Sobre el autor y la obra
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Bartolomé
de las Casas
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Vida:
1484-1566
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Spanish historian, social reformer, and Dominican
friar
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He was one of the first European settlers in the
Americas.
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He participated in the atrocities committed
against the native Americans by the Spanish Colonists, and eventually opposed
them severely and began to campaign for social reform (around 1515). He was
later called the “Protector of the Indians.” (Wikipedia)
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He led a huge peaceful evangelist effort in the
colonial Spanish Americas
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He served as bishop of Chiapas for a short time
(1545-1550) but had to return to Spain because the Spanish settlers were pissed
at him for his radical pro-Indian policies
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Mr. Bartolomé is “often seen as one of the first
advocates for universal human rights” (Wikipedia)
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At one point, Bartolomé advocated for the use of
African slaves instead of native/Indian ones, but he later retracted this idea,
calling all slavery wrong.
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Brevísima
relación
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This work was one of the most famous of Mr.
Bartolomé’s various writings
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Was written in 1542 and published in 1552
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Discusses the mistreatment of the indigenous
peoples of the Americas in colonial times
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Bartolomé claimed to have written the work due
to his fear of Spain coming under divine punishment, and also his concern
for the souls of the native peoples
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Bartolomés account “was largely responsible for
the adoption of the New Laws of 1542, which abolished native slavery for the
first time in European colonial history and led to the Valladolid debate”
(Wikipedia)
Social/political context
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The “Black Legend” – the tradition of describing
the Spanish empire as exceptionally morally corrupt and violent due to its
negative relations with the indigenous people of the colonial Spanish Americas
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Carlos V was the empire of Spain at the time the
text was written; his son Philip II was the prince
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Prince Philip was in charge of matters relating
to the Indies at the time
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“Spain in the Age of Bartolomé de las Casas”
(Franklin W. Knight – Intro)
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Iberian Peninsula was divided into four clearly
demarcated political units: Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal
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Long term war between Catholic/Christian forces
and Moorish invaders
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Fall of Moorish Granada and discovery of
Americas, both in 1492
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“After 1493 ordinary folk from all parts of the
Iberian Peninsula flocked to the Americas. More than two-thirds of the
Spaniards who ventured to the New World came from the lower orders of society”
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“In the Americas the church worked hand in hand
with the crown”
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“The Americas in the Age of Bartolomé de las
Casas” (Franklin W. Knight – Intro)
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Huge mortality rate of the indigenous population
due to warfare and disease
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Increased volumes of precious metals and
expanded trade in Spain due to colonies in Americas
What Mr. Imbert has to say about Mr. Bartolomé
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He defended the principle that only the peaceful
conversion of the Indians was legitimate (33)
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His chronicles were made up of very
difficult-to-navigate prose (33)
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Indignant and ironic tone in chronicles (33)
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He unmasked his fellow New World explorers to
show them as who they truly were, rather than heroes (examples: Cortés, Alonso
de Ojeda) (33-34)
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Some interest in physical appearance/beauty of
other conquistadores (34)
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Brevísima relación de la destrucción de
las Indias (1552) –
superior to other chronicles due to historical exactness (34-35)
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Saw Indians as the descendants of the lost
tribes of Israel (35)
Comps Questions
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A comparison (thematic, aesthetic, ideological)
of indigenous literatures (Popol Wuj, Warochirí,
Ollantay) to other colonial texts (Las Casas, Colón, Cortés, Díaz del
Castillo, Vaca)
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The representation of the indigenous from the
perspective of the other: Colón, Las Casas, Cortés, Díaz del Castillo, Cabreza
de Vaca.
Important themes/ideas
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Estilo de escritura
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Writes in first person, accounting events, and
describing
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Refers to being an eye-witness – establishes
self as reliable narrator
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Inaccuracy with numbers
§
Exaggerates previous Indian populations / death
rates
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Use of some rhetoric
§
Exaggeration
§
“Too much to explain, impossible to truly
relate”
§
“It would be hard to persuade a person to
believe, and harder still to tell, the particular cases of cruelty that have
been committed there”
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“The human element” – racism – desire for
justice (defense of human rights)
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Idea that the natives were created by God to be
a simple, morally good, and obedient people
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The Christians killed the Indians in horribly
cruel ways
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The Indians occasionally killed a Christian, but
always for a good reason (“holy justice”)
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Religion / evangelization
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Indians think Christians are cruel to make them
convert – “they have a god that they worship and love much, and to make us love
him they work to subjugate us and slay us”
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A friar talks to an Indian lord they are going
to execute and tells him if he converts, he could go to heaven instead of hell.
The Indian tells him he’d rather go to hell so as not to be around the cruel
Christians ever again
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Most of the Christians/Spaniards say they will
teach the Indians about God/Christianity but they keep putting it off and
instead force the Indians to work as slaves (usually in mines)
o
In 1534, a group of religious men from order of
Saint Francis went to Perú to go and preach and evangelize, after all the
cruelties of the Spaniards – wanted to take them news of the one God
§
Indians
received them as long as they promised that only they, and no other Spaniards,
would enter there
§
Indians happily converted to Christianity and
willingly burned their idols
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They eventually willingly promised loyalty to
Spanish kingdom – persuaded by friars in a kind way
o
Conflict between the friars and the other
Spaniards due to the Spaniards’ cruelty and manipulation – Spaniards ruin the
conversion efforts
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“the Indians are very desirous and even greedy
to have a Christian name, and they beg to be given one, even before they know
sufficient to be baptized”
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Description of / thoughts about other
conquistadors/Christians
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The majority of the Spaniards/Christians are
extraordinarily cruel
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Greed for gold
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Indicates particularly terrible/tyrannical
conquistadors, but doesn’t name them specifically – describes their cruelties
in detail
Apuntes de la introducción
del texto (Franklin W. Knight)
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Mr. Bartolomé was one of the most important and
controversial figures of the early-modern encounter between Europeans and
Native Americans
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He survived far beyond the normal life
expectancy for an active individual in the 16th century (he lived to
the age of 82)
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As a youth, he was obsessed with the idea of
accumulating material wealth – he later repented of this greed when he reformed
and became passionate about the human justice cause, specifically concerned
with the indigenous population of the colonial Spanish Americas
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He was the first “full-time advocate of the
underprivileged in the history of the Americas”
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Casas became an ordained priest in 1510 and
joined the Dominican order in 1522
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Casas wrote based on his personal experiences –
“wrote about what he had witnessed or heard directly from those who had
themselves witnessed”
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Bartolomé regarded the Indians as perfect
natural specimens living in a veritable paradise
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Casas isn’t so great with numbers – he
exaggerates many figures used in his text
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“To Las Casas in his radical later days
indigenous rights were in every way equivalent to Spanish rights – and took
precedence over the latter. His argument was that the Spanish could not
entirely disregard the legitimate natural rights of the indigenous population
simply because they were not Christians”
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Casa’s work was popular amongst enemies of the
Spanish empire
Brief notes from different version's prologue:
-self-taught (like our man Imbert mentions)
-"arrepentido de su propio pasado como explotador"->against guerras de conquista y sistema de encomiendas.
-this obra/relación was accompanied by new laws to protect indios in 1542.
-His destinario? Felipe II. "el afán de convencer de la tragedia americana a su lector es el que marca el estilo, las virtudes, y los límites de este texto.
-mordacidad e ironía, focusing on negative aspects of Spanish presence
-exaggerated cifras de indios muertos
-nucleo del problema es 1. Slavery 2. Military deaths (though, of course, the majority of the natives were dying from European diseases)
-author of this prologue defends Spain a little, says it was the only country (entre Francia, Holanda, Alemania) that wrote self-criticism for their bad deeds
On with the text....
-Begins with history and statistics of the "discovery.
-Refers to indios as "los más simples, sin maldades ni dobleces." faithful. obedient. DELICATE (wtf?)
"aptísimos para recibir nuestra fé". Repeats over and over ovejas mansas, noting that their creator has given them these qualities (Let's deduce from this that Las Casas viewed the natives as human beings, with a soul, created by God.)
-por sus crueldades y nefandas obras, Spaniards have depopulated the islands, "llenas de hombres racionales"
-Indios killed via wars and the worst possible slavery. And worst of all, the Spaniards did this just to get rich and subir a estados altos.
-says Indians weren't violent until they'd been repeatedly attacked (Las Casas repeats this point-the Indians weren't the aggressors, sino los españoles provocaron la violencia).
-Starts on Isla Española where they consumed the Indian's food. Spaniards were brutal-"Let's see who can split that man de una cuchillada." Burned them 13 at a time (calling to mind 13 apostles). THEN, because they made too much noise when they were burned, they started drowning them, feeding them to dogs, etc.
-Before, there had been 5 reinos in Española. Las Casas mentions all 5 kings by name (we deduce: they're not just an anonymous other.) One king offers to help Isabella. How's he thanked? They rape his wife. Another king is also helpful to Spaniards, liberándolos de muchos peligros de muerte. His reward? Burned alive. carnicería
-Repeats: Just War- Indians had a just war against the Spaniards, but Spaniards did not have a just war against the Indians.
San Juan y Jamaica
1519 Spaniards show up. Atrocidades! perecidas din sacramentos y sin fe (We deduce: Las Casas believes the killing is a problem because the Spaniards are essentially sending innocent people to hell because they didn't have time to convert.)
Irony: Indians tell each other, "You know why they kill us? Because they have a god they love and they want us to love him, so they kill us." Indians knew they'd be killed whether they handed over their gold or not, so they began to throw it in the river.
Irony: One Indian asks, "Do Spaniards go to heaven (because the Indians keep being told they need to convert so they can go to heaven too)?" The answer is yes. Indian response: "Well, then I'd rather go to hell because heaven is full of cruel people."
Concern of Las Casas: This is the renown and honor that God and our faith has in the new world! (Totally negative, obviously.)
Indians begin to hang themselves to avoid a worse death. Children are starving.
1514: Very "infelice gobernador"- super cruel, es cosa absurda. Killed people for gold, robbed.
1523: Nicaragua
Before Spaniards, people are happy, healthy, and prosperous. Land full of plants and people. THEN, the españoles arrive. RHETORIC: Tantas crueldades...que no podrá lengua humana decirlo.
Spaniards, meanwhile, have ira infernal, and decapitate people.
Mentions repartimientos de los indios. When Spaniards enslaved them and shipped them away, they all died. "Habrá hoy..."--Las Casas is pointing out that this is still happening!
In New Spain, they say they're going to poblar; they're actually going to robar. Critique: Ellos llaman conquistas...."siendo invasiones violentos de crueles tiranos."
-What's happening here is even worse that what Turks are doing to destroy the Christian church.
General Routine: Spaniards do one killing for show to strike fear. One time, they rounded them all up in a closed patio and stabbed them. Some escaped and begged for mercy; none was shown. Spaniards compare themselves to Nero, who didn't care when he heard cries of death.
Like a news report, Las Casas says (generally), In city X, they did ______.
King Montezuma+his people during a festival...Spaniards open fire. The Indians (like the Mexican corridos) recorded this event in song that they still sing "today". This event created bitterness in them.
Now: Indios pónense en armas in a just war. Killed lots of people. Spaniards excuse? We're doing this "by order of the king".
Rhetoric: This is common sense. How are you supposed to tell someone to obey a strange king you've never seen or heard? Then follows the threat..."we'll cut you up if you don't". This is crazy.
Guatemala: "principal" person comes out even though they've killed lots of people. Spaniards demand gold. They say, "We don't have gold here." So...you guessed it! Burn them. Once again, chop suey is made of innocent people. Again, Spaniard cruel, infernal.
Indians try to respond by setting booby traps. (1524-1531) Only a few horses fall in them. Las Casas addresses reader: You guess how many would've died! Then, indians bring Spaniards hatchets made from copper...Spaniards get mad that it's not gold and enslave them.
THEN, Spaniards wouldn't feed Indians they'd captured. They'd make them fight other tribes and told them, "you can eat whoever you kill. Rhetoric: "El es verdad que si hubiese de decir...hiciese un gran libro que el mundo espantase." Followed by exclamatory sentences of lamentation: ¡Cuántas lágrimas!
Another anecdote of a guy being tortured until "cierto religioso de San Francisco se lo quitó de las manos."
Yucután 1526
Selling slaves for goods. exaggeration: Trade an Indian prince for cheese.
-missionaries came and converted a few people
-Casas directly addresses reader....Look and consider
-Spaniards were hypocrites. Took natives' idols away and then tried to sell them idols from other tribes. Indians, says Casas, have a logical response: Why are you doing this?!?
From 1492-to "now", 1542, Spaniards haven't stopped this travesty. Rhetoric: if I had to tell you everything, this would be a larga historia.
In Nueva España: No hay servidores de dios ni de rey sino traidores a su ley y su rey. Bishop of Santa Marta tells king, "You should punish some of these guys." Indians are trustworthy, ready to convert, but Spaniards keep taking advantage of the situation.
Las Casas adds that Indians began killing frailes, "And by some miracle, I managed to escape."
It's a heartbreaking shame to see these happy lands destroyed. This is not love of one's neighbor.
Discusses pearl hunting: They make them stay underwater all day...and sometimes they don't emerge (sharks!) This activity puts them at a temporal/eternal risk of death.
"Dan los tigres y leones en las ovejas mansas."
-Talks about German Lutheran tyrant/hereje. Captured indios and before they could eat or be freed, other indios had to bring them gold.
-Las Casas mentions that the populations of the indios were "bien ordenados". Mentions certain #s of Indians...rhetoric: Según se dice...
Atibalba: rey universal, gente desnuda, armas de burla. This king wanted revenge, but he was killed. "But didn't I give you more than what was promised?" Spaniards never tell the truth.
Fray Marcos de Niza testifies against the Spaniards. "I saw..." first person testimony. Plus, because of this treatment, Indios have begun to hide their gold rather than turn it over.
Han destruido grandísima parte de linaje humano. Also, there's been no predicando b/c that would impede them from getting gold.
FIN..
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