# Fuentes y Guzmán's Recordación Florida (1690)

URL: https://allhistories.com/guatemala/timeline/1690-fuentes-y-guzman-s-recordacion-florida
Location: Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepéquez
Themes: main-event

By the late seventeenth century Guatemala's Spanish-descended criollo elite had developed a strong sense of local identity and pride in the conquest of their ancestors. Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán, born in Santiago in 1643, was a great-great-grandson of the conquistador and chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo, whose original manuscript of the True History of the Conquest of New Spain was kept in the city. Fuentes y Guzmán served as a councillor of Santiago and as royal magistrate in Totonicapán and Sonsonate, giving him first-hand knowledge of the provinces. In his Recordación Florida, completed around 1690, he described the history of the kingdom since the conquest, its towns, landscapes, products and peoples, using municipal archives, Indigenous documents and his own observations. He praised the conquistadors and their descendants while recording valuable details on Maya communities, local economies and ruined pre-Hispanic sites. The work circulated in manuscript and was not printed until 1882–83 in Madrid. Despite its partisanship and errors, it is a key source for colonial Guatemala and a landmark of criollo historical writing. Fuentes y Guzmán died around 1700, and a further volume of his history survives in manuscript in Guatemala. At this point in the timeline (1690), the King of Spain (sovereign of the Kingdom of Guatemala) was Charles II (17 September 1665 – 1 November 1700); the President of the Audiencia, Governor and Captain General of Guatemala was Jacinto de Barrios Leal (1688–1691).

## Why it matters
The Recordación Florida is the first great history written by a Guatemalan-born author and a key colonial source.

Ruler at the Time: [Charles II](https://allhistories.com/guatemala/rulers/charles-ii)

President of the Audiencia, Governor and Captain General of Guatemala: Jacinto de Barrios Leal

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Antonio_de_Fuentes_y_Guzm%C3%A1n)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Francisco+Antonio+de+Fuentes+y+Guzmán)
- [Wikipedia — Bernal Díaz del Castillo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernal_D%C3%ADaz_del_Castillo)
- [Wikipedia — The Kingdom Of Guatemala (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captaincy_General_of_Guatemala)