Summary Of Bartolome De Las Casas
The author I admire most is Bartolome De las Casas, because he went against the consensus of the Spaniards and defended the Native Americans. In the final paragraph of the reading, De las Casas states “The Indians will embrace the teachings of the gospel, as I well know…” (De Las Casas 2010) . This leads me to believe he actually spent time getting to know them as people. He took the time to learn about their art, music, government and other aspects of their lives. I believe he honestly wanted to help the Native Americans. The author I admire least is Don Juan de Onate. I’m not sure why the Pueblo Indians killed Onate’s second in command and his soldiers, but going by Onate’s behavior, I assume they weren’t very nice. The Pueblos were trying
to defend their land and Onate had them round up, took their possessions, burned their home down to the ground and killed their men (Hammond and Rey 2010) . After doing this to them, he wanted the people to trust the friar and convert to the Catholic faith. If someone did this to me I wouldn’t trust anybody with them.
Bibliography
De Las Casas, Bartolome. 2010. "Thirty Very Judicial Propositions." In Volume 1 The American Spirit, by David M. Kennedy and Thomas A. Bailey, 4-6. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Hammond, George P., and Agapito Rey. 2010. "Don Juan de Onate: Colonizer of New Mexico." In Volume 1 The American Spirit, by David M. Kennedy and Thomas A. Bailey, 17-20. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.