Baroque culture in Spanish America not only replicated Iberian forms of ornate architecture and intricate scholarly debate, it also incorporated Native Americans into an overall popular culture. Spanish colonial policy officially sought preservation of Indian social units. By establishing “two republics,” one Indian and one Spaniard, colonial authorities attempted to regulate the contact between the two in order to prevent excessive exploitation and thus preserve Indian communities that provided labor and tribute. At the same time Spanish priests introduced Christianity. From the standpoint of the state, Christianization became the vehicle by which the Spaniards incorporated the Indians into colonial cultural life. I would like you to read two views of Indian contact with the Catholic Church, one written by a native Andean lord and the other by a Mexican creole (American born descendant of Spaniards) scholar (you can read both documents by clicking here).Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, author of the first document, claimed descent from native Andean lords. Because of his high status, he acquired a Spanish education and served Spanish priests as an interpreter of Quechua, the native language of the Central and Southern Andes of Peru. By the 1560s, he had become a Christian and aided priests in the attempted extirpation of Andean religious practices. Around 1615, after a long career of service to the Church, he wrote a treatise called New Chronicle and Good Government, which surveyed Incan rule, the Spanish conquest and colonial government. In it Guaman Poma de Ayala distinguished between priests who protected the Indian population (particularly friars of various orders) and those parish priests who took advantage of them. In a scathing attack on their venality and sexual misconduct, he rebuked parish priests who abused their positions. His portrait of priestly behavior became a common theme of political literature critical of Spanish colonial rule and part of a long-term intellectual indictment of the Catholic Church in Spanish America.
Writing in 1680, Carlos de Siguenza y Góngara, a Mexican creole university professor, depicted a “creole” view of the Indians’ place in Church and community life. Public religious celebrations offered opportunities for Indians’ place in Church and community life. Public religious celebrations offered opportunities for Indians to participate in colonial popular culture. On this occasion, the Indians of Querétaro, a grain producing area north of Mexico City, organized a costume parade, or máscara, in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe for whom they had recently built a new church that was officially opened on the day of the parade. The description shows that the natives remembered they separate heritage, which, in this view, formed an integral part of local life.
After reading the two documents, I would like you all to consider and discuss the following: As a native Andean lord, Guaman Poma recognized inequalities in society as natural. But the traditional relationship between Andean lords and their servants was supposed to be reciprocal. In this description, what practice (apart from sexual misconduct) violated reciprocity when the priest employed Indian workers? Based on the principle of reciprocity, what should have constituted proper behavior? Why is sexual misconduct such a potent form of criticism? Referring to the parade for the Virgin of Guadalupe, indicate the ways Indians remembered their pre-Columbian past. In what ways did the natives incorporate Spanish beliefs and practices? What cultural and political values are implied by this “creole” description? How would such parades and the celebrations of popular Christianity likely influence the rural and urban workers such as peasants on haciendas, mine workers, and textile laborers? Finally, given the various cultural currents in Latin America, discuss the relationship between Latin America and the Western European intellectual and religious life. In what ways is a new Latin American civilization being born? Your thoughts…
2 comments:
Other than sexual violation Poma recognized that the priests were wrong in demanding money to give mass, not paying for food, paying their mita workers nothing, making harsh working conditions, and violating their human rights, which is best seen in the torture of Diego Caruas. The treatment of the unmarried women was disgusting and evil. It's ironic how in Europe John Locke is talking about human rights, and they are pretty much ignored in America. How long did it take for these Enlightenment ideas to reach the Americas?
Poma states that these men are supposed to be holy, but he says they are anything but holy. He makes an argument against sexual misconduct which is very potent. This is perhaps the most disheartening as the Europeans are actually violating the womens' bodies in the most extreme and psychologically damaging way. He states, (paraphrased) "How can we look up to these priests when they each have 12 children (with different mothers is assumed)".
The native culture is most seen uninfluenced by Europeans is the first masquerade by the Chichimeca Native Americans. This is the least liked however. It is described by Gongora as being "garbed in the very minimum that decency allows."
The second largely represented Spannish culture and its power. Gongora is amazed by the orginaztion and the skill of the infantry men. Is this natives imitating Spanish soldiers or actual Spanish soldiers?
Next came the local aristocracy which represented the preservation of Native culture. They were dressed in their own garments that were portrayed in Native hieroglyphics.
"Then came the triumphant float".
The float of the Virgin of Guadalupe was very impressive and represented how the Natives embraced Christianity. The child represented America embracing Christianity and Mexican dacnes represented the change to Christianity as it entered the Americas. Urban Natives seem to be the most influenced as they would have seen presentatations like this. Those who worked in mines would not have been as influenced.
mr. livaditis, enlightenment ideas begin to seep into american society visibly around the 1760s.
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