The Dark Allure of Evil: Why Literature and Art Mythologize Monsters Like La Quintrala

 

                            A Dragon                                     

The Dark Allure of Evil: Why Literature and Art Mythologize Monsters Like La Quintrala

La Quintrala is one of Chile’s darkest historical figures—a colonial aristocrat infamous for cruelty, torture, and the mass killing of Indigenous people. Yet despite her atrocities, her name has transcended mere infamy. She has become a legend, a mythologized monster, her story fostered by academics, celebrated in art, dramatized on stage, and turned into a cultural icon.

Why do we turn figures of pure evil into enduring myths? Why does human culture repeatedly crown monsters as legends, polishing brutality into something almost admirable?

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The Myth of La Quintrala: From Atrocity to Cultural Icon

History often tells us that evil fades with time, that the memory of atrocity eventually dissolves into silence. La Quintrala proves otherwise. Her cruelty was extreme, her crimes well-documented, her reign of terror feared in colonial Chile. Yet centuries later, the name La Quintrala carries not only horror but fascination.

Books, plays, paintings, and even scholarly works have contributed to this transformation. They have fostered the legend, shaping her image into something larger than life, turning real suffering into dark spectacle. This is more than storytelling—it is the mythologizing of evil.

This transformation is not unique to La Quintrala. History and fiction repeatedly reshape brutality into legend. Vlad the Impaler, a 15th‑century ruler infamous for mass killings and terror, was reborn centuries later as Dracula—a dark, fascinating myth admired across literature and cinema. Evil once feared becomes a spectacle, a story polished by time and culture until its horror seems almost admirable.

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Why Do We Mythologize Monsters?

Humanity has always lived in tension between two forces:

• The Apollonian, pursuing beauty, altruism, reason, the sublime ideals that lead us to build cathedrals and chase higher truths.

• The Dionysian, driven by primal instincts, the fascination with power, domination, and survival at any cost.

Perhaps this explains why society is repeatedly drawn to figures like La Quintrala. The reptilian core within us admires power even when it is violent, even when it destroys. By elevating evil to legend, we flirt with its raw force, taming it into a story, pretending that atrocity can be transformed into greatness if only it is grand enough.

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The Role of Academics and Art in Glorifying Atrocity

We expect intellect and culture to resist brutality, to name evil for what it is. Yet too often, academics foster myths, layering atrocities with interpretation until they seem complex, tragic, even admirable. Art paints monsters in shades of fascination, literature grants them tragic depth, and history reshapes them into myths that overshadow their victims.

This is not neutral analysis—it is value inversion. Across centuries, we have witnessed virtue vilified, atrocity exalted, truth distorted, lies enthroned as noble tales. La Quintrala’s legend is one of these uncomfortable cases, where atrocity has been given a crown and turned into an intellectual spectacle.

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Do Sexual Instincts Feed the Mythologizing of Evil?

Sexual identity is one of the most precious and intimate dimensions of our being. It is woven into the earliest threads of who we are—our connection to our parents, our childhood experiences, the way we unfold emotions, perceive beauty, and communicate with others. Sexual expression surrounds us everywhere: in the rhythms of nature, in the human body, even in the cosmic movements of planets. It is a vital force, shaping how we relate to the world and to ourselves.

Yet, this instinct, powerful and essential, also touches the most primal and irrational layers of our brain. It can blur boundaries between admiration, fear, and fascination. In the dark mythology of figures like La Quintrala, there is often a distorted erotic undertone—a mix of power, dominance, and perversion that intrigues even as it horrifies.

We must therefore ask: from the psychology of pleasure, how is personality shaped, and to what end? If desire and fascination can be twisted to admire cruelty, does our deepest instinct sometimes conspire with our darkest impulses, feeding the myth of monsters rather than rejecting it?

The case of the Marquis de Sade illustrates this unsettling fusion of pleasure, power, and amorality. His writings, born of unrestrained desire and cruelty devoid of empathy, transformed private perversion into public spectacle. Today, his name evokes not only depravity but intellectual fascination, as if relentless immorality could be elevated to radical thought. When sexual instincts escape moral grounding, they can feed a darker myth-making—turning transgression itself into an object of admiration.

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Who Are We, Really?

The story of La Quintrala raises a question beyond Chilean history:

Are we rational beings seeking light, truth, and beauty—or merely programs of flesh, coded to admire power, even when it manifests as cruelty?

Every time we mythologize monsters, every time we crown brutality as legend, we reveal something unsettling about ourselves: that part of the human spirit not only condemns evil—it envies it.

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A Final Reflection

La Quintrala’s name should not rest on a pedestal beside genuine legends of courage or virtue. Her legacy is not heroic, not tragic, not misunderstood—it is a chronicle of domination and death.

And yet, speaking of heroes and anti-heroes, leaders and villains, history offers darker possibilities still. Think of the monstrous figures who scarred the recent history of Germany, whose actions unleashed terror on a scale humanity still struggles to comprehend.

Will the same fate await them in a few centuries?

Will the dragon of that era—the tyrant, the mythomaniac murderer—one day be mythologized, glorified, applauded, and validated by literature, academia, and the arts, just as La Quintrala has been?

What a terrifying question. And yet, the precedent exists. Every time we mythologize evil, every time we turn brutality into legend, we lay the groundwork for tomorrow’s monsters to be crowned, not condemned.

It is a haunting, almost a philosophical puzzle to wonder whether the ravens will always circle above our heads, waiting for the next monster we choose to enthrone as a legend. All of this evokes Goya’s dark covens, that haunting truth that “the sleep of reason produces monsters”—and so many other images and ideas that it would take a book of books to contain them all.

Disclaimer: This article does not seek to position the author within any ideology, but rather to explore why evil continues to fascinate us—from historical figures like La Quintrala to the darkest mythologies of the 20th century—which may potentially resurface, in due time or even on a millennial scale, through the power of narrative and literary imagination.

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© 2025 Daniel Piedrabuena Ruiz‑Tagle. All rights reserved.  

This work is registered in Safe Creative with the code: 2508032684697.  

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).  

You are free to share this article with proper attribution, without commercial use and without modifications.  

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Donation to the National Library of Spain

 

In December 2018, I made a donation of two monographs to the National Library of Spain.: 

1) El conquistador alemán Pedro Lísperguer Wittemberg: de cortesano de Carlos V y Felipe II a célebre precursor de Chile

2) Los Lísperguer Wittemberg; una familia alemana en el corazón de la cultura chilena: identidad y esplendor de la primera familia colonial de Chile

Both works underwent a selection process in which, out of hundreds of submissions, 383 were chosen. To explain this selection, I received a detailed legal procedure signed by the Director of the National Library of Spain, Ms. Ana Santos Aramburo. Accordingly, the Permanent Commission of the Royal Board of Trustees of the National Library of Spain, in a telematic meeting held on December 3, 2018, judged these cultural assets to be “of the highest esteem to be integrated into the State collections,” and proposed the acceptance of this donation.

Subsequently, the donation was officially accepted by Order of the Ministry of Culture and Sport dated December 18, 2018. This Ministerial Order was signed by the Minister of Culture and Sport, Mr. José Guirao Cabrera. Likewise, the Appraisal Committee of the Board of Qualification, Valuation, and Export in a meeting on December 18, 2018, evaluated the donated assets and guaranteed “the sufficiency of quality of the donated assets.” Finally, Ms. Lourdes San Juan Núñez, member of the Donation and Exchange Service of the National Library of Spain, expressed her gratitude in a letter dated March 28, 2019, thanking me for “the interest and generosity in contributing to the enrichment of the bibliographic and documentary heritage preserved by the N.L.S.”

The Royal Board of Trustees of the National Library of Spain is a complex body composed of many prominent figures, including Mr. Mario Vargas Llosa. Regarding the Permanent Commission of this Royal Board (which decided on the acceptance of the donated assets), it comprises the following members:

• Ms. Soledad Puértolas Villanueva, Academic of the Royal Spanish Academy, President of the Royal Board of Trustees of the National Library of Spain.

• Mr. Pedro López Jiménez, Advisor of Grupo ACS, Vice President of the Royal Board of Trustees of the National Library of Spain.

• Mr. Javier García Fernández, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, Ex officio member of the Permanent Commission.

• Ms. Olvido García Valdez, General Director of Books and Promotion of Reading, Ex officio member of the Permanent Commission.

• Ms. Ana Santos Aramburo, General Director of the National Library of Spain, Ex officio member of the Permanent Commission.

• Ms. Aurora Egido Martínez, Academic and Secretary of the Royal Spanish Academy, appointed member.

• Ms. Inés Fernández-Ordóñez Hernández, Academic of the Royal Spanish Academy, appointed member.

• Ms. Carmen Riera i Guillera, Academic of the Royal Spanish Academy, appointed member.

Lastly, whether by donation or purchase by interested institutions (most often), these works have been integrated into the collections of the National Library of Chile, University of Chile, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Royal Chilean Academy of History, Chilean Institute of Genealogical Research, Library of the National Congress of Chile (in its Rare and Valuable Section), Emilio Held Archive, National Library of Spain, Royal Academy of History, Hispanic Library, National Library of Germany, Public Scientific Library of Mainz, Bavarian State Library, University of Texas Library, Ohio University Library, Stanford University Library, Harvard University Library, Yale University Library, British Library, Library of Congress, among other prestigious institutions.

La Quintrala and the Lisperger-Wittemberg Legacy: Reconstructing History from Spain’s Archives

 

Historical writing often repeats the same narratives, relying on secondary sources that pass errors and myths from one author to the next. True history, however, is not written second-hand—it emerges from silence, from dusty archives, from handwritten pages that have waited centuries to speak again. My research on the Lisperger-Wittemberg lineage is built on this principle: return to the origins, work directly with primary sources, and let the past tell its own story.

Why true history begins in the archives

Secondary accounts can offer context, but they are often derivative, missing the nuances only first-hand testimony can provide. Original documents—legal records, letters, notarial protocols, ecclesiastical files, and manuscripts—preserve the voices of real people who shaped history. Building on these foundations means reconstructing events as faithfully as possible, free from layers of speculation or legend.

Academic historians consistently value research grounded in primary sources above all others. Only original documents can reveal the hidden truth of the past, a truth often obscured by later writers who reshaped events through interpretation or literary embellishment. This is why my research on the Lisperger-Wittemberg lineage allows us to revisit and, in many ways, rewrite the mythologized history of La Quintrala, separating documented reality from centuries of literary distortion.

Digging deep: Spain’s national and regional repositories

My research has taken me to some of the most important archives in Spain:

• Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid), consulting rare books and manuscripts related to the Lisperger-Wittemberg family.

• Archivo Histórico Nacional, where unpublished records offer a direct glimpse into the legal and political networks of the 16th century.

• Archivo General de Indias (Seville), a fundamental source for tracing connections with the Americas and early colonial networks.

• Archivo General de Simancas, preserving royal administration records that reveal political dynamics of the Spanish Empire.

• Military and naval archives, shedding light on the broader imperial context in which this German courtier operated.

• Ecclesiastical archives, where personal, religious, and social aspects of this lineage appear in unexpected ways.

• Provincial, municipal archives and the Real Chancillería, revealing local details often overlooked in grand narratives.

• Real Academia de la Historia, which houses critical scholarly collections and original documents essential for tracing this German-Spanish connection.

• Archivo y Biblioteca del Palacio Real (Madrid), with manuscripts tied to royal administration and the courtly environment where Lisperger moved.

• Archivo de la Casa de Pilatos (Seville), offering unique insights into aristocratic networks and their interactions with foreign courtiers in Spain.

• Fundación Görres (Madrid), where I personally consulted materials connecting German figures to the Spanish imperial court, enriching the Lisperger-Wittemberg research with unique Germanic sources preserved in Spain.

While the greatest value lies in these original documents, Madrid also holds a powerful Hispano-American bibliographic collection, especially in the Biblioteca Hispánica of the AECID, where essential printed works from both sides of the Atlantic help complement and contextualize the archival findings.

This research is not about copying citations—it is about reading the original handwriting of history and building on a strong, carefully curated literary foundation.

The Lisperger-Wittemberg legacy through unpublished documents

The Lisperger-Wittemberg story embodies a fascinating European-Spanish connection: a German courtier navigating the circles of Charles V and Philip II, weaving ties that would later extend toward the Americas. These connections are often mentioned in passing, but by revisiting the original documents, a clearer and more human portrait emerges. My work seeks to reconstruct this path faithfully, adding depth where traditional accounts remain superficial.

International collaboration: Germany, Peru, Chile, and the U.S.

Although my direct archival work has been concentrated in Spain, this research also bridges continents. Through correspondence with institutions in Germany, Chile, and the Biblioteca Nacional del Perú, I obtained crucial materials that complement the Spanish documentation. Additionally, I conducted epistolary research with the Benson Collection (University of Texas, U.S.), requesting primary documents relevant to the Spanish imperial presence and family correspondences. These partnerships highlight the transnational nature of the Lisperger-Wittemberg legacy—a network of empire, migration, and memory spanning Europe and the Americas.

Reconstructing history with authentic evidence

Transforming archival findings into a coherent narrative is both a challenge and a responsibility. Primary sources are not tidy; they are fragmented, sometimes contradictory, but they are authentic. They allow history to be rebuilt on solid foundations, not speculation. This is what makes archival research not only valuable but essential: it gives readers and scholars alike a history they can trust, grounded in evidence rather than repetition.

The Lisperger-Wittemberg project is part of that effort—to let forgotten voices speak, to connect documents scattered across time and place, and to build history that truly reflects the complexity of the past.

The Hidden German Bloodline Behind Chile’s Most Infamous Woman: Untold Secrets of La Quintrala and the Lisperguer Dynasty

 

The Untold German Bloodline That Forged Chile’s Most Infamous Woman: La Quintrala and the Lisperguer Dynasty

For centuries, Chilean history has been haunted by a name whispered with both fear and fascination: La Quintrala. Behind this legendary figure lies the powerful Lisperguer-Wittemberg dynasty, a German family that crossed oceans under the protection of Emperor Charles V, reshaping the destiny of colonial Chile and Peru in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Now, after fifteen years of groundbreaking archival research in Spain, Germany, and South America, historian Daniel Piedrabuena unveils the hidden European roots of the Lisperguer family, unraveling myths that have persisted for nearly five centuries.

From Worms to Brussels, Seville to London, follow the incredible journey of Pedro Lisperguer, a young German noble favored by the Emperor himself (“Notwithstanding that he is German, any law to the contrary shall not apply”), who sailed to the New World and founded one of the most influential colonial dynasties of South America.

This exclusive research explores:

• Newly discovered documents that rewrite the origin story of the Lisperguers.

• The imperial networks that paved their way to power in Chile and Peru.

• The rise of La Quintrala, a woman both feared and mythologized, often called the Chilean Don Quixote, whose legend has inspired novels, plays, films, and countless academic debates worldwide.

• The fusion of German nobility, Spanish conquest, mestizaje, and power struggles that shaped an unforgettable colonial legacy.

According to Chilean tradition, Pedro Lísperguer, forefather of La Quintrala and patriarch of the Lisperguer dynasty, was a descendant of the Duke of Saxony—an assertion that scientific research has neither confirmed nor completely disproven. Although the claim is fragile, what is verifiable is that he was the son of Peter Lisperg, a prominent figure in Worms, Stadtmeister of the city, and one of the most notable signatories of the Peace of Augsburg. The German courtier shared a total of six months with Emperor Charles V, both in Worms and during his travels through southern Germany and the Low Countries. He subsequently spent a decade in Spain under the protection of the powerful House of Feria, before departing for England to attend the wedding of Philip of Spain and Mary Tudor on 25 July 1554, held at Winchester Cathedral.

After spending seven months on the island, he returned to Spain and eventually sailed with Viceroy Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza to the New World. Once in Lima, he entered into the service of the viceroy. All of this helped forge his prestige and his legendary aura in a world where nobility meant everything—a brilliance of unparalleled intensity, born of an intrepid man who had spent years in close company with the most eminent figures of the Spanish Empire.

What is unusual—or at the very least rare in the 16th century—is how Pedro Lísperguer, allegedly descended from high nobility in Germany, after fighting with boldness in the Arauco Wars, eventually settled in Santiago, where he married Águeda Flores, the daughter of his compatriot Bartolomé Blumenthal and the Indigenous woman Elvira de Talagante. From this unlikely and symbolic union was born Catalina de los Ríos y Lisperguer, and from her descended the infamous La Quintrala, Pedro’s granddaughter—who would go on to inherit not only the family's imperial prestige and power, but also all the complexities and intricacies of being the daughter of a mestiza. From her European lineage, she inherited the social abilities of the noble class; from her mother, according to contemporary chroniclers, she possessed psychological—and at times esoteric—skills, qualities that allowed her to impose herself in both worlds—the aristocratic and the Indigenous—with a mastery that many contemporaries described as both fascinating and unsettling.

Packed with untold secrets, political intrigue, and human drama, this research transforms what we thought we knew about Chile’s colonial past and the family that became a social phenomenon, a myth, and an enduring obsession in Latin American history.

For further detail on the European origins of the Lisperguer family and their imperial connections, readers are encouraged to consult Daniel Piedrabuena’s Lisperguer volumes—the result of over fifteen years of rigorous archival research, primarily conducted in Spain, with valuable documentary contributions from Germany and Latin America, focusing on the overlooked continental trajectory of a dynasty that left a deep imprint on the Spanish Empire before crossing into the New World.

Author’s Note: This text is derived from ongoing research by the author, based on previously registered and published studies on the Lisperguer-Wittemberg lineage. Not intended for commercial use without permission.

Quotations and references are permitted with proper attribution.

© Daniel Piedrabuena Ruiz‑Tagle, 2025. All rights reserved.

Spanish Conquest: The Legendary German Conquistador

The Spanish conquest of the Americas was not solely a Spanish enterprise. Among its key figures was Pedro Lisperguer Wittemberg, a German-born conquistador who left a lasting mark on colonial Chile and Peru. His life story blends European diplomacy, imperial privilege, and personal ambition, making him one of the most fascinating foreign adventurers in the service of the Spanish Crown.

Granted lands and titles by Emperor Charles V, Pedro Lisperguer crossed the Atlantic to the New World under special imperial protection, free from German embargoes or restrictive clauses that often limited other adventurers. His lineage intertwined with noble Spanish families, forging alliances that connected Europe’s aristocracy to the colonial elite of South America.

From this powerful family emerged the legendary La Quintrala, one of Chile’s most controversial and mythologized women, inspiring centuries of research, novels, plays, documentaries, and academic studies. Through her, the Lisperguer legacy became a cultural phenomenon, symbolizing the collision of nobility and brutality, religion and paganism, ambition and altruism during the turbulent colonial era.

In service to Emperor Charles V, Pedro Lisperguer crossed the Atlantic to the New World under special imperial prerogatives, enjoying privileges that exempted him from German embargoes or restrictive clauses often imposed on other adventurers. His position and reputation earned him significant recognition in the Viceroyalty of Peru, where his lineage intertwined with noble Spanish families, forging alliances that connected Europe’s aristocracy to the colonial elite of South America.

By the 16th and 17th centuries, the Lisperguer family had become one of the most influential dynasties in Chile and Peru, holding multiple noble titles and playing a pivotal role in the region's political, social, and economic development. Their story is not just a chapter of conquest but a bridge connecting German heritage and Spanish imperial ambition, leaving a complex and enduring legacy in Latin American history.

Unveiling Forgotten Ties: The Franz Joseph Order, Carlos Boríes, and Austro-Hungarian Diplomacy in Chile (1898–1904)

 

Rare Monograph on Austro-Hungarian Diplomacy and Chile (1898–1904)

As a lawyer and historical researcher, I have carried out extensive archival work in the National Library of Spain, as well as in numerous archives and libraries across Europe and the Americas. Over the years, I have authored several historical works now held in prestigious academic and national collections on both continents.

My research focuses on Chile’s connections with Europe and the broader Atlantic world. In this line, I have recently published a concise yet meaningful monograph:

Concesión de la Cruz de la Orden de Franz Josef a Carlos Boríes, Gobernador de Magallanes (1898–1904)

Though only 48 pages long, this book sheds light on a rarely documented episode of early 20th‑century diplomacy between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Chile. This full-color edition includes portraits of the main historical figures, facsimiles of original documents, and a detailed explanation of:

• The significance and protocol of the Franz Joseph Order,

• The reasons behind its prestigious concession,

• The ceremonial act of certification and the awarding of the medal,

• And its place within the broader diplomatic currents of the time.

Beyond diplomacy, the book also highlights Governor Carlos Boríes' role in fostering German and Austro-Hungarian immigration in the Magallanes region. He not only protected these communities but also founded schools, libraries, hospitals, and German cultural institutions that profoundly shaped the region’s development.

The research draws on evidence from contemporary national publications and original documents retrieved from the Imperial Archives in Vienna. Despite its limited print run, this work is already held by institutions such as the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin, the Austrian National Library in Vienna, the Hispanic Library of Madrid, and Harvard University, which recently confirmed its acquisition. The Library of Congress (USA) has also confirmed the inclusion of my previous works in its distinguished collection.

With this publication, my aim is to rescue a forgotten yet significant chapter of Chilean-European diplomacy, adding new insights into the historical links that connected Chile with Central Europe at the dawn of the 20th century.

Reseñas sobre la investigación de la familia Lisperguer

En su idioma original:

Cristián Le Blanc (cinco estrellas). Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2021

Expreso mi admiración por el profundo trabajo realizado por don Daniel Piedrabuena Ruiz-Tagle en sus dos magnificas obras que he tenido la oportunidad de leer “ Los Lisperguer Wittemberg una Familia Alemana en el Corazón de la Cultura Chilena: identidad y esplendor de la primera familia colonial de Chile” como también su otro libro “El Conquistador Alemán Pedro Lisperguer Wittemberg: de cortesano de Carlos V y Felipe II a célebre precursor de Chile".

Gracias a estas dos eruditas obras, es que por primera vez tenemos la oportunidad de conocer en profundidad la verdadera historia de esta destacada familia llegada a Chile con don Pedro el Conquistador. Don Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna no logro esclarecer aspectos de los cuales el autor trae a luz con erudición. La información que el autor expone es el resultado de una larga investigaciones y compilación de antecedentes históricos de primera fuente, los que expone en sus obras en forma amena y claridad pero a la vez minuciosa y detallada. Con su esfuerzo viene a esclarecer diversos aspectos de la familia Lisperguer en relación a sus vidas, orígenes y desarrollo en Alemania, posteriormente en España y en Chile.

Eugenio Ovalle (cinco estrellas). Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2021

Great book of a family that leaves their own country and establishes themselves in another with all the issues they encounter, which happens to many families that have done so for may centuries when the leave there home country and try to established a foreign country.

Garcia Thierry. ( cinco estrellas). Reviewed in France on November 18, 2023

Historiquement intéressant et bien écrit , beaucoup de détails, une référence dans l’histoire de cette famille pendant des siècles.

In English:

Cristián Le Blanc (five stars). Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2021

I wish to express my admiration for the profound work carried out by Mr. Daniel Piedrabuena Ruiz-Tagle in his two outstanding books, which I have had the opportunity to read: Los Lisperguer Wittemberg: una familia alemana en el corazón de la cultura chilena – identidad y esplendor de la primera familia colonial de Chile, as well as his other work, El conquistador alemán Pedro Lisperguer Wittemberg: de cortesano de Carlos V y Felipe II a célebre precursor de Chile.

Thanks to these two scholarly works, we now have, for the first time, the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge of the true history of this prominent family that arrived in Chile with Don Pedro the Conquistador. Even Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna was unable to clarify certain aspects that the author now brings to light with great erudition. The information presented is the result of extensive research and the compilation of first-hand historical sources, which the author conveys in a clear and engaging style, while maintaining thoroughness and detail. Through his efforts, Mr. Piedrabuena Ruiz-Tagle has illuminated various aspects of the Lisperguer family—tracing their lives, origins, and development in Germany, later in Spain, and finally in Chile.

Eugenio Ovalle (five stars). Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2021

Great book of a family that leaves their own country and establishes themselves in another with all the issues they encounter, which happens to many families that have done so for may centuries when the leave there home country and try to established a foreign country.

Garcia Thierry. (five stars). Reviewed in France on November 18, 2023

Historically interesting and well-written, with plenty of detail — a reference point in the history of this family over the centuries.

Otras reseñas: 

"El enjundioso ejemplar, la magna obra, el sincero y apasionado cariño de su autor por sus raíces es el amor que le impulsó a construir su obra hispanoamericana y europea... los elegidos en la historia de sí mismos". Dr. Isidoro Vázquez de Acuña, Secretario de la Academia Chilena de al Historia. Revista de Estudios Históricos. Sociedad Chilena de Historia y Geografía. 

"El autor nos coloca ante una temática que para los chilenos reviste una clara importancia histórica. Baste recordar que de la familia Lísperguer desciende ese personaje que forma parte de al memoria  legendaria y colectiva de Chile, la Quintrala". Reynaldo Lacámara, ex presidente de la Sociedad de Escritores de Chile (SECH). La memoria como origen y tarea. 

"Es sin duda una obra que trasciende el mero valor documental (cosa no menor) y se sitúa en el corazón de muchos tópicos chilenos que pueden rastrearse hasta hoy en nuestra sociedad. La historia de la familia Lísperguer, haciendo hincapié en su facultad para la integración en nuevos escenarios y en el despliegue de una notable capacidad para el ascenso social, pone de manifiesto su condición policultural y su impronta híbrida, lo que muy bien puede leerse como una metáfora mayor de estos 200 años en que Chile se desarrolló como nación. El trabajo del Sr. Piedrabuena es, sin dudas, notable: no sólo riguroso sino apasionado, una combinación poco frecuente en el ámbito de la historia donde pareciera que una cosa quitara la otra". Eleonora Finkelstein. Ril Editores.

"The substantial volume, the monumental work, the sincere and passionate affection of its author for his roots is the love that drove him to construct his Hispano-American and European work… the chosen ones in the history of themselves."

—Dr. Isidoro Vázquez de Acuña, Secretary of the Chilean Academy of History. Revista de Estudios Históricos, Chilean Society of History and Geography.

"The author brings us face to face with a theme that holds clear historical importance for Chileans. It is enough to recall that from the Lisperguer family descends that figure who forms part of Chile’s legendary and collective memory, La Quintrala."

—Reynaldo Lacámara, former president of the Chilean Writers' Society (SECH). Memory as Origin and Task.

"This is undoubtedly a work that transcends mere documentary value (which is no small thing) and is placed at the heart of many Chilean themes that can still be traced in our society today. The history of the Lisperguer family, emphasizing their ability to integrate into new settings and their remarkable capacity for social ascent, reveals their multicultural nature and hybrid imprint—something that can well be read as a larger metaphor for the 200 years during which Chile developed as a nation. Mr. Piedrabuena’s work is, without a doubt, remarkable: not only rigorous but also passionate, a combination rarely found in the field of history, where one often seems to exclude the other."

—Eleonora Finkelstein, Ril Editores.

Deutsche Wurzeln in der spanischen Aufklärung: Der Marquis von Valdeflores

Luis José Velázquez de Velasco, Marquis von Valdeflores (1722–1772).
Gemälde von Enrique Jaraba aus dem Jahr 1920. Es handelt sich um eine Lünette,
die an der Decke des Empfangssaals des Rathauses von Málaga angebracht ist, zu dessen Kunstsammlung das Werk gehört. 

 Luis José Velázquez de Velasco, Marquis von Valdeflores (1722–1772), war eine Schlüsselfigur der spanischen Aufklärung. Bereits in seiner Kindheit ein leidenschaftlicher Leser, studierte er später Jura, Philosophie und Scholastik und erlangte große Gelehrsamkeit. 1752 zog er nach Madrid, wo er in Kontakt mit Ignacio Luzán trat, der ihn in die Königliche Akademie für Geschichte einführte. Velázquez gehörte zu den jüngsten Gelehrten, die die Iberische Halbinsel bereisten, um antike Artefakte zu katalogisieren, und war einer der Ersten, die den Neoklassizismus in Spanien etablierten.

Heute gilt Valdeflores als Universalgelehrter: Historiker, Schriftsteller, Dichter, Latinist, Archäologe, Antiquar, Epigraphiker, Numismatiker und Mitglied mehrerer Akademien. Diese facettenreiche Persönlichkeit wurde von vielen Historikern erforscht, doch ein Aspekt blieb bisher weitgehend unbeachtet: seine deutsche Abstammung, die ein neues Licht auf seine Biographie wirft.

Väterlicherseits entstammte Velázquez einer angesehenen Familie Málagas und Andalusiens. Mütterlicherseits jedoch stammte er von der Familie Wittemberg ab, deutschen Kaufleuten, die sich im späten 17. Jahrhundert in Málaga niederließen. Sein Urgroßvater Johannes Wittemberg Dreyers kam 1667 im Alter von 14 Jahren aus Hamburg nach Málaga unter die Obhut des Hanseatischen Konsuls Rodrigo Elers. Bald gründete Johannes seine eigene Reederei und handelte im internationalen Güterverkehr. Er heiratete später María Arizón, Tochter irisch-spanischer Herkunft, womit die Linie Wittemberg-Cruzado-Velázquez begründet wurde, aus der Luis José, zweiter Marquis von Valdeflores, hervorging.

Die Verbindung zu den Wittembergs war nicht nur genealogisch. Sein Bruder Francisco heiratete eine weitere Wittemberg, wodurch eine der reichsten Familien Córdobas im 19. Jahrhundert entstand. Zudem pflegte Luis José engen Kontakt zu seinem Onkel Juan Joseph Wittemberg Aguilar, einem Geistlichen der Kathedrale von Málaga. Beide führten einen intensiven Briefwechsel über Philosophie, Naturwissenschaften und Fragen wie die Brechung von Lichtstrahlen.

Velázquez’ intellektuelles Werk fand internationale Beachtung, besonders nach der Veröffentlichung von Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana (1755), das auch in Leipzig rezipiert wurde. Die Übersetzung von Professor Johann Andreas Dieze (Göttingen, 1769) unter dem Titel Geschichte der Spanischen Dichtung verbreitete sein Werk in deutschen Gelehrtenkreisen. Später nutzte Emil Hübner von der Kaiserlichen Akademie in Berlin Velázquez’ epigraphische Sammlungen für Band II des Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum über Hispania. Hätten diese Kreise seine deutsche Herkunft gekannt, wäre das Interesse vermutlich noch größer gewesen.

Wer die Bedeutung der Familie Wittemberg in Málaga, ihre Handelsnetze und Allianzen im Detail verstehen möchte, findet weitere Einblicke in meinem Buch: Die Wittemberg Lisperguer: eine deutsche Familie im Herzen der chilenischen Kultur – Identität und Glanz der ersten Kolonialfamilie Chiles.

Um auf das bei Amazon erhältliche Buch zuzugreifen, klicken Sie hier:

Die Lísperguer Wittemberg: eine deutsche Familie im Herzen der chilenischen Kultur

Ich habe auch einen Artikel in der renommierten Zeitschrift Atenea veröffentlicht, den Sie unter folgendem Link lesen können:

Artikel in der Zeitschrift Atenea

Ich habe auch ein gut dokumentiertes Buch über die prä-amerikanische Zeit des berühmten deutschen Eroberers Pedro Lísperguer geschrieben. Um es zu kaufen, klicken Sie auf den folgenden Link:

Der Eroberer Pedro Lísperguer

        

Die in den genannten Büchern veröffentlichten Forschungsergebnisse befinden sich in den Bibliotheken von Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Universidad de Chile, Universidad Pontificia de Chile, der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, des Ibero-Amerikanischen Instituts Berlin, der Wissenschaftlichen Stadtbibliothek Mainz, der Spanischen Nationalbibliothek, der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek, der Nationalbibliothek Chile, der British Library, der Library of Congress und vielen anderen Orten. 

 

Vielen Dank

Daniel Piedrabuena Ruiz-Tagle

Franz Joseph-Orden: Verleihung an Gouverneur Carlos Bories in Magallanes (1898–1904)

 

Die Verleihung des Kreuzes des Franz-Josef-Ordens an Gouverneur Karl Bories in Magallanes (1898–1904) ist ein einzigartiges historisches Ereignis in den Beziehungen zwischen Österreich-Ungarn und Chile. Diese seltene Auszeichnung, persönlich vom Kaiser Franz Joseph I. verliehen, würdigte Bories' außergewöhnliche Arbeit als Gouverneur in einer abgelegenen Region Patagoniens.

Karl Bories verwandelte zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts ein unterentwickeltes Gebiet in eine dynamische und wohlhabende Region. Er initiierte öffentliche Bauarbeiten, verbesserte Straßen, verlegte Telefon- und Stromleitungen, modernisierte Städte, förderte Hygiene und Impfprogramme, errichtete Krankenhäuser und führte eine moderne Kanalisation ein. Darüber hinaus stärkte er Polizei, Postwesen, Bildung, Bibliotheken und den Seehandel durch neue Leuchttürme in der Magellanstraße.

Sein Einsatz für Einwanderung, Viehzucht und neue Industrien machte ihn zu einem Pionier der regionalen Entwicklung und festigte die diplomatischen Beziehungen zu Österreich-Ungarn – der Grund für seine Aufnahme in den angesehenen Franz-Josef-Orden. Neue Forschungen im Österreichischen Staatsarchiv beleuchten heute detaillierter diese historische Episode, die Chiles koloniale Vergangenheit mit dem Habsburgerreich verbindet.

Daniel Piedrabuena Ruiz-Tagle