Today, we are happy to bring you our conversation with Thomas E. Chávez, author of Revolutionary Diplomacy: Spanish Connections and the Birth of the United States

What inspired you to write this book? 

I spent nine years overseeing a project to collect, transcribe, translate, annotate and publish all the documents pertinent to Benjamin Franklin in the archive of Spain. I hired a team of scholars and organized a fundraising committee. The project culminated in four books of which this is the last. The previous publication The Diplomacy of Independence: Benjamin Franklin Documents in the Archives of Spain (American Philosophical Society Press), also published in Spain, La Diplomacia de la Independencia: Documentos de Benjamin Franklin en España (Instituto Franklin/Universidad de Alcalá) was the inspiration for this publication.

What did you learn and what are you hoping readers will learn from your book? 

That Spain was intimately involved and concerned with our war of independence but that its involvement was very complicated. England, as a world power, had confronted France and Spain in India and South, Central, and North America. The outcome of the war depended on the strategies and conflicts in those areas. Also, that our diplomats were coy about Spain’s covert aid, which irritated the Spanish officials.

What surprised you the most in the process of writing your book? 

Most obvious was that Franklin’s many biographers knew or mentioned little about his involvement with Spain and that I, fresh off collecting all the documents in the archives of Spain could write something new and important about the birth of our nation. As I wrote, also became aware that I was writing about our founding fathers’ first official contact with the Hispanic world, and without their success, they could not have won independence through the revolution. This is history that is pertinent today and I was surprised and very honored that it is being published by the University of Virginia Press.

What’s your favorite anecdote from your book?

It has to be that none of our diplomats; Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane could speak French. Nor could John Adams and John Jay who were sent to replace Lee and Deane. This appears to be a tradition continued until today.

What’s next? 

I have completed two books for which I am under contract. They are A Soliloquy of Some Disconnected Tales and Masterpiece in the Round: Frederico Vigil’s “Miracle” Fresco. I have just completed an experimental history, which is a biography written as a historical novel, or as academics would call it creative fiction, that in this case contains an extensive bibliographic essay. The book is about Francisco de Saavedra, the man who arranged for the colonial victory at Yorktown and was instrumental in the Spanish victory at Pensacola, thus having something to do with the independence of the United States. After the war, he played a key role in the defeat of Napoleon in Spain. A member of Spanish enlightenment, I feel that his life would make an engaging novel except that it is true. So I have written a large, historical novel about an engaging if, as yet, unknown person. I do believe that is my best, and most important book. I have not submitted it for publication. Have any ideas?