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Lopez, Barry. The Rediscovery of North America. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.

The Rediscovery of North America is a brief look at the founding our country by Christopher Columbus and the atrocities that followed the colonization of this land. Lopez seemed to focus on the untold history that went along with establishing a new source of revenue for Spain. In pointing out the abuse of indigenous people, Lopez illustrates his two main points:

1. The horrible manner in which the indigenous people were treated "set a tone in the Americas. The quest for personal possessions was to be, from the outset, a series of raids, irresponsible and criminal, a spree, in which an end to it- the slaves, the timber, the pearls, the fur, the precious ores, and later, arable land, coal, oil, and iron ore- was never visible, in which an end to it had no meaning." (9)
2. Despite the fact that our ancestors partook in these atrocities, "this violent corruption needn’t define us. Looking back on the Spanish incursion, we can take the measure of the horror and assert that we will not be bound by it." (11)

The rest of the book basically serves to justify his second point. He seems to lament the past and look to the future. In doing so, he speaks of "la querencia," drawn from the Spanish word which "refers to a place on the ground where one feels secure, a place from which one’s strength of character is drawn." (39) He then goes on to say "that our search for a querencia is both a response to threat and a desire to find out who we are. And the discovery of a querencia, I believe, hinges on the perfection of a sense of place." (40)

Commentary:

I found Lopez’s ideas on "la querencia" very helpful in supporting my thesis. [For this section, assume that I am writing a paper on the tendency of Appalachian people to discover their geographical place in the world, cling to it, and by their refusal to leave subsequently suffer from the effects of unemployment, poor education, lack of opportunity, etc.] The interesting aspect of Lopez’s argument is that he takes the opposite point of view that I take. He sees establishing a place and sticking to it as essential to forming a self-identity.

While this may be true, I see the establishment of a fixed place in society as a restraining feature of life that will actually prevent success by creating a false sense of security within our querencia while simultaneously alienating the outside world making it seem hostile and forbidding. If we are only comfortable within our cocoon, we will never push outward to discover what opportunities exist outside of our small, self-created habitat.