Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681) is generally acknowledged to be the master author of autos sacramentales, one-act pageant plays that usually dramatize the myths of the Fall and Redemption. Since the auto was supervised by both the church and the state, it is typically held to be an art form that serves theology and the dominant powers of the time. Basing her examination of Calderon's autos on modern theories of allegory, Viviana Diaz Balsera focuses on the seductive power of the dramatic, visible level of the allegorical auto and questions the widely held assumption that Calderon's...

Florida Book Awards, Gold Medal for Florida Nonfiction

A splendid, highly readable collection that reflects substantial new research and findings on Hispanic influence in Florida. Ralph Lee Woodward, author of Central America: A Nation Divided
Deeply researched and sweeping across five centuries, La Florida is admirably multi- and interdisciplinary in approach and features a truly distinguished lineup of authors. Topics range from flora and fauna to archaeology and early chronicles, to politics high and low, to literature, art, architecture, music, food and...