Author: Benjamín Rosales Valenzuela.
Presentation of the book La balsa ancestral del Pacífico americano (The Ancestral Raft of the American Pacific), by Benjamín Rosales Valenzuela, next Monday, March 24 at 7 pm in the Simón Bolívar Room of Casa América.
Among the innumerable surprises that the new world offered to the first Spanish explorers, certainly one of the greatest occurred in 1526 and was the meeting of Bartolomé Ruiz, one of the pilots of Francisco Pizarro, with an indigenous boat that had masts and sails, in the manner of “our ships”.
These large sailing vessels, unique on the American continent before the arrival of the Europeans, are the subject of this book, which is very complete in scientific terms but at the same time uses a pleasant language and does not shy away from any aspect, It deals with the integral study of ancestral oceanic rafts, their origins, centuries of existence in pre-Hispanic, colonial and republican times, their destinations and uses until the middle of the twentieth century. Therefore, this is a book with an essential contribution in the matter of indigenous navigation on the Peruvian and Ecuadorian coast, which relates to communication, identity and cultural heritage of the populations of the American Pacific.
During the presentation, an oceanic raft made of balsa wood, bamboo, cabbage ropes, seike oars and sails and cotton candles will be on display. The raft weighs 15 kg and has these dimensions: 130x50x10 cm.
Will welcome the presentation by León de la Torre Krais, general manager of Casa de América, and Ramiro Domínguez, editor of Silex Ediciones. José María Miura Andrades, PhD in History; María Luisa Laviana Cuetos, PhD in History; and Benjamín Rosales Valenzuela, author of the work.
