The Discovery of New Mexico by the Franciscan Monk Friar Marcos De Niza in 1539

The story of Fray Marcos and the Seven Cities of Cíbola was a favorite of Adolph Bandelier (1840–1914). Bandelier’s combination of methodological sophistication and control of the archival data makes the Marcos de Niza paper important, not only as a landmark in Southwestern ethnohistory, but as a work of scholarship in its own rights, with insights on Cabeza de Vaca, Marcos, and early Southwestern exploration that are still valid today.

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Adolph F. Bandelier not only was an archaeologist, ethnologist, and historian, but he also was interested in botany, geology, geography, and zoology, and incorporated all these fields into his anthropological and historical studies. Bandelier also saw clearly the interrelation of the parts of culture, their relationship to the history of the region, and to the natural environment.

Madeleine Turrell Rodack's keen interest in the history of the Hispanic Southwest, together with her bilingual ability, has uniquely prepared her to translate and edit the work of Adolph Bandelier. She holds degrees from the Université de Paris and from the University of Washington. She obtained her Ph.D. in French and Spanish at the University of Arizona, where she made an extensive study of Antonin Artaud's visit to Mexico. This French actor-author's travels into remote Mexican lands led her to examine the Tarahumara Indians; their history and culture have since become one of her specialties. Always interested in tracing historic routes of famous explorers, she came upon the story of Fray Marcos de Niza while working on a translation of Bandelier's major work, the Histoire de la Colonisation et des Missions de Sonora, Chihuahua, Nouveau Mexique et Arizona jusqu'a l'annee 1700. A contributor to various southwestern historical journals, Dr. Rodack in 1975 became Assistant Ethnohistorian at the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona.