Search for the graves of the Invincible in Ireland.
The new book by Miquel Silvestre, origin of the Forgotten Explorers Route.
In 1588 the Felicísima Armada set sail with the mission of invading England by order of Felipe II. Overconfidence, a bad tactical approach and difficulties in communications with the troops on the mainland led to a terrible defeat.
Hit by violent storms, twenty-five ships were shipwrecked on the west coast of Ireland and some seven thousand Spaniards drowned or were executed. Among so much barbarity, the deeds of some officers stand out, such as Alonso Martínez de Leyva, who kept all his men alive, or the singular captain Francisco de Cuéllar.
De Cuéllar managed to escape after spending seven months as a fugitive. He wrote a letter to Felipe II telling him about his amazing adventures. Hidden for three hundred years in the archives of the Royal Academy of History, it was published in 1884 and is the first testimony about the life of the Irish at that time.
At present there exists between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland a route traced through the path that our captain walked in his flight. Miquel Silvestre has followed his footprint and his lyrics to remind us who those Spaniards almost forgotten by history were.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Miquel Silvestre (Denia, 1968) abandoned a comfortable life as an elite official to live the dream of adventure and exploration. This was reflected in his famous travel book in Africa A million stones.
He has recently traveled around the world on a motorcycle and traveled to more than ninety countries on the Route of the Forgotten Explorers with the aim of rescuing the memory of Spaniards such as Adolfo Ribadenayera, an archaeologist in Iraq, Pedro Páez, discoverer of the sources of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia; Miguel López de Legazpi, founder of Manila; Adolfo Ribadeneyra, archaeologist in Iraq; or Salvador Fildalgo, founder of Valdez, in Alaska, the northernmost place name in Spanish on the planet. Precisely, the origin of this adventurous historical project is found in Ireland, where Miquel Silvestre discovered the trail of Francisco de Cuéllar, castaway from the Invincible.
Miquel Silvestre could be considered a modern explorer, having been the first Spaniard to arrive on a motorcycle in the Philippines or Iraq. As a travel writer, in addition to One Million Stones and Europa Lowcost, he has published hundreds of travel and history reports in media such as ABC, El País, Altaïr or Solo Moto. He has also published three novels, a play and participates in numerous collective anthologies of short stories.
Book in Spanish.
Softcover: 128 pages.