En este artículo se expone y cuestiona, desde una perspectiva diferente a la convencional, la historiografía relacionada con algunas de las primeras expediciones realizadas en la costa atlántica de ...los Estados Unidos. Además de la inclusión geográfica de algunos topónimos conectados con novelas de caballerías, se incluye información de archivo de Vázquez de Ayllón y algunos documentos inéditos sobre Cabeza de Vaca.
A series of 16th-century documents is analyzed to argue that the Canadian east coast was well known to Spanish & Portuguese sailors & merchants long before it was "discovered" by Jacques Cartier in ...1534. Similar claims are made with regard to the US, arguing that Spanish presence on the North American continent preceded Jamestown & other early English settlements. The essay devotes special attention to the derivation & meaning of the name Canada, quoting a variety of sources indicating its Spanish or Portuguese etymology. According to many 16th-century authors, the name derives from the Spanish phrase aca nada 'nothing is here.' Supposedly, this phrase was motivated by the desolate & disappointing experience the first Spanish explorers had of the newly discovered land. When Jacques Cartier met Indians along the coast of Newfoundland, they reportedly greeted him with the only European words they knew, ie, aca nada. It is argued that this etymology is more plausible than the traditionally accepted derivation of Canada from the Huron Iroquoian Kanatta 'settlement, small town.' Z. Dubiel
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