They're Cows, We're Pigs

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In 1678 De Americaenesche Zeerover (The Buccaneers of America) was published in Flanders. The story, now one of the most enduring in the literature of the Americas, traveled through time, place, many cultures and translations, each time bearing the stamp of its surroundings. For example, I noticed that in order to favor certain biases the Spanish translation of The Buccaneers of America was altered by expanding or abbreviating passages and reshaping the roles of some of the characters. And just when I thought that this version was essentially an authentic retelling of actual events, a more recent Cuban edition came into my hands, and its structure and wording had almost nothing in common with any version I’d seen up to then. All seemed to bear the signature of Alexander Olivier Exquemeling, native of Flanders, but as far as the identity of Exquemeling, a.k.a. Smeeks, goes, this remains rather in question, and there are those who maintain that the publisher or translator is the true author of the book.

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