Professor's discoveries shed light on Latino poet

Sep. 25--For months, he gathered clues. Then for days, he searched.

Line by line, his eyes pored over dusty pages, past thousands of names penned in dark ink more than 400 years ago.

Finally, Manuel M. Martin-Rodriguez found the name he had crossed the Atlantic looking for: Gaspar de Villagr�¡, scrawled in loose cursive.

"After working so hard for so long, to find it was a feeling I had never felt before," said the Spanish-born literature professor who now teaches at UC Merced. "To hold previously unknown documents that old in your hands, with no glass covering them -- it was incredibly rewarding."

What Martin-Rodriguez held in his hands was the university enrollment record of Villagr�¡, a 16th century Mexican-born poet and soldier of Spanish descent, a man now considered the first Chicano author and the first person to publish any historical account of the United States.

Villagr�¡'s epic poem "History of the New Mexico," published in 1610, describes the 1598 Spanish expedition to conquer and colonize what is now New Mexico. The poem predates John Smith's "A Description of New England."

When it was published in Spain, arguably the most literarily accomplished country of the time, Villagr�¡'s poem was considered to be of little value. It didn't rhyme, strayed from poetic standards of the time and remained for centuries a footnote of literary interest.

But the poem -- 300 pages long in modern editions and rich in historical detail -- was of interest to historians, and when an English translation was published in 1992 the poem drew new attention from many, including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has proposed adopting the epic as New Mexico's state poem.

For Martin-Rodriguez, who grew up in Spain and came to the U.S. in 1985 for graduate school, the interest in Villagr�¡ began about five years ago.

"I had read the poem years before, but it took me some time to fully understand its significance," said 43-year-old Martin-Rodriguez.

Soon, that understanding became "somewhat of an obsession" for Martin- Rodriguez, who has since published a full textual analysis of the poem, uncovered more than 200 references to Villagr�¡ in literary and historical works from multiple countries, and tracked down several surviving copies of the poem from its original printing.

But what struck Martin- Rodriguez the most, he says, was how much was still unknown about the life of one of Chicano literature's most important figures.

"There was so little information available to understand the context in which he wrote," said Martin- Rodriguez.

And so began Martin- Rodriguez's search.

What was known of Villagr�¡ was that he was born in Mexico around 1555 to Spanish parents. He later moved to Spain, where he studied at the University of Salamanca.

In 1598 he traveled as a soldier under explorer Juan de Onate to conquer New Mexico. Upon his return in 1609 he authored his epic and was later appointed mayor of a Spanish colony in Guatemala, but was assumed dead by 1620 when he failed to show up for the post.

What Martin-Rodriguez sought was any new information to fill the biographical gaps -- information that could shed new light on Villagr�¡'s epic, or help locate other works by the author.

In the summer of 2005, Martin-Rodriguez made the transatlantic trip -- just as Villagr�¡ had centuries before -- to search archives not far from his own Spanish hometown.

At first, his quest yielded little.

"For a long time, all I could find were things that we already knew of," said Martin-Rodriguez.

So he changed his strategy and began searching for clues about Villagr�¡'s relatives in hopes it would eventually lead him to Villagr�¡.

Soon, the first big break came.

Martin-Rodriguez discovered records documenting what he describes as the 16th century equivalent of Villagr�¡'s father's expired travel visa. The record, dated 1576, included the explanation Villagr�¡'s father had given Spanish authorities as to why he had been delayed in his travels. His excuse: He was waiting for his son to finish his studies at the University of Salamanca.

Before the discovery, no one knew what years Villagr�¡ had spent at the Spanish university.

"Then I knew, more or less, where to look next," said Martin-Rodriguez.

Armed with the new information, he returned to Spain in May and headed immediately to Salamanca.

He spent days searching line by line through the university's 1576 student records, their aging pages bound in centuries-old books, until he found the name he'd come looking for.

The records revealed that while Villagr�¡ may have become a soldier and a poet, he was first a lawyer.

He had earned a degree in law, and through Martin- Rodriguez's search, he learned with whom Villagr�¡ had studied, what textbooks he had read and new clues about the scholarship that helped shape the author Villagr�¡ would later become.

Exhilarated by the discovery, Martin-Rodriguez continued his search until his return to the U.S. to prepare for UC Merced's fall semester.

Before summer's end, he struck gold once more.

Martin-Rodriguez uncovered Villagr�¡'s death certificate and will, which confirmed that Villagr�¡ had fallen ill at sea while traveling to assume a mayorship in 1620.

His will included a description of all of his personal possessions at the time of his death: some clothes, a small collection of books, a locked trunk to be returned to his wife in Spain and ream of blank paper.

Martin-Rodriguez won't say exactly where he found the death record. He fears the archive could be pillaged and yet-to-be-revealed information could be lost forever, but he likened his search to one for a needle in a haystack.

"It was somewhat like throwing darts. I would literally point in a room stacked with boxes and say 'let's see what is in that one.' "

To Martin-Rodriguez's disappointment, the will's description only included the title of one of the books Villagr�¡ carried with him.

"It would have been fascinating to know what he was reading at the end of his life."

But the record did reveal that Villagr�¡ carried a law book. Martin-Rodriguez says that means Villagr�¡ likely kept up on the subject throughout his life.

Even more intriguing to Martin-Rodriguez is what Villagr�¡ might have written on the blank paper by his side when he died.

"Clearly, he was expecting to use it," said Martin- Rodriguez. "For what, I would love to know."

Renowned Chicano studies scholar Luis Leal said the discoveries mean new information for Spanish, Mexican and American history books.

"There really was very little that we knew about Villagr�¡ and his education, besides what we knew from his poem," said Leal, who has spent more than 60 years studying Mexican, Latin American and Chicano literature and authored more than 30 books on the subject. "These discoveries reveal brand new information to help us understand Chicano heritage and what I call pre-Chicano literature."

Now, Martin-Rodriguez is writing a book of his own that will compile all the information known about Villagr�¡ and his epic.

But the book, he says, doesn't mean the end of his quest.

"There is certainly much more to find. I'm going back. It creates almost a dependency," said Martin-Rodriguez. "I still consider this a work in progress. I don't think I could ever exhaust all the possible nuances of Villagr�¡'s work and its existence in history."

Reporter Corinne Reilly can be reached at 385-2477 or creilly@mercedsun-star.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Merced Sun-Star, Calif.

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