Wikipedia Article on “Estevanico”: Critiqued

Wikipedia’s article about Estevanico, while informative, it does not include any information about the subject during the voyage, prior to being separated from the rest of the crew. In addition, the article is riddled with assumptions and opinions different sources have drawn through their own experience and research, without going into detail. To expand on this, the article mentions how some speculate the Kachina figure, Chakwaina, is based on Estevanico, however the article fails to mention why this assumption has been made. At the beginning of the section titled “North American explorer,” the author notes that “many books claim Estevanico became the first black person from Africa known to have landed in the present continental United States,” but fails to detail which books have made such claims. Immediately preceding this, the article claims that Estevanico was not the first African to have traveled to present day USA, but gives no evidence nor a citation as to where this information is coming from.

 

Although all the citations listed are legitimate, not all are referenced in the article, leading me to believe that some were used to write the article, but simply not given credit where credit is due.

 

However short the article on Estevanico may be, it contains a surprising amount of gaps and flaws within the short amount of text in contains, and therefore is in need of revision, or possibly, more critical review prior to its release or inclusion of edits made later on.

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