Las gentes canarias en la crónica portuguesa del siglo XV de Gomes Eanes de Zurara

Resum

The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea by Gomes Eanes de Zurara (1452-1453) is part of the range of chronicles produced by the Portuguese expansion in the Atlantic. It has also been a fundamental historical source for the Canary Islands context. The Portuguese presence since the beginning of the 15th century, particularly on the island of La Gomera and linked to the slavery business, allows us to take this source (even though the author was not a direct witness) as an example of the colonial discourse represented in the testimonies that the Portuguese expressed to define the men and women of the Canary Islands, that is, their conception of the pagan other. We propose a gender perspective to the analysis of the text because it helps us to understand how a society was observed and judged, whose difference based on sex could be radically different from that of late medieval and modern European Christianity. Zurara’s words referring to the breastfeeding practices of Canarian mothers, to nudity as a symbol of sin, to sexuality and to the marriage system are a representation of this fact.