In 1690 Sigüenza published a pirate captivity narrative which has been considered Latin America's first novel, "Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez". However, new archival evidence discovered by Fabio López Lázaro (2007, 2011), José F. Buscaglia-Salgado (2009, 2011), and A. Margarita Peraza-Rugeley (2013) proves that this incredible story of a Puerto Rican taken captive by English pirates off the Philippine Islands is a historical account, not a fictional one. The archival documents contain dozens of eyewitness accounts corroborating not only the existence of Ramírez, his marriage in Mexico City, and also his capture in 1687, his life with pirates (most notably William Dampier), his collaboration with them, and his return to Mexico in 1690, at which time Spanish colonial authorities suspected Alonso of piracy. López Lázaro was the first to discover archival evidence (published in 2007) for the historical existence of Ramírez, his meeting with the Viceroy of New Spain, and the writing of "Los infortunios" in 1690. Buscaglia corroborated the existence of Alonso Ramírez as a true historical figure in 2009, citing his marriage certificate and pinpointing with exactitude, after two expeditions to the coast of Bacalar, the site of his shipwreck. López Lázaro's and Buscaglia's studies are the most significant findings in more than a century of scholarship on the book. The new archival evidence leaves no room to doubt that Sigüenza's key role in creating "Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez" was in editing Alonso's coarse narrative into a superior literary piece. According to López Lázaro's analysis, the book was commissioned by the Spanish administration during the war against Louis XIV to solidify Madrid's commitment to the struggle against French colonial rivals and their buccaneer collaborators but also to warn them about Spain's unreliable English and Dutch allies.