El Carnero

This article is about a novel. For the lake in Arizona, U.S., see Carnero Lake. For the lake in Oaxaca, Mexico, see Laguna de Manialtepec. For the animal, see Sheep. For the Mexican town, see El Carnero, Zacatecas.

Not to be confused with Carneros.

El Carnero (English: The Sheep) is the colloquial name of a Spanish language colonial chronicle whose title was Conquista i descubrimiento del nuevo reino de Granada de las Indias Occidentales del mar oceano, i fundacion de la ciudad de Santa Fe de Bogota, ... [also known as El Carnero de Bogata] (English: Conquest and discovery of the New Kingdom of Granada of the West Indies sea, and foundation of the city of Holy Faith of Bogata). It is a chronicle of history and customs written in 1636-1638 (but not published until 1859) by Bogota-born Juan Rodríguez Freyle. It tells the story of the South American conquest, the early exploration of northern South America, establishment of the New Kingdom of Granada (what is now Colombia and part of Venezuela) and the foundation and first century of the city of Bogotá (now the capital of Colombia): it explains it was the first city of the kingdom to have an established royal audience and a chancellery. It also describes the Indian peoples that inhabited the region during the conquest, the civil wars between them, and their customs and culture. It details the origin of the myth of El Dorado, the "lost city of gold" in an initiation ritual of the Muisca indigenous people of Colombia.

The chronicle is intended to be historical, but includes also several fictional elements through short stories. It is generally stated that these short stories are of great importance in the Hispano-American literature movement. In its native Spanish, it is perhaps the most important literary work of the Colombian colonial times.

Cited text

• Fresle, Juan Rodriguez (1859) Spanish El Carnero Bogatano. Bogata (edited by Don Felipe Perez)

Further reading

• Freyle, Juan Rodriguez (1961) English (translated by William C. Atkinson) The conquest of New Granada (El Carnero). Folio Society in London

See also

• Colombian literature
• List of Colombian writers
• History of Colombia
• Spanish colonization of the Americas
• History of Bogotá
• Viceroyalty of Peru
• Indigenous peoples in Colombia

External links

• El Carnero manuscript (in Spanish, digitized)
• Juan Rodriguez Freyle (in Spanish)