The Mission: Inaccurate Portrayals of the Guarani and Jesuit Relations

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.

The Jesuits missionaries in America faced many problems, one in particular dealt with relations between the missionaries and the Natives. The letter deals with the treatment of prisoners after a brief military engagement and in addition, attempts by the Jesuits to convert the captured Iroquois. The treatment of the prisoners seems benevolent, compared to the past modus operandi used by the Church to hasten conversion. Furthermore, the letter exemplifies the hypocrisy of the missionaries after the prisoners, willingly, convert. This letter is a perfect of the Counter Reformation, and Church's attempt to expend its areas of influence as well as to "save" more souls from the Devil. Furthermore, the content of the letter can be

Narineh Arkilian Dr. Galvan 12/08/16 Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana I visited the San Fernando mission on Nov 29, 2016 .The visit to the mission was one of the best experiences that I encountered. It was an exposure to a lot of details and helped me understand and reconnect with the past historical events and moments that we were studying throughout the semester. The San Fernando mission was the 17th mission founded by father juniper Serra. It was built to fill the gap between the mission San Buenaventura and the mission San Gabriel. We talked a lot about the Indians in the class and you mentioned that they are the silent victims of the history. I went to the mission in search to find answers to some of my questions and to confirm

Steven J. Stern’s text, Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest, highlights from beginning to end Spain’s conquest of the Andean people while articulating the transformation of the relationship between these two peoples. He illustrates how Spain’s efforts toward colonialism of the Andes, transformed the natives from a self-sufficient group of people into an oppressed caste system known as “Indians.” Additionally, he introduces the idea that the Spanish needed to break the indigenous and gain their favor in order successfully establish dominance over them and their land. While arguing this, he offers several facts, which contradict the black legend associated with the Spanish and their means of conquest.

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

In Miranda’s narrative, “Novena to Bad Indians”, it is clearly indicated that the title “Bad Indians” serves as a point to combat the negative connotations against Indians who resisted and rejected colonialism. The depiction of Native peoples is not only dehumanizing, but by employing irony, Miranda reveals a dominant narrative of mission history through the prayers of the novena in order to reject the narratives that define native people as

Alexie portrays how stereotyping, perpetuated at the hand of the dominant white culture, often strips the Indians of hope and engenders fatalistic attitudes. The closed-mindedness of the average

Daniel Castro examines the work of Las Casas. He discusses the humanitarian element Las Casas is known for but mainly highlights the rarely exposed ambivalent political and economic imperialistic motives behind his “humanitarianism” and his will to convert the Indigenous people. Castro focuses on the apostle and destructor dichotomy of Las Casas. Castro states that while Las Casas was fighting to defend indigenous rights, he was also actively and willingly participated in aiding Spanish’s destruction of the natives; “Las Casas’s work with and for the Indians is more paternalistic than paternal, more sympathetic than empathetic”. Castro emphasizes the Dominican’s actions as justification and aid to achieving the possession of the new land and their resources. He discredits the idea of Las Casas being an apostle by counter arguing that an apostle is an individual who “performs active person to person evangelizing to convert unbelievers to his/hers own faith, and proclaims that Las Casas rarely had direct contact with the indigenous people (pp. 3).

The Spanish and the indigenous people of Latin America (for the effects of this paper, I will use the term “Indian” as the identifying term for them) were two antithetical cultures that did not know that the other existed throughout their history; when Christopher Columbus landed in the “New World” during his first voyage, it was the reencounter of two societies that have been living differently until that moment…conflict is bound to happen anywhere. Both civilizations have some differences in the sense that the Spanish concentrated their lives on being prosperous and individualism, yet the Indians lived to serve the stability of their society and their structure rather than the individual. The Spanish and the Indians were definitely antithetical in some aspects; however, many similarities between the two

In the society that we live in, truth is often twisted, hidden, or lost due to a variety of reasons. By changing the truth, you are able to position the responders, into feeling particular emotions. Have you ever told a small white lie to protect the feelings of someone? Or maybe exaggerated a story to make it seem more funny? These techniques are often used by directors and filmmakers to make their movie more interesting. The film The Hurricane, based on Rubin Carter, a boxer who was sent to prison for allegedly committing a triple murder that he did not commit, would show factual events of his lifetime, right? The director Norman Jewison, in fact changed and twisted several events in order to manipulate and persuade the audience to feel empathy

Mission Essay In the movie “The Mission” a conflict arises between the Spanish and the Portugese is concerning the Guarani Indians and their land. This took in the 1750s in Northeastern Argentina with a Jesuit priest, Father Gabriel sent to Covent the Guarani Indians into Christiansand to build a mission. The characters include Father Gabriel, Rodrigo Mendoza and Papal Nuncio Altamirano.

Many historical fiction films that we watch fail to depict history in an accurate way due to the emphasis on entertainment and revenue instead of keeping the integrity of its historical events. However, some motion pictures stay true to history while providing entertainment through fictional stories. Although the stories are fictional, movie writers can craft stories that represent the history, attitudes, and personalities of a time period in a historically accurate way. A prime example of a movie that is entertaining and represents history accurately is Across The Universe, directed by Julie Taymor in 2007. This film succeeds in

He states, “[I]n documentary, realism serves to make an argument about the historical world seem persuasive” (Nichols 165). Persuading the audience is vital in films pertaining to social issues such as defining and examining

This question was a little more challenging to answer since most of the students had the same viewpoints. However, I did find one student’s blog to be very interesting. This student felt that many of the historical inaccuracies actually helped our understanding of the past. The student believed that most directors accurately portrayed the crucial parts or facts about the past, and that most inaccuracies helped spark emotion within the viewer to add emphasis to the facts. I found to be intriguing while reading the blog and I would have to strongly agree with the student. I feel that if a movie can create an interest of some kind, even if it’s an emotional connection, then it can cause us to pick up a book and to learn more; therefore, the inaccuracies did not harm us, but served its purpose as a tool for teaching us

The captivated film “The Mission”, takes place in the early modern world of the European expansion around 1750 in South America. It mainly illustrates the consequences of European encounter and exchange with indigenous peoples in America, allowing us see how the Treaty of Tordesillas had divided the western world into two parts – Spain and Portugal. Under this treaty, Spain was awarded half of the world and the other half belonged to Portugal. This connects to the fact of how the movie depicted the two great colonial forces, one that were the imperialist Spain and Portugal whom was interested in the wealth that was found in establishing a trade in slaves. In contrast were the missionaries, mainly Jesuits that were more interested in spreading