River of Sorrows is set in the sixteenth century Argentina of the earliest Spanish settlements, when Juan de Garay came down the Parana River from Asuncion, Paraguay, to found the settlement of Santa Fe in 1573. After he left Santa Fe in early 1580, to reestablish the port of Buenos Aires, seven of the mestizos who had been among Santa Fe's first settlers rose up in rebellion against the Spanish town authorities. This is the historical setting where River of Sorrows begins, as an old soldier who came down the river with Garay remembers the hardships and violent injustices of the town's first years." "The story is told in the voices of those who are voiceless in recorded history which, like the novel, is full of contradictory versions of what may have happened. River of Sorrows is recounted in three identifiable voices: that of Blas de Acuna, a mestizo soldier who followed Garay but resented his abuses of power; that of Maria Muratore, who dressed and fought as a Spanish soldier, and who was Garay's lover, spurning the devotion of Blas de Acuna; and, at the end, that of Isabel Descalzo, who bore the children of Blas de Acuna and brought them up with tales of the now legendary Maria Muratore, who may have been killed with Garay (in 1583) or who may have died in the defense of a beseiged settlement. Blas, Maria and Isabel are the offspring of rape or seduction, the orphan children of conquest, but they are also the first generation of true Americans, born on native soil, indebted to no one, who forge their own lives and make their own decisions. Together, they create a new community, a new family, and a new set of memories and myths.