Analyze La Relacion Summary

Matthew Restall, a Professor of Latin American History, Women’s Studies, and Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. He also serves the Director of the university’s Latin Studies. Throughout “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest,” he discusses many false truths that have been passed down through history. For instance, he discusses, “The Myth of Exceptional Men.” “The Myth of Spanish Army,” and “The Myth of Completion.” For the sake of time, I will discuss three myths that correlate with class lectures and serve as the topic of this paper, “The Myth of Exceptional Men,” “The Myth of the King’s Army,” and the “Myth of the White Conquistador.” It should be noted that Restall speaks to his audience assuring us that his “...his purpose is not to degenerate this technique of historical writing completely...Nor do I mean to create a narrative in which individual action is utterly subordinated to the larger structural forces and causes of social change.” (4). He states that his intentions are to react to more than just the works of Columbus, Pizzaro, and Cortez.

“Victors and Vanquished,” through excerpts of Bernal Diaz del Castillo The True History of the Conquest of New Spain and indigenous testimonies from the Florentine Codex, represents the clash between European and indigenous cultures and how there was no simple “European” or “indigenous” view. Rather, there were a variety of European and indigenous opinions and interpretations that were influenced by personal interests, social hierarchy and classes, ethnic biases and political considerations.

Ramon Gutierrez’s When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away is an exploration of the merging of Spanish, Franciscan and Pueblo Indian cultures throughout Spain's “frontier” in its colonial American empire before Anglo contact. Gutierrez builds a foundation for his analysis by discussing Pueblo Indian life prior to outside contact, Franciscan theology, and the class structure of Spanish communities in each of its respective book sections. He examines meanings of the cultural interactions of gift exchange, ownership, trade, sexual rights, labor, kinship, social status, religious beliefs, and honor among many others using marriage as a window. His interpretation of the complex cultural meanings of marriage illustrates the ways in which the

For decades, the history of Latin America has been shrouded in a cover of Spanish glory and myth that misleads and complicates the views of historians everywhere. Myths such as the relationship between natives and conquistadors, and the individuality of the conquistadors themselves stand as only a few examples of how this history may have become broken and distorted. However, in Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall goes to great lengths to dispel these myths and provide a more accurate history of Latin American, in a readable and enjoyable book.

When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away gives an in-depth history of the Pueblo Indians before and after the Spanish conquest. It describes the forced changes the Spanish brought to the Indians, and also the changes brought to the Spaniards who came to “civilize” the Indians. The author's thesis is that the Pueblo Indians and other Indians were treated cruelly by the Spanish, who justified their crime by claiming they were civilizing an

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is best known as the first Spaniard to explore what we now consider to be southwestern United States. His nine-year odyssey is chronicled within the book The Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition. His account is considered especially interesting because it is one of the very first documents that illustrates interactions between American natives and explorers. However, when examining the exploration of the modern United States, there are many arguments that have to do with the entitlement to the land and the motivations behind settling in the first place. Most explorers were obviously in favor of their own conquests and Cabeza de Vaca is of course no exception. In Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition, Cabeza de

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, Andres Dorantes, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevan were the sole survivors of a four hundred men expedition. The group of them went about the friendly Indian tribes preforming miracles of healing, with the power of Christianity. At one time five sick persons were brought into the camp, and the Indians insisted that Castillo should cure them. At sunset he pronounced a blessing over the sick, and all the Christians united in a prayer to God, asking him to restore the sick to health, and on the following morning there was not a sick person among them. De Vaca and his companions reached the Pacific coast where the Indians, showed signs of civilization, living in houses covered with straw, wearing cotton clothes and dressed skins, with belts and ornaments of stone, and cultivating their fields, but had been driven therefrom by the brutal Spanish soldiery and had taken refuge in the mountains, de Vaca and his comrades, being regarded as emissaries from the Almighty, exercised such power over these untutored savages that, at their bidding, the Indians returned to their deserted habitations, and began again to cultivate their fields, the assurance being given them by de Vaca and his companions that henceforth they would

Cabeza de Vaca changed drastically though his journey. When he starts off he’s very much focused on doing this for God and king, but he slowly becomes less concerned with that. He also develops a more accepting and worldly mind. When he first meets Native Americans he terrified that they’re going to sacrifice him#, because that’s the stereotype of the natives, but they are in fact very kind and offer him and his men fish and roots to eat. However, the Cabeza de Vaca from the end of the book would know better. He develops a lot of empathy for the natives and their plight at the hands of the Spanish,

In the 16th century Spaniards Herman Cortes and Christopher Columbus set out on endeavoring journeys in search of new worlds. Christopher Columbus encountered, in the Caribbean islands, a group of extremely simplistic Native Americans. Herman Cortes however encountered a much more advanced Native American group in Meso America; we formally know this area to be Mexico. In my essay I will be comparing and contrasting several aspects between both of these Native American Civilizations including sophistication, technology, housing, weapons, religion and their reaction to the Spaniards. Letters written by Columbus and Cortes will be used to make these comparisons.

In chapter one Conquerors and Victims: The Image of America Forms (1500-1800) Gonzalez talks about the impact upon the arrival of the Europeans to America. This arrival was categorized as “the greatest and most important event in the history of human kind”. Spain and England were two countries that had a big impact on our modern world and transplanted their cultures around the territories they took over. Both countries created their empires in which they established on their identities and viewpoint of their language and social customs. Upon their arrival the native population was outnumbered, many of which live around Mexico’s Valley and others populate the Central Andes region and Rio Grande.

Cabeza de Vaca was known for his discovery of America. He documented his trek in America, as a lost traveler, exposed to unfamiliar territory, multiple hardships, and the native Indian tribes. His journal entry over his reencounters with the Christians is only a small record over his adventures on the whole Narvaez Expedition of 1528. The document was published in Spain, 1542, at a time when dispute over the mistreatment of natives in America in their colonization became a subject to resolve. His journal entry discusses his brief experience in an Indian tribe, the news he receives of nearby Spanish men penetrating the tribal communities, and the realization that the “Christians” were not a character he thought they were. Cabeza de Vaca sympathized the indigenous tribes and believed that they should not face the cruelty the Spanish settlers set in order to

No written history means much of Native American history is unknown, causing misconceptions and stereotypes about Native Americans to exist. Royal also discusses the name of this group that people label today as “Native Americans.” He questions, “ ‘America’ was a name formed in the wake of another Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. It is difficult to see how being named after an Italian is less Eurocentric than being named after an East Native American” (Royal 46). The discussion about their name shows Europe’s influence on the Americas; it also shows that Native Americans yearn for their own identity without Europe’s input.

From Reséndez’s foundation of European enslavement and its far-reaching impact on Native American populations, Reséndez examined racial components in the southwest. It is impossible to separate racial tension from the study of Indian slavery. Christopher Columbus’s journals as contemporary letters show the Spanish perception of

Dawson, Alexander S. “From Models for the Nation to Model Citizens: Indigenismo and the ‘Revindication’ of the Mexican Indian, 1920–40.” Journal of Latin American Studies 1998 : 279-308. Print.

In the book The Conquest of America by Tzvetan Todorov, Todorov brings about an interesting look into the expeditions of Columbus, based on Columbus’ own writings. Initially, one can see Columbus nearly overwhelmed by the beauty of these lands that he has encountered. He creates vivid pictures that stand out in the imagination, colored by a "marvelous" descriptive style. Todorov gives us an interpretation of Columbus’ discovery of America, and the Spaniards’ subsequent conquest, colonization, and destruction of pre-Columbian cultures in Mexico and the Caribbean. Tzvetan Todorov examines the beliefs and behavior of the Spanish conquistadors and of the Aztecs.