Spanish Colonial American Framework

This painting was completed for the four hundredth anniversary of the Conquest and it was exhibited originally in the Mexican pavilion for the World Colombian exhibition in Chicago in 1893. In being showcased to the public, it was meant to have a dark representation of the already dark subject matter of the Conquest. Izaguirre creates a heritage filled with political meaning for Mexico in this historical painting of the Torture of Cuauhtemoc.

The Spanish, French, and English all established major settlements in North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In each colony, settlement revolved around different types of trade: plantations and mining in New Spain, the fur trade in New France, and tobacco and the family farm in British North America. There were many similarities among these countries’ approaches to settling, but also enormous differences.

Several nations, most notably Spain, France, and Great Britain, attempted to colonize North America after the Americas were discovered. Some of these colonies became successful and was very beneficial to their nations, bringing in raw materials and new crops. However, this also led to some conflicts between the Native Americans and the Europeans. Even though these European colonies developed in different areas in North America, there were some political, social, and economic similarities, such as the French and Spanish governments, main religion in New France and New Spain, and the basis of the economy, and some differences, such as the views on the Indians, the New England government, and the focus on what was traded.

Though North America was first explored by Europeans when Nordic people settled in modern-day Canada circa the 11th century, widespread colonization of the North American continent did not truly occur until the arrival of Spanish explorers four centuries later. English explorers quickly followed the Spanish to the New World and, though each group of colonists faced similar issues, the two colonies handled life in North and Central America quite differently. The Spanish and English colonies were generally the same in regard to their treatment of Native Americans while significantly different when examining the role of the European government on their colonies ' leadership in addition to their diverse economic foundations.

The above image is a painting by Antonio Ruiz and is called “El sueño de la Malinche” meaning “The Dream of Malinche”. It depicts a Mexican town within the Aztec Empire, that is built upon a resting woman named Malinche. The image depicts the woman sleeping with the the Mexican city lying on her, therefore with one toss or turn being catastrophic to the city, and is further depicted to have lightning striking her head, which means to further risk the Mexican City being destroyed by Malinche’s action.

The Virgin of Guadalupe is a syncretic figure between the Spanish and Indian cultures because, for one, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the symbolic mother, which rest between humans and God, in both the Spanish and Indian cultures. When the Spanish came to America in efforts to try and conquer the Native Americans, but failed to do so in the end, they began converted many of the Indians into their religion, Catholicism. Since mostly all Native Americans were converted into Catholicism by the time the Spanish had left, due to the Pueblo Revolt, the Virgin of Guadalupe had become the Indians Native American Mother. With many of the Virgin of Guadalupe’s features, for instance, her brown skin representing characteristics of the natives. Just as the

Right after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Coatlicue’s statue was viewed as a representation of the “savagery” of the Native Americans. In part, the vast cultural differences and social relationships attributed to this depiction. As Spain was a Catholic state, Coatlicue’s statue was seen as an idol, which was seen as dangerous to worship. Furthermore, the large amount of serpent imagery, while sacred to the Aztecs, was seen as devilish traits. After all, the snake was the animal that tricked humans to be ousted from Eden in Christian ideology. Compounded with the fact that Coatlicue showed references to human sacrifice, the Spanish saw the statue of the goddess as devil-worship and a sign of paganism, as contrasted to what they

Cuban insurgents considered the victory theirs, but it was obvious it was the Americans. Even the British correspondents who had once derided their American cousins esteemed differently. Spanish forces consolidated and resisted at Fort Canosa, then an American siege of the city happened, which was aided by Cuban forces. A much deadlier enemy came upon the Americans; malaria and yellow fever, which caused more deaths than Spanish bullets. Despite the Spaniards’ advantage in numbers and weaponry, because of the deaths of the disease, American forces pushed inland. The Spanish fleet only lasted hours on July 3.

Figure 3. called the “Virgin of Guadalupe,” would relate to the period of time where the people of Pueblos was presented with the religion of Christianity. Having the H=23.5ins X=10ins X= 8ins. Made with clay, slip, and wild spinach paints. The struggles of converting to christianity was full of pain and suffering. As you see the figure, the Virgin is

America’s expansion overseas was a positive part of American history because it showed other countries that the United States is a world power. Before the Spanish American War, European Countries had control over many different countries in the Western and Eastern hemisphere. Imperialistic nations were not showing other countries how to develop democratic traditions. America decided that we needed to step up and help these countries grow economically and form democracies. Also, the United States needed to protect our ability to trade, protect the lives of American citizens, and properties of American citizens.

The background tells the morbid story of the Spanish Conquistadors facilitating the oppression of the natives not only into slavery but also into religious submission. A religious service is depicted in the left potion of the mural. Indians are shown being whipped and ultimately hung. The impression given is the Indians are branded property bought and traded. Cortes appears several times in the mural once receiving payment or tribute. In the other appearance, Cortes looks powerful on arrival. While in another corner, he is sickly and weak. The animals also contribute to the vicious and vivid imagery

This is a prefered medium of Diegos and it is what he uses in most of his large scale works. This is a mural is allegorical and tells multiple stories. Typically Diego’s works is more political yet this particular is more biblical. At the top of this mural one will see three blessing hands that represent Divine Trinity. It’s also following egyptian icongraphy of Aton, the symbol of the creative sun.

Purpose: The purpose of the paintings were to provide the Spanish with a system of ethnic classification so that they could keep tack of intermixing of Spanish blood in the new world. Its purpose was to also communicate in the new world where people stood in the hierarchy system based on their bloodlines and percentage of Spaniard blood.

1. Three arguments’ that Juan Gines de Sepulveda used to justify enslaving the Native Americans were for gold, ore deposits, and for God’s sake and man’s faith in him. 2. Three arguments that Bartolome de las Casas gave in attacking Spanish clonial policies in the New World were the Indians eating human flesh, worshiping false gods, and also, he believed that the Indians were cowardly and timid. 3. For comparisons that Sepulveda used, in lines 1-7, to express the inferiority of the Indians was their prudence, skill virtues, and humanity were inferior to the Spanish as children to adults, or even apes to men. Comparisons he used to dismiss the significance of the Indians

If you were to visit the Dallas Museum of Art, you would find a truly remarkable painting created by an unknown artist entitled, The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. This particular painting is located in the American Art - Spanish Colonial level in the Dallas Museum of Art and is part of The Cleofas and Celia de la Garza Collection.