The 1999 Annual Public Symposium

Philology and the Borderlands

Held on October 2, 1999 at SMU's Fort Burgwin Campus, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

Speakers included Maureen Ahern, Richard Flint, Shirley Cushing Flint, Diana Hadley, Thomas Sheridan, and David Weber

As a result of this symposium, the Clements Center published, Zaldívar and the Cattle of Cíbola: Vicente de Zaldívar’s Expedition to the Buffalo Plains in 1598, the Spanish Texts, edited by Jerry R. Craddock, translated by John H. R. Polt.  The volume is Vicente de Zaldívar’s account of his 1598 journey to the plains in Spanish as well as English, and to present that Spanish text in a form that reflects the original intentions of the writer. Jerry Craddock’s careful comparisons of different renditions of this journey meet the highest standard of critical textual analysis. Scholars will value the fidelity of the Spanish language account; general readers will be charmed by the story, either in Spanish prose, or in Gaspar Pérez de Vallagrá’s poetic rendering, or in John H. R. Polt’s graceful translations.

Sponsored by
The William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University and
Research Center for Romance Studies, University of California, Berkeley