in 1874 the second part was released, also in Spain.

Fragments. Elegy IX. I sing first

"Although it seems dry dismissal

do not proceed here later, I determine to return more to the east

of Paria and the surrounding land, to deal with 'Ordás' and his people, of whom I intend to give reason enough, Well, of the highest honor of the good

Nothing less is owed to 'Ordás'.

In Castroverde were their births

of the kingdom of León, and in New Spain

He was one of the main captains.

The one with the highest value and best skill;

on the islands his deeds were such

that each one is sold by feat, and I crave courteously for its merit

He gave it a great deal.

But he was not satisfied with this luck, no less honorable than grown, already claims another becomes, which was a certain very extended region.

Cause to die narrow death, when he could enjoy a wider life… ”.

Elegy XII. I sing first. On the death of Antonio Sedeño, where the event of his day is recounted with anxiety

"To things of Cubagua and Margarita

aspired, reader, my skinny pen

to give such an infinite relationship

some collection and brief sum, but give me Sedeño so much scream

begging his cause to be summed up

that first of them is forced

finish what I have begun with him.

… He brought out five hundred chosen men, all brave soldiers, of horses and weapons provided, of necessary things repaired.

Of high thoughts they are moved, of high hopes encouraged

with attempt to see golden temple

where Phaethon's father is worshiped.

… He made Sedeño go other ways

people who seemed to be quite, divided into three captaincies

so that they would discover ahead,

and he stopped for a few days

closer to the sea with the rest

in the town of the Cojo, that I already count, because it seemed a fertile seat… ”.

Fragment of the

"Thank heaven I give that I see myself

in the poor corner of the house

that by the mercy of God and the King I possess

in this New Kingdom of Granada, after the tedious rodeo

What did I do with my badly cut pen

singing various deeds and feats

of our people and strangers.

And well my low lyre plainly

truly formed pure consonance

in three other written volumes, where did i celebrate the funerals

of men in designated Indies, with many of which I did not have

more friendship or more knowledge

from the common hobby, well deserved, by public proclamation and certainty

that gave a loud horn from his deeds, ingratitude would be great mine

if those of the Adelantado were silent, Don Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada

whose value was notorious to me

for the conversation of many years,

and of the brave knights

under their sign militants, some of which are today

present by credible witnesses

of the laborious speech

where, with a desire to serve you

The truth has led me… ”.

Phrases

- “Benevolence cannot harm those who were very fortunate; but I have for certain the sentence said by the present and the past, that prosperous events with prudence are seldom accompanied… ”.

- “Is it possible to have such softness in sad and afflicted hearts? Is it possible for me to lose revenge for such great wrongdoing?… ”.

- “Come back, put your weapons back in your hands and claim your lost freedom. Finish up the most cruel tyrants, the cause of our bad life, the young men and the gray-haired boys make an effort to take deserved amendment… ”

- “He who suffers pain and pain, oblivious to the rest he had, forced from his own troubles, often loses fear and cowardice. And so (thus) not infrequently fears engender and produce daring… ”.

- “Never ever does envy deviate from the most eminent prosperity. Before, both were born in one day and both are growing together… ”.

- “These people, women and men, are for the most part well disposed. Of very well kneaded proportions, with a certain gallantry not misplaced, skilled in their warrior squads… ”.

- “Sedeño, as I am a good witness, he was a good captain and a good soldier; but it belonged to the friend and foe that was too trusting ”.

- “Sufferings are not impossible when fortune plays hard games; but the pains will be more endurable and of less pain such trances, if they did not bring other more terrible ones that always tend to be in reach. Well, very whole forces are broken if one after another gets up ”.

- “If you see the strongest fighting dying, reason does not ask you to be surprised. But if dying of grass was luck, it is wrong that a thousand evils have names, and so death is more than death, and those of such war more than men. Well, a very slight sting is enough to give the grave.

References

1. Juan de Castellanos. (2017). Colombia: Banrepcultural. Recovered from: encyclopedia.banrepcultural.org.
2. Juan de Castellanos. (S. f.). (N / a): Native Peoples. Biographies. Recovered from: pueblosoriginario.com.
3. Juan de Castellanos. (S. f.). Cuba: EcuRed. Recovered from: ecured.cu.
4. Tamaro, E. (2019). Juan de Castellanos. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
5. Juan de Castellanos. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.