Isabel, Anacaona & Columbus’s Demise: 1498–1502 Retold

A historical novel, Isabel, Anacaona & Columbus’s Demise: 1498–1502 Retold dramatizes from both Native and European perspectives the European subjugation of Española’s indigenous peoples during the least studied period of the island’s brutal conquest. Based on primary sources, it retells the history through the eyes of two remarkable woman rulers, the Taíno Chieftain Anacaona and Spain’s Queen Isabel, who are set on comparable pedestals. It retells Columbus’s demise through his eyes and those of Taíno chieftains who knew him and Spaniards who rebelled against him.

Queen Isabel and King Fernando struggle to bring their conquest of Española to profitability and order, and she sincerely seeks to curtail her conquerors’ enslavement of “Indians” and other abuses, including freeing Indians whom Columbus has enslaved. She and Fernando terminate Columbus’s governorship of Española, direct his successors to reorder settler-Indian relationships, and dispatch other explorers to claim the mainland. But Isabel’s conquerors mostly ignore her instructions regarding the Indians’ treatment.

Anacaona and her brother Chief Behecchio strive to prevent Columbus’s conquest from extending to their chiefdom of Xaraguá, harboring Spaniards rebelling against Columbus in return for protection from him. Anacaona rises to chieftain on Behecchio’s death, outlasting Columbus’s governorship and that of his successor and the reigns of nearly all Española’s other supreme chieftains. She’s determined to preserve Taíno civilization, and her competence as chieftain matches her more renowned allure.

Columbus explores the mainland on his third voyage, recognizes that it’s a continent, and then struggles to settle the rebellions against him on Española, ultimately awarding the rebels Indian land and Indians. Scenes closely trace his life, objectives, and activities for two years as governor of Española (while not at sea), often abbreviated in biographies of him. Embittered by opposition, he deteriorates intellectually, collapses, and resists his successor, who investigates his conduct and sends him home in chains.

Scenes also portray daily life at the frontier of conquest, including the inception of mestizo society, the fate of Indians enslaved, the origins of the doctrines of repartimiento and encomienda by which Spain would rule its New World possessions, and the slow advance of Christianity.
The novel is a sequel to, and readable independently from, Encounters Unforeseen: 1492 Retold (2017) and Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold (2021).

There are thirty-five historic or newly drawn maps and illustrations woven into the narrative, including a sketch of Anacaona, engravings by Theodore de Bry and others depicting the Spanish conquest of Española and elsewhere, and altar paintings by Juan de Flandes that Isabel commissioned.

For historical fiction readers:

Isabel is forty-seven at the novel’s outset, with her domestic legacies largely behind her and suffering recurring illness. In addition to governing her Indies conquest, she struggles to arrange her own succession following the deaths of her son and eldest daughter and raises a newborn grandson. Scenes portray her Catholic worship, her relationships with her husband and daughters, and the anguish she felt removing Columbus from authority and their special bond.

Anacaona is in her early thirties at the outset, widowed two years earlier (Caonabó was her husband) and relocated to her native Xaraguá. In addition to depicting her governance of Xaraguá, scenes portray her faith in Taíno spirits and resistance to Christianity, her relationship with her daughter, and the daughter’s liaison with a Spaniard resulting in her mestizo granddaughter.

Columbus is forty-seven at the outset, fallen from the acclaim that followed his first voyage. In addition to depicting his failure and enslavements as Española’s governor, scenes portray his genius as a mariner—the exploration of the South American coastline on his third voyage and his realization that he’d found a continent, as well as his belief that the Terrestrial Paradise lay within.

For students, teachers, and academics:

The novel explores societal practices originating in 1498–1502 that would substantially affect history thereafter, i.e., the inception of mestizo society (when Spanish men cohabitated with Taíno women) and the organic roots of repartimiento and encomienda (when Columbus awarded land and then Indians to settle the rebellion against him). It also relates the fate of Indians enslaved by Columbus and others (to the extent known) and the commencement of the Spanish conquest of the mainland, led by minor conquistadors who enslave Indians, including Alonso de Hojeda, with an unknown Amerigo Vespucci participating. Isabel’s missionary effort is set within the intellectual framework of her actions to Christianize her Spanish kingdoms, including her decision to expel non-converting Muslims from Spain.