Dennis Herrick's blog

  

Controversy?

Mon, 09/17/2018 - 21:21
Dennis Herrick

Does the Esteban biography disagree with history? No. Although it does disagree with the conventional history of him. Even though almost every account states without reservation that Zuni natives killed Esteban in 1539, the biography points out that such a death was based only on assumptions by Mexican Indians reporting to Friar Marcos who admitted they didn't see it happen.
     Actually, nobody knows for sure what happened

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Poem about Esteban (Estevanico)

Mon, 09/10/2018 - 13:09
Dennis Herrick

The poet Jeffrey Yang wrote a free verse poem about Esteban, titled with his slave nickname of Estevanico, which was published in the July/August 2017 issue of Poetry Magazine. As of May. 1, 2022, it still could be found on the magazine's website. It consists of 53 verses—54 if you count the title, which is actually a part of the poem.

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Is that a painting of Esteban on the book's cover?

Wed, 09/05/2018 - 16:51
Dennis Herrick

No painting or image of Esteban during his lifetime exists. Not even much of a description.
     While Esteban certainly would have been bearded while enslaved by Indians in Texas and later traveling across the continent, and perhaps bearded even at other times, this image could be how he appeared while living in Mexico City just before going to Cíbloa. 

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Slavery still today in Mauritania

Mon, 09/03/2018 - 12:37
Dennis Herrick

A chapter in Esteban: The African Slave Who Explored America, explores the continuing existence of slavery in the world, whether "de facto" or, as usual, carried out by a society's criminal and/or greedy elements.
     One nation where slavery is still a problem is the northwestern African country of Mauritania, a country dominated by its Arab and Berber majorities just south of the Western Sahara, controlled by Morocco.

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Writing about the underdogs

Mon, 09/03/2018 - 12:23
Dennis Herrick

When asked why I wrote Esteban's biography, I reply that all my books are about average people who face such daunting obstacles that they seemed destined to fail. They are the underdogs that end up winning.
     As a slave to Spaniards, Esteban could not have been expected to survive, much less come to the attention of a king, in the harrowing circumstances he endured.

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Problems with Esteban's Wikipedia page

Mon, 09/03/2018 - 12:19
Dennis Herrick

I did not post the Wikipedia page listed for "Mustafa Azemmouri." The page was originally titled "Estevanico." It was posted by someone else who keeps rejecting and writing over any attempts to correct the page. Estevanico was the slave nickname for Esteban (full Spanish name of Esteban de Dorantes). The nickname was condescendingly used to demean him, and it is the nickname usually used in books mentioning Esteban.

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