Gaspar Prez de Villagr (1555 - 1620) was a captain in Juan de Oates expedition that first colonized New Mexico in 1598. In that role, Villagr served as the unofficial chronicler of the expedition. He composed the epic poem of New Mexico history, Historia de la Nueva Mxico (1610), regarded as the first epic poem of European origin generated in the present United States. In this engaging study Genaro Padilla enters into Villagrs epic poem of the Oate expedition to reveal that the soldier was no mere chronicler but that his writing offers a subtle critique of the empire whose expansion he seems to be celebrating.