Prepare to be shocked!

About the author

Jose Luis Martinez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico; he spent his first three years on the island then moved to New York City after his father was discharged from the U.S Army. He attended grade school in NYC, then moved back to the island where he attended middle school, high school and college. He also attended Delaware State College and Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, he is fluent in both English and Spanish. He’s a veteran of the U.S Air Force having spent time in Vietnam, Thailand, The Philippines, The South Pacific Islands and Brazil. José developed a special interest in indigenous cultures and their healing practices early on in life, motivated by his grandmother who like most modern Puerto Ricans, had indigenous ancestry and was also a Curandera (healer). Jose has traveled extensively to many parts of Asia as well as Central and Latin America. He has met with indigenous healers in the rainforests of Costa Rica, visited indigenous ceremonial areas and participated in tribal rituals. He has also explored rainforests, mountains, cave systems and has done extensive research on the history of ancient indigenous peoples, their customs, deities, healing practices, spiritual beliefs and mysticism. He recently made a trip to the Southeastern region of the U.S. and spent time visiting ancient sites and researching the history of the Hopi, the Puebloan, Ute and other tribes. He has a 30% genetic heritage from the ancient natives of the island of Puerto Rico. Jose is a researcher and a writer, which gives him an advantage over archeologists, anthropologists and other researchers who are constrained by the rules and regulations of their craft. He is not afraid to read between the lines, use cross-referencing along with wit and speculation to reach his conclusions. He is well aware that many of the first explorers to visit the new world were neither historians, nor archeologists or even linguists who could decipher native dialects. They were merchants, sailors, adventurers and even mercenaries. Their endeavor was basically a commercial and enrichment one, with little or no regard for the history, social structures, achievements, religious beliefs or civil rights of the civilizations they encountered. Much of what they wrote was designed to impress Queen Isabel La Católica of Spain, convince her that all was going well with the commercial project which she had financed, and that she should continue sending much needed resources to continue the effort. It’s important to point out that this had started out as a commercial venture to find a new route to the spice markets of India. Spain was being taxed excessively by the Ottoman Empire to allow safe passage of Spanish vessels through the Mediterranean Sea which they controlled. After this tax was paid, the Spanish vessels often fell pray to marauding pirates which the Ottomans had very little control over. In the end, the Spanish Chronicles turned out to be a combination of truths, exaggerations, half-truths, falsehoods, biased opinions and misconstrued facts of what was really happening in the new world. Sorting out the truth from the fake news is easier said than done. Much of the nuances, slang and language regionalism of the original texts has been lost in the translation from middle age Spanish to modern English. Jose is fluent in Spanish, but even he has trouble deciphering the antique Spanish texts…the result? Holes, peaks, valleys and inconsistencies in accounts that are quite often contradictory. Add the lack of a “smoking gun” evidence for much of what was written and you end up with a narrative that is circumstantial with kind of and sort of conclusions. Nonetheless, it provides albeit a still fuzzy window, into what really happened and provides some additional perspective on the other side of history!