Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America [Paperback]

William W. Dunmire (Author), Evangeline L. Dunmire (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

When the Spanish began colonizing the Americas in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they brought with them the plants and foods of their homeland—wheat, melons, grapes, vegetables, and every kind of Mediterranean fruit. Missionaries and colonists introduced these plants to the native peoples of Mexico and the American Southwest, where they became staple crops alongside the corn, beans, and squash that had traditionally sustained the original Americans. This intermingling of Old and New World plants and foods was one of the most significant fusions in the history of international cuisine and gave rise to many of the foods that we so enjoy today.

Gardens of New Spain tells the fascinating story of the diffusion of plants, gardens, agriculture, and cuisine from late medieval Spain to the colonial frontier of Hispanic America. Beginning in the Old World, William Dunmire describes how Spain came to adopt plants and their foods from the Fertile Crescent, Asia, and Africa. Crossing the Atlantic, he first examines the agricultural scene of Pre-Columbian Mexico and the Southwest. Then he traces the spread of plants and foods introduced from the Mediterranean to Spain's settlements in Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. In lively prose, Dunmire tells stories of the settlers, missionaries, and natives who blended their growing and eating practices into regional plantways and cuisines that live on today in every corner of America.

(2006)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Gardens of New Spain is certainly approachable by gardeners, cooks, and amateurs of Southwestern studies as well as professional historians...it is an important addition to the sparse literature in English on the Old Southwest in the colonial era. (William E. Burns, Howard University Sixteenth Century Journal )

This scholarly document will be as enduring as the plants upon which it focuses and will reach a wide public audience because of its writing style. (Karen R. Adams New Mexico Historical Review )

Review

With a light hand, William Dunmire traces the fascinating journeys of plants--from the gardens of the Alhambra, to the floating gardens of Xochimilco, to the sunken gardens of California's Mission San Luis Rey, and to all points in between. Deeply learned, with splendid maps, illustrations, and tables, this is an invaluable reference, but it is also a delight to read. (David Weber, Robert and Nancy Dedman Professor of History and Director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 395 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1St Edition edition (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292705646
• ISBN-13: 978-0292705647
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a married (wife, Vangie) career National Park Service Naturalist (Yosemite, Isle Royale, Yellowstone, etc.) who retired in 1985 as Supertintendent of Carsbad Caverns NP, became a biologist for The Nature Conservancy in New Mexico, and finally a full-time author. Co-authored books include "Wild Plants of the Pueblo Province" (1995), "Wild Plants and Native Peoples of the Four Corners" (1997), and "Mountain Wildflowers of the Southern Rockies" (2007). My principal book to date is "Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America" (University of Texas Press, 2004).

And now I'm completing the writing of both "New Mexico' Living Landscapes: For the Traveler" (Museum of New Mexico Press, March, 2012) and "New Mexico's Spanish Livestock Heritage" (University of New Mexico Press, fall, 2012). Two books in one year! How's that for an 81-year old?

Oh, yes - in college (U.C. Berkeley) I was an active rock climber and mountaineer, and in 1954 was a member of America's first climbing expedition to the Himalayas when eight of us attempted (but ultimately failed) to climb Makalu - at 27,790', the world's fourth highest summit.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where does your food come from?, December 5, 2004

By 

Carolyn M. Lang - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America (Paperback)

Ever wonder where the tomato you are eating or the lemon you are squeezing really came from? This book has the definitive answers in an easy to read and enlightening format. It is for foodies and gardeners everywhere but focuses on foods that are central to the Mediterranean diet. Cherries, peaches, squash, coffee and chocolate all feature prominently in this food guide. It is a stomach's point of view of the Spanish colonization of the Americas with plenty of information about the natives and the foods that they were meeting. Gardeners will love the detailed descriptions of native gardening and irrigation techniques from the elaborate Aztec chinampas or floating gardens to Hohokam irrigation techniques.

My favorite part is the description of Spanish and Aztec feasts during the mid-16th century. The viceroy's banquet, "Course after course featured an abundance of meats: roasted goat kids, baked hams, and chickens along with native rabbits and venison, doves, and quail (but no turkeys). Heads of hogs, calves, and deer paraded in grand presentation featuring a musical accompaniment with trumpets, wind instruments, guitars and dulcimers...Contrast this repast to the Aztec feast...That one too, highlighted meat courses, but the Aztec selection seems much lighter, almost dainty: lobsters, sardines, frogs, tadpoles, salamanders, small birds, turkeys, winged ants, and locusts (to say nothing of the sauced gophers)."

If you access history through your stomach or are interested in how native Americans in the desert Southwest managed to water their gardens; you will really enjoy this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is so delicious - you cant' buy just one!, January 21, 2005

By 

Dava Davy McGahee (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America (Paperback)

William W. Dunmire's book just published in October of 2004, Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America, was much anticipated in the field of public history. Dunmire worked in the field of interpretation (writing and exhibiting scholarly data in an entertaining and educational format for the public) in various park sites and administrative positions for the National Park Service for over thirty years. He now teaches at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. This stimulating work was supported and promoted by such noted historians in the specialty area of New Spain as Dr. Felix Almaraz, Dr. Rosalind Rock, and Dr. James Ivy. UTSA historian and Associate Professor, Dr. Kolleen M. Guy, used this work "hot off the press" for her fall 04 graduate seminar in Food and Drink and reported that,

"This book is generally being well received by scholars of Latin American history and borderlands studies. The book definitely opens up new areas of research. I think that we should take public historians and the work that they do quite seriously." (personal e-mail reference)

Dunmire argued that it was "one agricultural society colliding with another (Spanish and native inhabitants) over the last 350 years that forever reshaped the land and the people of America." He restated this argument in other ways: "the proliferation of Old World Foods...ushering in the grandest blending in history of international cuisines," "...the illustrious plant way from Spain had provided the grandest migration of plants, agriculture, and foodstuff in all of human history, and "the one-time clash of cultures has softened into a blend of people and ideas...."

His approach and argument was one of the so-called new methods of historiography, a different perspective, a definite departure from: the Boltonians standpoint developed in the 1915s, Carlos Castenada's Catholic view of the 1930s and 40s, and Habig's and Weddle's positive Catholic, pro-Spanish emphasis in the 1960s. Surprisingly, Dunmire blended the colorful and narrative details of Bancroft's collection and concept of destiny with a naturalist's passion for relating interactions between men, plants, and animals. His emphasis on foods crisscrossing the globe and the motives and technology associated with food's global influence and production gave this book a unique flavor (no pun intended). Weber, Chipman (who Dunmire greatly credits for his support and input on this work), and Dunmire all agree that the reader should look at New World events from all the players' points of view. Here is a yummy, 360 degree perspective that is fascinating to ingest. The tables, maps, and illustrations are one of a kind, accurate, and easy to absorb. This is a book you'll want to have in your kitchen and in your scholarly library!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but weak in areas, March 18, 2009

By 

ronemtz "ronemtz" (Northern, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America (Paperback)

The quality of the writing is good to very good. My two concerns include some of the logical extensions and assumptions as well as some limitations on take away items of value.

Example 1: Moving from San Gabriel to form Santa Fe is unfounded. From an agronomic perspective, no one would ever do it. In 30-miles you leave warmer area (10*) and you leave the largest river and fertile riparian basin in the state just to move to the rocky foothills with limited water?

Example 2: Technical specs for plants are limited. There is no reference to plants ability to survive frosts, cold-winters, no reference to elevation.

While the book is a good travelogue through history on the theme of crops it stops somewhat short of offering golden nuggets for new crops to try.

The book is worth the cost but I wanted more. More on Fruit Tree crops, Cash crops, crop uses as food items.