Travelogues of Latin America are published accounts describing
Latin America and the Caribbean by foreign travelers from early
Iberian conquest to the early 20th century.[1][2] The Spanish and Portuguese monarchs' efforts to restrict non-Iberian's access to Latin America during the colonial era mean that most of the works published before 1800 were by authorized Spanish or Portuguese chroniclers, or European Catholic missionaries.[3] However, the popularity of Prussian naturalist
Alexander von Humboldt's twenty-one volume account of his travels in Latin America marked a turning point. Starting in the 1820s, most independent Latin American governments welcomed increased exchanges with European visitors, increasing the number of German, British, French, and U.S. travelogues published.[3] Many foreigners were interested in economic opportunities available in Latin America.[4] At least 394 travelogues describing Mexico were published between 1810 and 1910.[5] For Brazil, European and U.S. visitors published at least 158 travelogues between 1800 and 1899.[6]
While scholars including
Marjorie Agosín, June E. Hahner, and Miguel A. Cabañas have noted that these works replicate many of the biases of their authors, they are an important sources in the study of Latin American history.[7][8][9]
J.A.B Beaumont was a British business person and traveler. In his travelogue Beaumont describes his experiences in Argentina, and describes the political effectiveness of local government and the demographics of Buenos Aires and surrounding areas. The text is focused on providing an informal description and perspective of potential benefits or risks that could come from emigrating to or investing in Buenos Aires.
Emeric Essex Vidal, was a British painter and Naval officer, describes the areas of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, along with his own watercolor illustrations. He spends much of the travelog describing the physical characteristics of Buenos Aires and also highlights the social hierarchy of Argentina at the time, including his commentary on the indigenous populations and the institution of slavery.[10]
Bolivia
De Bonelli, L. Hugh. Travels in Bolivia. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1854.
The author of this Travelogue is De Bonelli, L. Hugh, a servant of the Britannic Majesties Legation. Published in 1854, we follow Bonelli as he travels all throughout South America, with a focus on Panama and Bolivia.
Sir William Conway was an English politician, art critic, and traveler who underwent notable expeditions into the
Andes and
Himalayas. Conway wrote on his experience following two trips to
Bolivia, once in 1898 and again in 1900, focusing on mountaineering in the Andes and visits to
La Paz,
Lake Titicaca, and
Potosi.
Henry Walter Bates was a notable english naturalist and explorer who is best known for an expedition into the
Amazon Rainforest, which he led alongside
Alfred Russel Wallace in 1848.[11] After spending 11 years in
Brazil, Bates was able to collect 14,712 different samples of species, most of those being insects.[12] At the end of this trip he wrote down most of his experiences and discoveries from Brazil in his most notable book called The Naturalist on the River Amazons.[12]
Written by George Byam – an officer in the
43rd Regiment of the British Army[13] – in 1849, Wild Life in the Interior of Central America provides information on the species, geography, and minerals Byam encountered traveling from
El Realejo,
Nicaragua to the
Caribbean Sea.[14] Throughout his account, Byam details the differences between his own perceptions of volcanoes,
trophy-hunting, and wildlife with that of the native inhabitants of the region.[14]
John Ball was an Irish naturalist, politician and founder of the Alpine club, he traveled South America in 1882 and made biological observations as well as social commentary on his experience in Latin America. In his book “Notes of a Naturalist in South America”, John Ball documents his experiences and observations in multiple South American countries, notably Peru and Chile.[15]
Maria Graham was a travel writer, illustrator, children’s book author, and intellectual. She is known for her many travel books, including her Journal of Residence in Chile, which records the events of her years living in Chile as well as her travels to Brazil during 1823.[16]
Albert Millican was an English orchid hunter, who made several trips to South America between 1888-1891 and made observations as well as social commentary about the natural land as well as the people he encountered. In his book “Travels and Adventures of an Orchid Hunter” Albert Millican documents some moments from his five journeys from England to Colombia in search of orchids.
Maturin Murray Ballou, a journalist and the owner of his own paper, Ballou’s Monthly Magazine, visited many places and created travel accounts throughout his life, one of them being Cuba.[17] The following travelogue is an account of Cuba from its early periods to the 1850s, which contains many aspects such as history, slavery, the evolution of politics, culture, etc.
Julia Howe Ward, an author, abolitionist, and social activist shares with her readers of the travelogue A trip to Cuba her experiences throughout the time she visited the country. Married to
Samuel Gridley Howe, the mother of six children reports her discoveries along the way. The big journey of the author and her crew starts off in
Nassau, in the Bahamas, from where they will then be transported to Cuba. She describes it as being “dragged along like a miserable thread pulled through the eye of an everlasting needle.”[18]
Alexander von Humboldt, a German Enlightenment-era scientist, wrote The Island of Cuba to survey the climate, people, and economy of
Cuba from a scientific and liberal lens.[19] In the work, he devotes a chapter to the system of
slavery in Cuba, and he asserts an abolitionist stance, vocalizing his worries that, if action is not taken, Cuba will have a slave revolt akin to
Haiti.[19]
Rawson, James. Cuba. New York: Lane & Tippett, 1847.
Dominican Republic
Day, Susan de Forest. "
Chapter XI: Santo Domingo" The Cruise of the Scythian in the West Indies. New YorkL F. T. Neely, 1899.
Chapter XI of the Cruise of the Scythianin the West Indies is a travelogue by American author Susan De Forest Day, who sails to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in the late 19th century. Her account of the Dominican Republic is included along with travel accounts of several other Caribbean Islands, including Jamaica and St. Lucia.
Brine, Lindesay, 1834-1906. "
Chapter X: La Antigua Guatemala" in Travels amongst American Indians: Their Ancient Earthworks and Temples: Including a Journey in Guatemala, Mexico and Yucatán, and a Visit to the Ruins of Patinamit, Utatlan, Palenque and Uxmal. London: S. Low, Marston & Company, 1894.
George Washington Montgomery was an American diplomat who worked as a US consul in
Tampico and Puerto Rico. In this account, he details his trip to Guatemala and various stops along the way.[20]
English Abolitionist John W. Candler was a devout quaker and outspoken abolitionist. He visited Haiti in 1842 to show that abolishing slavery was a boon to a state's economic status and benefit to its people's mental health.[21]
Charles Mackenzie is a Scottish diplomat who toured Haiti in 1826. His observations of the country include his meetings with the Haitian president, his travel around the country, and general views on Haitian life.
Arnold Channing focused on Mexico, specifically the people who lived in Yucatan. He studied Yucatan from different perspectives, specifically from an archaeology perspective. He focused a lot on the different structures/monuments that the
Mayan people built and was fairly fascinated with their work.
Fanny Calderon de la Barca was born to a family of noble landowners in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1804. After moving to New York with her family, she met her husband Don Angel Calderon de la Barca, a mestizo man born to Spanish parents in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This book is a collection of letters compiled from her time in Mexico accompanying her husband, who was designated as the first Spanish minister to Mexico after their independence. Her accounts of Mexican culture place high importance on the impact of Spanish influence, especially regarding the arts. [22]
William Carpenter was an American war prisoner finding his way back to the North after being released. Throughout his account he highlights his perspectives of Mexican culture and society both during and after the Mexican-American War. Moreover, his account of Mexico provides the reader with exceptional detail of what Mexico looked like during the 1840’s.[23]
Charles La Trobe, also shown as John Charles Latrobe, writes an account of his travels with American writer Washington Irving as they travel from the United states to Mexico, or as Latrobe calls it "New Spain," in the year 1834. Latrobe's opinions from the Gulf of Mexico to the bustling metropolis of major cities depicts the perfect form of a European travelogue of Latin America.
C. Napier Bell was a man who spent his younger years traversing through an undeveloped Nicaragua in the early to mid 1800s. Bell describes his awe and admiration for the landscape and speaks of his relationships with the indigenous people of Nicaragua. [24]
Wright, Hamilton Mercer, 1875-. Nicaragua, Land of Enchanted Vistas. Washington: Govt. print. off., 1918. Reprinted from the December, 1917, issue of The Bulletin of the Pan American Union.
Mary A. Chatfield, an established American stenographer, traveled to Panama in 1905 to work under a Panamanian engineer. While fulfilling her responsibilities as a stenographer, she documented her observations and interpretations of Panamanian society through her travelogue.[25]
Nathaniel H. Bishop was a naturalist and academic from Massachusetts who, upon reaching 17 years old made a journey down to South America to observe the land and culture. Along the way he crosses oceans, rivers, plains, and mountains all the while recording his interactions with the locals and wildlife.[26]
Lady Florence Dixie, Scottish writer, feminist, and activist, records the highs and the lows of her travels through Argentina and Chile in Across Patagonia.[27] On horseback, she and her companions encounter, and express their opinions on, Indigenous people, landscapes, animals (many of which she describes hunting), and natural obstacles to their journey.[28]
Hiram Birmingham was a writer, explorer, and United States Senator who embarked on several expeditions to South America, and he is credited with documenting the now famous
Machu Picchu ruins in his travelogue.[29]
Hiram Bingham was an American academic and explorer who wrote several books on his expeditions to Latin America. He is known for documenting and making public the existence of
Machu Picchu.
Lieutenant Charles Brand was a European navy lieutenant. In the travelogue, he describes his travels through the snow while taking note of the environment and local people.[30]
Achilles Daunt, a preacher from Owlpen, Gloucestershire, reflects on his journey through the forests of Venezuela with his long-time friend George Harrison. In his work, he depicts the beautiful terrain encountered, as well as the hardships of being exposed to the foreign elements of Venezuela.
Ford, Isaac Nelson, 1848-1912. Tropical America. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893.
Even though their travel account is called Tropical America Isaac Nelson and Ford travel around all regions of Latin America such as the coast of Ecuador, the Andes of Chile, the coast of Cuba and describe their experiences and interactions with the natives as well as with the nature of Latin America, providing a white perspective of Latin America. They arrive to some of these countries in difficult circumstances such as their arrival to Chile post civil war [31]
Hayward, Jennifer, “Latin America,” in The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing, ed. Carl Thompson. New York: Routledge, 2020, pp. 361–71
Welch, Thomas L. Travel accounts and descriptions of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1800-1920 : a selected bibliography. Myriam Figueras, Columbus Memorial Library. Washington, D.C.: Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States, 1982.
^Bishop, Nathaniel H (1870). The Pampas and Andes: A Thousand Miles' Walk Across South America. boston: Lee and Shepard.
^Ewan, Elizabeth (2018). "DIXIE, Florence Caroline (Florrie), Lady". The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
^Dixie, Florence (1881).
Across Patagonia. Brown University Library. New York, R. Worthington.
^"Journal of a Voyage to Peru, &c., by Lieutenant Charles Brand". Monthly Magazine, or, British Register. 6: 412–414. Oct 1828.
^Cruz, José Ma. Santa. “Chile and Her Civil War.” The North American Review, vol. 153, no. 419, 1891, pp. 405–13. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25102257. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.