Ponce, Alonso
PONCE, ALONSO
Franciscan chronicler; b. Castile, probably Ciudad Real, date unknown; place and date of death unknown. Ponce went to New Spain in 1584 as commissary general of his order. Between 1584 and 1592 he traveled 2,000 leagues, visiting the Franciscan provinces of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Granada. Some Franciscans denied Ponce's authority and he excommunicated them. Viceroy Villamanrique then ordered the exile of Ponce, who was obliged
to embark "under the staff of authority." Providentially the ship landed at Campeche, Mexico, and Ponce continued his visitation. The king confirmed him in his post and later summoned him to Spain. Fray Alonso de San Juan and Fray Antonio de Ciudad Real accompanied Ponce on his journeys and probably wrote the Relación breve y verdadera de algunas cosas de los muchas que sucedieron at P. Fray Alonso Ponce en las provincias de Nueva España siendo comisario general de aquellas partes. This famous and interesting work is a description of geography, hydrography, customs, clothing, climates, and crops. It is an unsurpassed work for the study of the first century of the Spanish colony and of many pro-Hispanic antiquities.
Bibliography: a. ponce, Viaje a Nueva España: Antología, ed. a. henestrosa (Mexico City 1947). r. guerrero, Índice clasificado de la Relación Breve … de Ponce (Mexico City 1949).
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