Compendio de la historia de los Estados Unidos de America: Puesto en castellano. Al que se han añadido la Declaración de la independencia y la Constitución de su gobierno by [Pazos Kanki, Vicente] - 1825

Nueva York: Imprenta de Tomkins y Floyd, 1825.

First Edition. [4], iv, 293, [1], [2 contents], ad leaf plus a frontispiece of Jorge (George) Washington. 3-1/2 by 5-7/8 inches.
One of the first published books by an indigenous American. Pazos Kanki (1779-1853) was an Aymara, born in the highlands of what is now Bolivia. He obtained a doctorate in theology at the university in Cuzco, Peru; started a number of pro-independence newspapers in Buenos Aires; and by 1818 was living in political exile in Philadelphia, where he continued writing and publishing. For the rest of his life, he bounced back and forth across the Atlantic, between Europe and the United States, with no more than a couple brief stays in Latin America.
This book seems to have been first published in Spanish in Paris, where its authorship was attributed to "un Indio de al Ciudad de la Paz" (an Indian from La Paz). The New York edition is significant as an early example of Latino publishing and for its intended audience, Spanish readers in the United States and independence-minded Latin Americans. Part of Pazos Kanki's purpose in Compendio is to tell the joint history of the United States and its Latin American neighbors, who are connected by the early European explorers to the New World. He also describes the successful American independence movement and highlights those aspects of American politics and culture that made its experiment in self government a success. To this latter point, Pazos Kanki lists the moderation of the law and the freedom to think, speak, and work (p. 248).
Some copies, including this one, include a tipped-in leaf at the end from a Spanish-language bookshop in New York, a detail apparently not noted in the scholarship about this book or OCLC (see, for example, Lazo's Letters from Filadelfia). The ad begins, "This book can be found for sale at the house of Doctor Lanuza, no. 3 Varick Street, along with a great selection of the best antiquarian and modern Spanish books..." (translated from the Spanish). Cayetano Lanuza was an immigrant from Spain who translated many books into Spanish, patented a method of printing lined writing paper, and by 1827, began publishing Spanish-language books in New York under the Lanuza, Mendía & Cía. imprint. He may well have published this book, as the only other Spanish-language book published by Tompkins and Floyd was a biography of George Washington, translated by Lanuza.

Bound in contemporary calf gilt; outer joints cracked, some loss at the spine ends.