As I write I’m watching the Hairy Bikers Route 66 road trip. There’s a barbecue competition taking place between two teams of firemen. Naturally, as a writer I’m interested in words, so I looked up barbecue. It comes from barbacoa the Arawak for a raised wooden framework of sticks, presumably part of their technique for cooking.
The Arawak are American Indians of the Greater Antilles and South America. They were the first native people encountered by Christopher Columbus on Hispaniola. The Spanish clergyman, writer and activist Bartolomé de las Casas, drew attention to the oppression and abuse of the indigenous people by the Spanish. He advocated to Charles V on behalf of the rights of the native Indian people, and according to Wikipedia suggested in his writing that African slaves be used to replace them, something he later retracted. It’s amazing what you can learn from looking up barbecue in the dictionary.
I’ve posted before about Charles V because while he doesn’t directly appear in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, Sir Anthony did have an “inappropriate relationship” with Barbara von Blomberg, who had been a mistress of Charles V and bore Don Juan, Duke of Austria by him. I wonder if Charles wooed Barbara with a barbecue? Probably not, but for the search engine optimisation you have to get your keyword in several times.
I’m currently writing The Favourite Murder, the fifth book of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. It has a theme, but I won’t reveal that until it’s published. The themes of the earlier books in the series have been the conflict between faith and reason, misogyny, and anti-semitism / racism. I have no idea yet what the theme of the sixth book will be, but perhaps I should explore slavery and use what I’ve learnt from looking up barbecue. I asked ChatGBT to paint Christopher Columbus at a barbecue for the illustration to this post.