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An introduction is presented for the following section of articles, which focus on the history of scientific discoveries, explorations, and research in Latin America.

After the Caribbean Islands were conquered, there began a time of contact between the Spanish language and consolidated native languages, which would result in the linguistic settlement in the American continent. This paper focuses on the analysis of a selection of works dating between 1518 and 1559, and which have been selected on the basis of the following variables: the author's level of experience in the Indies and the use of communicative strategies in each document. This study is centred on analyzing quantitatively the words included in the chronicles, the tendencies observed, and their interpretation. The resulting textual types show a direct relationship with both the addition of indigenous neologisms and the authors' field of knowledge, through which they filter their personal experience and add the new words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article confronts the positions of Cornelius de Paw and Francisco Javier Clavijero about the description of the ground, the climate and the environment of America. While the ideas of Paw, difunded in the second edition of Diderot's Encyclopaedia put on the mind of his contemporaries the concept that all the americans, indians, half-castes or creoles, will always be dependant of a despotic european power; Clavijero, supported by aristotelic naturalism, argumments the rights of sovereignty and autonomy of the american people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on author Mariano Picón Salas and his technique of writing that was easily readable and accessible. The author discusses Picón Salas' extensive travel throughout South America and his ideas on the concept of nationality, which he contended was an artificial construct created in the 20th century. Picón Salas' studies on the baroque are also highlighted.