The American Antiquarian Society, Latina/o History and the Apache Wars

This presentation argues for the importance of Latino translations in understanding the transnational nature of US history in the nineteenth century. It explores the intertwined histories of the American Antiquarian Society,... [ view full abstract ]

This presentation argues for the importance of Latino translations in understanding the transnational nature of US history in the nineteenth century. It explores the intertwined histories of the American Antiquarian Society, the American Catholic Historical Society, and the Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico, as well as the histories they capture. These three institutions come together in the nineteenth century in the American Southwest and in the context of the
Apache Wars (1849-1889) through the translation of Juan Netving’s Rudo Ensayo, a mission narrative written in 1761. The translation of Nentvig’s well-known account is completed by one Eusebio Guiteras, a Cuban-born Latino who lived in Philadelphia from 1868-1892. It was published posthumously in the Records of the American Catholic Historical Society in 1893. Yet, Netving’s account of the Jesuit missions in what was Spanish territory in the eighteenth century
and in what is now northern Mexico and southern Arizona comes to Guiteras through the publication of Netving’s account in the original Spanish by one Buckingham Smith, who first published the work with Munsell Printers of Albany, New York in 1863. Buckingham Smith collaborated with one José Ramírez, a founder of the Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico, and also a member of the Society. This presentation explores the intertwined histories of these three
institutions alongside the diverse biographies, publications, and texts of these individuals, connecting these histories through an analysis of the climate of religious, racial and territorial conflict that occurred in the American Southwest, in particular as they related to the US-Mexico border.