This book draws on Dr de Alba's 60 years of experience researching and promoting sustainable management of the Criollo cattle breeds of America. The story begins, more than five centuries ago, with the arrival of the continent's first cattle, brought across the Atlantic by Columbus on his second voyage to the New World. The book's first chapter describes this initial transoceanic transfer and the subsequent diffusion of cattle across the Caribbean and Central and South America. The next chapter presents a description of the many environmental challenges – including climatic extremes, parasites and high altitudes – that confronted cattle as they spread across the continent. The rest of the book features extensive descriptions of the characteristics, management and history of specific breeds or groups of breeds: the Blanco Orejinegro, tropical Criollo dairy cattle, the Romosinuano of Colombia, breeds of the Llanos grasslands of Colombia and Venezuela, Pantaneiro Criollos, Criollos of the Pampas, Criollos of the dry tropics, and Criollos of English- and Portuguese-speaking areas and of areas where Indo-American languages are spoken. In total, more than 20 breeds are described. Also included are a chapter on the physiology and genetics of lactation and another chapter that provides a detailed history of cattle in New Spain. The book is illustrated throughout with black and white photographs, and ends with an annex of colour photographs.