Thesis: The author posits that the derivative of a tragically unsuccessful colonization effort results with an epic ten-year odyssey of survival, assimilation, and revelation as the first Old World outsiders to athwart and live in the interior of North America. The culmination of the experiences of Cabeza de Vaca, man of influence, stranded in unexplored lands, encountering and existing with countless Native American tribes as guest, slave, trader, and healer engenders an atypical ideal of humane colonization and coexistence.…
Mariano Azuela's novel, The Underdogs, is a male-dominated novel. The story of the exploits and wartime adventures of a rebel band during the Mexican Revolution is primarily driven by men; the majority of the characters are men who are separated from their families and lives and who are fighting for a cause in which they strongly believe (at least at the beginning of the novel). Despite the masculine story, however, there are two highly developed and significant female characters in The Underdogs. These women, Camila and War Paint, are a representation of two of the roles women played during the Mexican Revolution. While the portraits Azuela paints of these women and their role in society and revolution are incredibly accurate, he does neglect the explore the other avenues of participation that women had in the revolution. Thus, Azuela semi-accurately portrays the roles that women played in the revolution during this time through the characters of Camila and War Paint.…
Though he may have traveled on the same ship, ate beside, socialized with, and had the same greedy goal as the most inhuman and evil conquistadors, he opened his eyes and recognized the Americans as people, while some of his fellow Spaniards saw them as nothing more than livestock. He risked being labelled as a tyrant to help the people that he believed needed it. For these reasons, Bartolome de las Casas was called, “Defender of the Indians,” and should be recognized in history as a monumental positive influence on the Native Americans’…
The piece by Castillo is a personal reflection that offers a peculiar and particular point of view from one person, and that represents how people permeates their surrounding reality, in this case the Mexican Revolution. These kinds of sources are extremely valuable in order to listen to the average voices. Especially in the case of underprivileged groups, such as indigenous populations and women, sometimes this is the only opportunity to grasp intimate daily moments, practices, and customs.…
“From the fact that the Indians are barbarians it does not necessarily follow that they are incapable…” (de Las Casas 3). In For the Record, it starts off right away in this section of how the Europeans while not sure of what to make of the Indians they knew that these were not the savages as some had described. De Las Casas goes on to describe of a people that were both loyal and committed to the community and to their fellow man. De Las Casas main adversary, Gines Sepulveda, failed to see the parallel in the fate of the Spaniards at the hands of the Romans and Caesar Augustus. “Now see how he called the Spanish people barbaric and wild” (de Las Casas 3) demonstrates the same philosophy of the thoughts of Europeans as they encountered the Indians. Shall those that are fearful for the loss of all they have worked for not fight back and retain what is rightfully theirs. The Indians, especially the Aztecs had built cities, established political and economic organizations and created richly diverse civilizations. In The Jesuit Relations they recount the gratitude shown to the hospital nuns “The Savages who leave the hospital, and who come to see us again at St. Joseph, or at the three Rivers,…
The myth is that the conquistadors conquered the America’s relatively quickly in a sovereign effort but Restall explains that the Spaniards had a lot of help from the Natives and African’s and the “completion” of conquest was anything but; as mass portions of the land remained unscathed by the conquest. Restall effortlessly explains how the conquistador myths of superior communication between the Spaniards and Natives were just as fabricated as the modern misconception of inferior communication by historians. The communication between the two, or lack thereof, fell somewhere between both myths. Restall uses his concise writing style to explain the resilience of the Natives, debunking the myth of Native desolation and how the myth of superiority derives from Eurocentric beliefs of racial dominance which lead to racist ideologies that “underpinned colonial expansion from the late fifteenth to early twentieth centuries.”…
In “Sexual Violence in the Politics of Conquest’, Castaneda explores the sexual crimes against Amerindian women during the Spanish conquest of Alta California. The soldiers accompanying the missionaries on the settlement raped and violated the native women openly. There were many incidents before rules were set to govern the matter, but even after the rapes continued to occur. One court case recorded in 1773 indicates that there was no intention to grant justice to the victims. The natives took matters into their own hands and formed forces to seek their own justice (similar to Chicano activist groups that seek reform for discrimination), but to no avail. Castaneda goes on to explain that the actions of the soldiers were not farfetched from practices of Western civilization (27-28). Because these dark crimes were normal for the dominant culture, they were automatically imposed on the natives, who were supposed to accept this without resistance. This is similar to Mexican Americans during the Chicano movement, who were not given equal…
As a child I knew I was of élite class, my parents being respected Spanish creoles. The call to greatness was embedded into my very core early in life. While other colonial children played childish games I marveled at my father’s grandeur and poise as he served as a sub-delegate for the Spanish province of Veracruz. I had no time for immature play; my days were composed of tactful secret reconnaissance and reenactment of private meetings held amongst my father and important officials. My desire was to be just like my father, if not better.…
The inaugural application of slavery in the New World as recalled by Bartolomé De Las Casas was presented in conjunction with Christopher Columbus’ return to Spain where seven Taino Indians were seized from the island of Guanahanî and exploited. Casas stated that this instance was “the first injustice committed in the Indies” (Baym 38). There was a period of time when Casas was absorbed with the progressive nature of exploration and occupation that he was unconscious of the moral implications regarding his participation in the exploitation of the natives after his initial voyage and settlement in Hispaniola (Baym 38). The negative moral and ethical undertones were not apparent until he became a priest and realized the…
In this paper, I will be summarizing the following chapters: Chapter 3: "A Legacy of Hate: The Conquest of Mexico’s Northwest”; Chapter 4: “Remember the Alamo: The Colonization of Texas”; and Chapter 5: “Freedom in a Cage: The Colonization of New Mexico. All three chapters are from the book, “Occupied America, A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo F. Acuna. In chapter three, Acuna explains the causes of the war between Mexico and North America. In chapter four, Acuna explains the colonization of Texas and how Mexicans migrated from Mexico to Texas. In chapter five, Acuna explains the colonization of New Mexico and the economic changes that the people had to go through.…
Gutierrez first introduces the Spanish folktale of “La Constancia ” because it describes the core values of most Spanish colonists in New Mexico, which was honor. The story tells of seduction and intrigue, of malevolence, rivalries, and a pact with which, of how one man took the honor of another, and most importantly of how honor was won and lost honor avenged (176). Honor was “polysemic word embodying meaning…
Henderson provides this book to as a means to correct the current Anglo-centric literature that circulates America, in which blames Mexico for its own losses “because they were proud to the point of delusion, arrogantly overestimating their own strength” (xviii). He states that it is fair and adequate to state that neither side of the battle is to blame, when in fact stemmed from the weakness of the Mexican nation, not by the aggressive nature of the US. The fact is Mexico was not the thriving and well established US; it was a meek and frail nation. The US, after the annexation of Texas, saw Mexico with the government’s bonds to the northern states and own political standings, as a challenge that can be devoured by the victorious nation. There was also Mexico’s own acknowledgement of its nations weakness that drove the political leaders to engage in a war with an obvious superior nation, in attempts to gain power and defend its honor. War with the United States gave Mexican leaders the opportunity to “indulge in the illusion” that the nation was not rent by economic, ethnic, and geographic divisions, but was instead“ resolute and united against a foreign foe” (191).…
The book, Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community, and the film, Salt of the Earth, both relay to their audience, the pursuit of happiness within the Chicano community in which they live. These works aim to show how Mexican-American immigrants fight to keep both their honor and value systems alive in the United States of America, a country which is foreign to their traditions. The Mexican-Americans encountered in these works fight for their culture of honor in order to define themselves in their new homeland, a homeland which honors the American dream of successful capitalism.…
Perhaps one of the strongest elements of slavery is honor. Honor has had a wide range of impact in history, whether it was shaping major dynasties and hierarchies, deciding an individuals’ role in society, or family ties and marriages. This sense of worth, high esteem, or virtue was also manipulated by slave masters in order to control their slaves. “The slave could have no honor because of the origin of his status, the indignity and all-pervasiveness of his indebtedness, his absence of any independent social existence, but most of all because he was without power except through another” (p 6). This element is not just a physical force, such as coercive power, which one can heal and even escape, but also a social-psychological issue. A slave had no name or public worth. Any worth was lived out and given through the master. The relationship between the slave and master can be complex but there was always “the strong sense of honor the experience of mastership generated, and conversely, the dishonoring of the slave condition” (p 6). Although Patterson made a clear connection between the slave and master with honor, his concept still contains gaps as certain slaves managed to preserve their honor using the power of voice.…
In Latin American macho culture having a homosexual child is usually cause of shame for most parents. In some settings, men are supposed to have sex with women, besides their own wives, as a manner of proving not just their conquering abilities, but their sexual prowess. A friend of my husband used to behave in such a manner, and bragged about it. To this man, getting a sexually transmitted disease was not just an inconvenience, but a motive of pride —"it is nothing more than an occupational hazard," he used to say, when he experienced those problems. The extent of his absurdity had not limits. Quiet often he said that he was such a man that he would **ck other man if he had to. In his machismo, he perceived the “active” or “masculine” role of a man during sex with an effeminate, passive men, as an act of power and dominance, not as homosexualism on his part. Not surprisingly, this man tried to instill his machismo on his oldest son even at a very early age. His son was supposed to become as strong and powerful as he considered himself, and to that effect he displayed his conqueror skills even in front of him, with little regard for the feelings of her…