"My Own Private El Dorado" Gallery Talk with Kris Lane

The Latin American Library presents…

My Own Private El Dorado: The Strange History of a South American Legend

An Exhibition Gallery Talk by

Kris Lane

France V. Scholes Professor of Colonial Latin American History

Tuesday, March 26

3-4 p.m.

The Latin American Library Gallery

4th floor, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library

Few myths have had the staying power of El Dorado, the legendary gilded cacique thought to lord over a "lost" golden kingdom somewhere deep in the heart of South America.  What do we know of the sources of this legend?  Who spread it, what were the consequences, and how did its variations grow so wild and fantastic? Last, why did it prove so durable even with the advent of Enlightenment science and skepticism? Historical narratives and maps, many on display in The Latin American Library's superb exhibit Amazônia Ocupada, may be implicated.