The Indies of the Setting Sun charts the Spanish vision of a transpacific imperial expanse, beginning with Balboa’s discovery of the South Sea and ending almost one hundred years later with Spain’s final push for control of the Pacific. Padrón traces a series of attempts—both cartographic and discursive—to map the space from Mexico to Malacca, revealing the geopolitical imaginations at play in the quest for control of the New World and Asia.
PROFESSOR of Spanish Ricardo Padrón at the University of Virginia Ricardo Padrón is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Virginia. He studies the literature and culture of the early modern Hispanic world, particularly questions of empire, space, and cartography. His research has taken him to China, Japan, and the Philippines, and has been sponsored by U.Va.’s Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, Arts & Sciences at U.Va., and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also published on early modern poetry and historiography, and on the mapping of imaginary worlds in modern times. Prof. Padrón is an active member of the Renaissance Society of America, in which he has served as Disciplinary Representative for the Americas section, and of the Latin American Studies Association.
For more information CONTACT: Department of Spanish & Portuguese 621-3123 or spanish.arizona.edu
