Conquistador Voices: The Spanish Conquest of the Americas as Recounted Largely by the Participants

by Kevin H. Siepel

The Spanish Conquest: What Really Happened?

If your knowledge of the so-called Spanish Conquest is limited to the shallow, neatly packaged narrative you found in your schoolbooks, be assured that you can get a real grip on these events now, because this two-volume series tells the tale from the viewpoint of the people who were actually there--including, in some cases, native peoples. It reads like the written version of a modern film documentary, with newly translated 500-year-old "sound bites" stitched together by the author-narrator in such a way as to create a seamless and compelling story.
In these two volumes you will find neither a defense of the conquistadors nor a politically correct polemic against them. The author has made every effort to avoid moralizing on these events, but simply to recount them, with minimal commentary, using the best sources available. Moral judgments are left to the reader.
Volume I opens with the four voyages of Christopher Columbus, offering new insights into this man's complex character. It then explores in lavish detail (some of which is supplied by the Aztecs) the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés. In Volume II the reader is taken into the high Andes with the brazen Pizarro brothers, into the wilds of the Texas and Mexican desert with Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, and along a trail of successive misfortunes with the expedition of Hernando de Soto--through today's Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.
Conquistador Voices is a one-stop layman's summary of this epic period, delving into persons and events we still talk about today. Order a copy for yourself or other history reader now.
Maps, index, informational footnotes, and a brief bibliography are found in each volume.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

340 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2015

About the author

Kevin H. Siepel writes on personal, historical, and environmental themes. His most recent work is the two-volume Conquistador Voices, a fresh look at the Spanish Conquest of the Americas that makes extensive use of eyewitness and first-person accounts by conquistadors or others to whom the account may have been dictated. The five personages covered in these two volumes are Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, and Hernando de Soto.
The author’s benchmark Rebel: The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby (St. Martin’s, DaCapo, University of Nebraska Press) has proven durable, as has his biography of a western New York state pioneer, which also broke new ground.
Siepel’s essays and articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Service Journal, Civil War, Wild West, two Chicken Soup for the Soul volumes, at www.wordworth.com, and elsewhere. One of his Monitor essays was translated into several languages and published worldwide by Readers Digest.
Siepel speaks and teaches Spanish.

Reviews

[Colleen Browne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, and presumably the second volume, are the books that should be read in any "History of the America's" class. Exhaustively researched and highly readable, it tells the stories of the Conquistadors in their own words. The brutality and bloodshed on these conquests is on full display for all to see. No one could read this book without acquiring respect for the Indigenous people whose land, culture, and to a large degree, whose very lives were uprooted, terrorized and oftentimes taken by zealots who believed that they had a right, even a duty, to "Christianize" the world and to steal any wealth they came upon.

The part on Columbus is shorter, and less eventful than the part on Cortez and one suspects that fewer journals and letters were written or might even have been lost. Cortez is presented with amazingly little rancor and judgment allowing the reader to reach her own conclusions. This is good history and it is very interesting.

[Frederick Rotzien · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book that I have read this year. I feel like I got a TRUE history of Columbus and Cortes.
That Cortes had a pair of brass one's....I have been just about everywhere in Mexico and have studied Mexico's history,but this book gives you a much better grasp of Mexico and what a leader Cortes was.I would find it hard to find anyone in world history that good even come close to Cortes in what he did.
I am still thinking about the book..that's how much I got out of it.

[Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love raw unscripted history. While an historical narrative is often necessary amidst the challenges of translation and piecing together the disjointed and confusing assortments of an ancient traveler's journals, some authors fall into the trap of offering their own speculations or making omissions at the expense of accuracy.
It appears that Siepel does a great job here, providing what is promised 'in their own words' adding commentary when needed for clarification. We still rely on how accurately the Spanish conquistadors characterize their actions since their is very little available that the author could provide from the indigenous perspective. Even still it seems unlikely the accounts gloss over the brutality of the Spanish invaders or their native allies which far exceeded even that of the Spanish in terms of the suffering inflicted. Telling enough, the religious methods of human sacrifice inflicted by the Aztec rulers and their neighbors was horrifying even to the battle hardened invaders.
The story of Columbus' voyages was comparatively less dramatic, but still impressive, and I was astounded by what I've learned.
In all, I feel this book is fair and accurate! The author did an impressive job and I look forward to Part 2 of the series.

[Javier Rivero · Rating 5 out of 5]

The indies conquest history is reviewed in a brief manner so that the reader doesn't have to read Columbus and Cortes' extensive diary logs (which are the author's primary source). Therefore the book narrates a compelling story in a logical manner based on this and other logs, so that it makes you feel you are reading a novel including actual citations.

The first half of the book regarding Columbus 4 expeditions could delve a bit more into the gruesome details that occurred inside the caribbean islands, but overall it achieves to deliver a clear and concise understanding of how the events unveiled.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book free via Goodreads giveaways.

This was an interesting read as it put the conquest of the New World from the perspective of those who experienced the unheaval, the violence, and the extraordinary acts that occured. It has definitely changed my own perspective of this period in history and I look forward to reading Vol 2.

[TRE · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

The first-hand sources in this book are great, but the compiler (Kevin Siepel) adds his own voice far too much and interjects with modern socio-political views to satisfy his own shitlib ego.

He's also incredibly naive in taking any source as the unvarnished truth as long as it's anti-Spanish, to the point of believing the Aztec accounts even when they contradict their own allies like in the case of Cholula, which Siepel labeled a "massacre" even though it was a planned one from the Aztec side that was foiled by the Spanish and their Tlaxcalan allies. He does the same with Bartolome de Las Casas, who not only wasn't even there in Cholula at the time, but whose brother Dominicans while interviewing former Aztec ally residents a couple years later, had the opposite conclusion of de Las Cases that the Spaniards did nothing wrong. And these Dominicans also spoke Nahuatl to preserve the self-serving Aztec accounts, so they're hardly "apologists" for Spain.

Siepel also goes out with a bang at the very end where he mentions African slaves being brought as unskilled labor for a two-page-long footnote and caps it with "In a very real sense [sic], the New World was settled and civilized more by black Africans than by white Europeans."

L
M
A
O

Imported for use as a step above mules but they "settled and civilized" half of the world? Really astounding levels of self-hating white guy going on here. In his eagerness to be "anti-racist" he's fantastically absolving that time period of how they viewed black slaves: as tools. Using the same "logic" Spaniards didn't discover the New World but their ships did! lol Truly laughable but this book's first-hand accounts are THAT good that I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next volume DESPITE Siepel's brain-dead liberalism constantly being pigeon-holed in.

[Gordon Eldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kevin Siepel tells the story of Columbus' voyages and the story of Cortes' conquests by selecting from primary sources and connecting these with his own narrative. The primary sources include both accounts by Columbus and Cortes themselves as well as other eye-witness accounts. In the case of Cortes, on occasion, Siepel juxtaposes two versions of the same event from Spanish and Aztec sources. The result is a joy to read. Siepel's narrative holds the story together in a way that simply reading the primary sources would not, but the reliance on primary sources wherever possible gives the account an immediacy as well as a perspective that make it fascinating. Really enjoyed reading this and plan to read volume 2.

[Robert Traller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing history brought to life with primary sources. The stories of Columbus and Cortes largely in their own words translated into modern language from ships logs, letters and eyewitness accounts. Both stories are amazing, that of Cortez reads like Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings." Though the book tries to be objective and presents the protagonists warts and all, history is written by the victors and so has a European bias. Nevertheless the conquistadors are portrayed as both brave and adventurous as well as ambitious, racist and capable of unspeakable cruelty.

[Private Account · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the hands down most interesting history books I have read. WOW. I can't believe school made such interesting stories so boring. I LOVE this style of doing history, allowing the people of that time period to speak for themselves. I want Siepel to do this across the board with many other time periods as well. But even less judgement. The narrator should not be calling things that happened good or bad. Just let the people from the time period speak even more.

[Billye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book about Christopher Columbus and his discoveries and also Cortez conquering the Aztec in Mexico. It is the first book in a 2 book series. It was easy to read and I enjoyed getting more details the I did in school about these explorers. It is based on their writings and these writings are quoted.

[David Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really interesting reading the actual letters written by these explorers. The author was not intrusive and gave you enough information to put the letters and diaries into context. I really liked the story of Cortes because you not only had the Spanish version of events, you also had the Aztec accounts that were translated while the people involved were still alive. Great read.

[Allenj3210 · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a very sad title to read. I knew that the conquest was not without its bloody parts. But, I was appalled at the senseless violence that was displayed on both sides.

[Paul Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative

Very informative, having never really read much on the subject. First hand accounts are inserted well into the narrative. I will read book 2.

[William Monroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

History as written by the men who lived it.

[Thomas Rosenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raw courage driving explorers into the unknown.

[Lee Fenton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really struggled to get into it
DNF

[Aepe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wondering how Columbus's expeditions could get worse & being shown how is a comical experience.