La amazona del Nuevo Mundo

Abstract

This study analyzes the presence and function of the mythical figure of the amazon in the New World. Reading the testimonies of the European explorers through theories that examine the power of fear, the concept of social monsters, the mythification of women throughout history, and the construction of woman as the Other, we will show how certain explorers retold and reconstructed the image of indigenous women of the New World. The transformation of indigenous women into the amazon of the new region will be presented through the analysis of various texts from Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Gonzalo de Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Nuño de Guzmán, Gonzalo López, Juan Sámano, Pedro de Carranza, García del Pilar, Cristóbal Flores, Francisco de Arceo, an anonymous writer, and friar Gaspar de Carvajal.