For this episode of Campus Voices, Richard Gordon and Guillermina Gonzalez were joined by Ricardo Padrón, Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Virginia. In conjunction with the exhibition “Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia” on view at Winterthur Museum, the Latin American & Iberian Studies program organized a lecture series including Padrón’s lecture on “Remapping China: Escalante, Mendoza, and the Global Cartography of the Spanish Pacific.”
Padrón’s enthusiasm was contagious as he talked about cartography and the beginnings of globalization. The history of cartography is actually the history of some of the earliest trade between the far east, the Americas and Europe including silk, silver, and even chocolate! However, Padrón explained that the voyage to create these trade routes was not an easy feat and was riddled with hardships and fatality. He compared the conquistadors to gamblers in the sense that they took huge risk for huge reward. But it was these “gamblers” who brought about the some of the earliest cross-cultural communication and globalization.
The interview is conducted partly in English and partly in Spanish.
Guillermina Gonzalez, Executive Director of the Delaware Arts Alliance, led the Spanish portion of the interview, and translated the Spanish portion into English for Campus Voices.
She aired a Spanish language version of the interview on WVUD’s Latinisimo program on November 30.
Listen to the Interview
Ricardo Padrón, University of Virginia
29:59
57.5 MB
Learn More
- Visit Ricardo Padrón’s University of Virginia biography page to learn more about Ricardo and his work.
- Check out the Winterthur exhibition “Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia.”