Alonso Gregorio de Escobedo, a Franciscan hailing from Andalucía, arrived in St. Augustine on October 7, 1587. Little is known about his life, except for what he included in his epic poem “La Florida.” Penned sometime between 1598 and 1615, this massive composite work was modeled after the metrically elegant style of the octava real, the preferred poetic structure in Spanish letters at his time. Written as a poem, rather than a historical document, “La Florida” is read today for its anthropologically significant information, such as the description of Indian fishing practices found in Canto 27. The complete manuscript, housed in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, was published as a 1993 dissertation by Alexandra Elizabeth Sununu, and has appeared piecemeal in English, but has never been fully or adequately translated.

In its entirety, the poem covers multiple themes including but not limited to the life of a model Christian named San Diego de Alcala, the Guale Rebellion, the experiences of the first Spaniards to travel to the Western Hemisphere, and pláticas (or sermons) with Biblical topics. Selections on this site include the Cantos describing the priest’s experiences in Florida — from his arrival off the coast, to interactions with Native people, the supposed conversion of one hundred souls. This poem is verse-history, not an ethnographic or liturgical source. Although sometimes mined for ethnographic insight, Escobedo’s prejudices were strong even for his own day. Readers should approach these lines as inherently biased.

Edited by Mikaela Perron, University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Editorial Note: The stanzas included on this site are draft translations, which Thomas Hallock prepared for a volume now in print, The Epic of Florida (cited below). These translations are offered below as a starting point for future students and scholars, in the hopes that they may improve upon otherwise unused research.

Further Reading

Covington, James W. (ed.). Pirates, Indians and Spaniards: Father Escobedo’s La Florida. St. Petersburg, FL: Great Outdoors, 1963. Print.

Escobedo, Alonso Gregorio De. La Florida. Ed. Alexandra Elizabeth Sununu. New York: Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Espanola, 2015.

Hallock, Thomas (ed.) The Epic of Florida: Selected Poems by Juan de Castellanos, Bartolomé de Flores, and Alonso Gregorio de Escobedo. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2026.

Owre, J. Riis. “Alonso De Escobedo and “La Florida”” Hispania 47.2 (1964). 242-50. Print.

Sununu, Alexandra Elizabeth. Estudio Y Edición Anotada De “La Florida”: De Alonso Gregorio De Escobedo O.F.M. Diss. City University of New York, 1993. Print.