La Florida - by Viviana Díaz Balsera & Rachel A May (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Florida Book Awards, Gold Medal for Florida Nonfiction

"A splendid, highly readable collection that reflects substantial new research and findings on Hispanic influence in Florida."--Ralph Lee Woodward, author of Central America: A Nation Divided

"Deeply researched and sweeping across five centuries, La Florida is admirably multi- and interdisciplinary in approach and features a truly distinguished lineup of authors. Topics range from flora and fauna to archaeology and early chronicles, to politics high and low, to literature, art, architecture, music, food and foodways, and of course to the diverse and often fascinating people who made them."--Richmond F. Brown, editor of Coastal Encounters

Commemorating Juan Ponce de León's landfall on the Atlantic coast of Florida, this ambitious volume explores five centuries of Hispanic presence in the New World peninsula, reflecting on the breadth and depth of encounters between the different lands and cultures.

The contributors, leading experts in a range of fields, begin with an examination of the first and second Spanish periods. This was a time when La Florida was an elusive possession that the Spaniards were never able to completely secure; but Spanish influence would nonetheless leave an indelible mark on the land. In the second half of this volume, the essays highlight the Hispanic cultural legacy, politics, and history of modern Florida and expand on Florida's role as a modern transatlantic cross roads.

Melding history, literature, anthropology, music, culture, and sociology, La Florida is a unique presentation of the Hispanic roots that run deep in Florida's past and present and will assuredly shape its future.

Review Quotes

"Travels five centuries--using the lenses of art, architecture, literature, archaeology, politics, and at least a half-dozen other disciplines to trace the Hispanic presence in Florida that began in 1513 with Spaniard Ponce de León."--Forum


"A broad panorama of transatlantic relations and connections that influenced Florida's past and are still making an impact on its current situation."--European Journal of American Studies


"A thoughtful and informative multidisciplinary volume marked by an unusually elevated level of chapters that document the nature and significance of the Hispanic presence in Florida from the early 16th century to the present. . . . Essential."--Choice

About the Author

Viviana Díaz Balsera, professor of Spanish at the University of Miami, is the author of The Pyramid under the Cross and Calderón y las quimeras de la Culpa. Rachel A. May, professor of Latin American and Caribbean studies and director of the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of South Florida, is the author of Terror in the Countryside: Campesino Responses to Political Violence in Guatemala, 1954-1985.