CBR18 Bingo: Steal – This book tells the story of the arrival of the first conquistadors in the New World, and the start of their wanton rampaging and theft of land and gold from the people who already live there.
Anacaona, the niece of one of the five chiefs of Hispaniola, is busy preparing to one day succeed her uncle and considering marriage with another chief. But when she begins to get strange premonitions of danger, and strange white men appear on their shores, she must figure out how to keep her people safe.
I loved reading The Royal Diaries series when I was a kid, devouring every one which my local and school libraries had a copy of. The premise of the series is that each book is the fictional diary of real historical royal women from across the world, including Queen Elizabeth I, Cleopatra, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. This particular book is new to me, though. Though I am no longer nine years old, I was still engrossed in Anacaona’s story.
Dandicat does a good job of portraying both Anacaona’s life before and after the arrival of the conquistadors. For most of the book, her life follows the patterns of her ancestors – we learn about daily life in the village, their myths, their healing practices, their political system, and so on. Later in the book, once the conquistadors arrive, we see the damage they do to the people of Hispaniola, and the efforts that the Taino make to combat them.
The book does take a little while to get going. I also wished we learned more about what duties Anacaona fulfilled as the wife of Caonabo, as it’s rendered in much less detail than the training she underwent with her uncle when she was in contention to be his successor.
Still, overall I am glad to have read this book. Though you know that Anacaona’s life will not have a good ending, the diary does end on a high point, with Anacaona noting that she wants the story of the Taino to be recorded as more than that of the suffering they faced at the hands of the conquistadors. This book does an admirable job of that.
