This book is mainly a description of la Gran Nicoya and its people during the Spanish conquest. Its main objective is to demonstrate that change and destruction occurred with the conquest and colonization of Gran Nicoya. Some cultural elements were destroyed but were reelaborated through syncretism and passed to later generations, but this is not clearly shown in the book. More time and space are devoted to the description of other problems than to the search for the protagonistas, as the author calls them in the title. There seems to be a contradiction between the title and the author’s goals. If she wants to demonstrate how cultural elements were strengthened and transmitted from the surviving indigenous peoples themselves, then why does the word desaparecidos appear? Who or what disappeared?In part 1, on the pre-Columbian period, three chapters reconstruct the ecology, the ethnic groups, and subsistence practices. Chapter 2 describes the system of power and beliefs, kinship, and material representations of the system described. In chapter 3 the author refers to trade and exchange and, very briefly, to warfare.The second part focuses on the province of Nicaragua during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Chapter 4 deals with the conquest of the area and its immediate consequences, such as the depopulation caused by the spread of diseases, the violence of the process of conquest, and the socioeconomic abuses that the conquistadors imposed on the Indian population. The author also mentions indigenous resistance, which she categorizes into active and passive. In chapter 5 she moves to describe the new system of power and beliefs and unfolds the formation of colonial government and the foundation of Spanish cities. She also writes about the changes that affected the sociopolitical and socioeconomic indigenous organizations, including the encomiendas, pueblos de indios, and the sistemas tributarios. She immediately follows with the topic of the new religion and the process of Christianization, and what she calls an equilibrium in the religious realm between resistance and syncretism. She states that the representation of El Güegüence (a popular, anonymous traditional play) is an example of resistance as well as of the preservation and transmission of indigenous traditions. Finally, chapter 6 covers the new economy, cycles, cattle and agricultural productivity, with information on trading routes; transoceanic, maritime, and land routes; and a mention of ports. The chapter ends with the theme of indigenous commerce, treated very briefly.To elaborate this bibliographical compendium, the author visited archives in Spain and used other documentary collections, such as the Colección Somoza and the Colección de Documentos para la Historia de Costa Rica. She reviews the results of research done by Central Americanists of different nationalities who have done extensive and profound research on various problems in pre-Columbian and colonial times.The book does not contribute precisely to contemporary debates because it lacks a research problem. What Tous Mata does is a bibliographical compilation of what has been done. For example, the cultural area of Gran Nicoya is strongly questioned today. She mentions that fact, offers a few existing considerations about it, includes other cultural divisions on the Costa Rican side, but does not position herself within the discussion. The idea of working with and within a cultural area nowadays offers serious interpretative problems to the researcher. Also, research done within the limits of a cultural area will tend to produce descriptive results, and that is what Tous Mata achieves. When in a cultural area everything is generalized, no particularities can be depicted. Even while she mentions that she is aware of heterogeneity, the entire area is treated as a whole. This minimizes explanatory opportunities.Some maps do not make sources explicit, like figure 20 on page 136. Also, the book could have been organized in a more logical way; for example, the chapter that describes the indigenous plants used by the Indians could be merged with the description of the geography and ecology of the area in the first chapters. Certain authors, such as Silvia Salgado, Robert M. Carmack, and Mario Rizo, who have done important recent research on archaeology, identities, continuities, and resistance, are absent from the book.In sum, the book represents an effort of bibliographical synthesis, and students and the general public will find it rewarding.