One of the first travel journals of its kind to be published, this epic poem about Juan de Oñate's entrada that led to the founding of Nueva México in 1598 (to become the state of New Mexico 314 years later) is full of the hopes and dreams of those who traveled with Oñate. Historia de la Nueva México, 1610 was written fourteen years before John Smith's History of Virginia. Its thirty-four cantos have long been considered a key source for early New Mexico history and this bilingual Spanish/English version presents it as literature.

By situating Historia de la Nueva México, 1610 within the Hispanic literary heritage, the work is restored to the canon of American literature.