Description
Rodríguez means “son of Rodrigo” — and it was invented not once but thousands of times, by thousands of unrelated fathers who were all called Rodrigo.
From the Visigothic king whose name it echoes to the charters of medieval Castile and León, the name Rodríguez arose again and again: a polygenetic name with no single founding bloodline, now the second surname of Spain, the seventh in Mexico, the eighth in the United States, and carried by more than nine million people worldwide.
This lavishly illustrated volume traces Rodríguez through eight chapters — the Rodrigo who lent his name and the warrior-king Roderick whose name it carries; the heartland of northern Spain and the great houses of the Reconquista; the crossings that carried the name to the New World, from Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo’s voyage up the California coast to the Philippine towns renamed by Clavería’s decree; the signature story of Simón Rodríguez, the teacher of the Liberator Simón Bolívar; the heraldry that belongs to particular lineages and never to all; a gallery of great bearers — the architect of the Spanish Enlightenment, the liberator of Paraguay, Puerto Rico’s patriotic poetess, the father of the Philippine Senate, the voice of the Chicano movement, a golf legend, and the “Pudge” of Texas baseball; the curiosities, from the accent that vanished in the counting to the two municipalities that both honor the teacher; the towns that keep the name; and where the Rodríguezes live today — more than nine million strong.
Printed in dramatic 8.5″ × 11″ large format, Rodríguez: A Surname History is the perfect gift for anyone who bears the name — past, present, and future — and for all those who love them.
The fifteenth volume in The Surname Histories Series by Tamara Gribble.
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