Chapa, writing anonymously, built on the earlier work of his mentor Don Alonso de Leon, in chronicling the history of Nuevo León during the years 1650 – 1690. A copy of the original manuscript was found and published in 1909 by the prominent historian Genaro Garcia, but Chapa was not identified as the author until in 1961 the historian Israel Cavazos Garza demonstrated conclusively that the author had to be Chapa.
