Transcultification In Mexico : A Summary Of The Virgin Of Guadalupe

The legacy and impact of the Spanish conquest is continually discussed and analyzed. The struggle in finding native identities while also acknowledging Spanish heritage is a continuing process in Latin America. Modern film and art, such as Salvador Carrasco’s La Otra Conquista and Diego Rivera’s mural the arrival of Cortés speak about the conquest and its effects on Mexico identity. The film challenges myths about the conquest by arguing against the greatness of Cortés, showing power in native agency, and Spanish dependency on interpreters. The mural upholds myths of the conquest like the black legend, minimizes

The reading “An Aztec account of the Spanish Conquest” is mainly about a story when Hernan Cortes came for the first time at Tenochtitlan (nowadays Mexico City). The Aztecs believes that when Hernan Cortes arrive they believe the he was Quetzalcoatl, the main god in the Aztec culture. Cortes were friendly invite to the Aztec city as the most important guest, the Aztec people made a big party to celebrate the return of their god, but the Aztec people did not know Cortes intentions of conquer the empire. Later the Aztecs were betrayed by Hernan Cortes. Cortes’s army began to attack the city and at the end they take over the city.

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

Leon-Portilla based the stories told in this book upon old writings of actual Aztec people who survived the Spanish massacres. The actual authors of the stories told in this book are priests, wise men and regular people who survived the killings. These stories represent the more realistic view of what really happened during the Spanish conquest. Most of the history about the Aztec Empire was based on Spanish accounts of events, but Leon-Portilla used writings from actual survivors to illustrate the true history from the Indians’ point of view.

While many native hybridized Christianity into their own beliefs, others resisted Christianity in order to maintain traditional beliefs. In the Huejotzingo letter, the town council mentioned that, “(The People of) many towns were forced and tortured, were hanged or burned because they did not want to leave idolatry, and unwilling they received the gospel and faith.” (236). Under colonial mindset and the concept of “just war” via the Requerimiento, the Spanish forcibly converted natives into Christianity. The Tlaxcalans, for example, hybridized European practices, such as baptism, into their religious beliefs because of their defeat against the Spanish. In the paintings shown through the Lienzo de Tlaxcala (125), governors of Tlaxcala are being baptized in order to emphasize their conversions and loyalty. Throughout the painting, tropes of military technology, through the drawings of iron lances, and Christianity, through the cross with Jesus crucified and the picture of

Before the 15th century, the Indians in the Americas were not connected with the world and would remain that way until Columbus's exploration. In the beginning of 15th century, the Aztecs were the dominant group in Mesoamerica leaded by Montezuma, the last leader, before the Spanish conquest. In 1519, Hernan Cortez led the Spanish mission to explore and conquer the New World. This paper will compare three primary sources about this event. First, an informing letter sent from Cortez to King Charles V, the king of Spain. Second, the Broken Spears which is an Indian recollection about the conquest of Mexico. Lastly, Bernal Diaz’s (one of Cortez’s men) account was written by him to share his experience with Aztec

In the film created by Salvador Carrasco, he tells us the story of the oppressed Aztecs by the Spanish conquistadors. The film leads to a social and religious understanding by two of the main characters Topiltzin (a native Aztec) and Fray Diego, (a friar in Catholicism). Together, both characters form a bond and that lets for the two different cultures to get together for the viewers to understand that these cultures are more in tune than what they seem. Carrasco, divides his movie into two parts, setting the tone for the mirroring of scenes, duality, and parallelism that takes place during the course of the movie. The director intends for his viewers to draw important connections from these elements that bring them to a greater understanding of social culture, religion, and faith. In one of the final scenes leading up the end of the movie, Fray Diego confronts Topiltzin at the church. At this point that the viewer sees a behavior change in Fray Diego's eyes. Fray Diego knows Topiltzin's feelings toward religion, indicating the large strides that he has made over the years in

Spain sought out to colonize the New World and, most importantly, influence Christianity. This writing is historically significant because it validates the interactions of the aggressive Christians doing and the innocent Indians, which is eventually revealed to the Spanish public. Certain use of pathos in Cabeza de Vaca’s perspective is the most persuasive tool in his journal. His own experience in land where he too was enslaved, like how the Indians were to the Spanish, justifies his own thoughts and empathy for the victims. His accounts as a witness prompt readers to believe his word. Cabeza de Vaca’s insight onto how the foreigners treated the natives and why they were inclines to retaliate, was intended to reveal the truth. This line stated directly to his audience explains his betrayal, lastly exposing the Spanish men: “This clearly shows how the design of men sometimes miscarry. We went on with the idea of insuring the liberty of the Indians…when we believed it to be

Hernan Cortez was a Spanish conquistador that landed in Mexico in April of 1519. Upon his arrival, he met a native woman named Dona marina. Dona marina spoke many languages and was eventually Cortez’s interpreter when he found the Aztec empire. It was because that the Aztecs saw Cortez as some god and the weapon differences that he took advantage of that and killed off everyone leading to a defeated Aztec empire Cortez eventually claimed Mexico for Spain. Cortez is important to history because he began the European

13. Virgin of Guadalupe – Is the patron Saint of Mexico that is very well known throughout Catholicism and Spanish cultures. Catholic religion tells the story of how she first appeared to a man by the name of Juan Diego during the 15th century.

“The moment I understood her hatred, my family had not been personally hurt by Trujillo just as before losing my baby. Jesus had not taken anything away from me. There was the Perozos, not a man left in that family and Martinez Reyna and his wife murdered in their bed and thousands of Haitians murdered at the border. Making the river they say still red. I had heard but not believed. How could our all loving father let us suffer? I looked up challenging him and the two faces merged” (Alvarez 53).

Before being convicted, Guaman Poma was serving and protecting the Church as an interpreter of a visitador or inspector named Cristobal de Albornoz. He helped to identify and capture practitioners of native religion during the first campaigns to stop idolatry. He gives proof of this fact, by picturing Albornoz supervising the punishment of a native Andean (Figure 1). The Andean has an image, of himself playing with the devil, on top of his head, which represents idolization. He shows his fear towards the Spaniards by being in a state of shock and crying as if he is innocent. The other Andean that is getting instructions from the priest is a member of the inspection team. He seems very determined and supportive of the Church and feels no sorrow for punishing the native. Guaman Poma approved the fight against idolatry because in his drawings, the Andean inspectors always fight against their own tradition and religion by protecting the Church. Another important issue that Guaman Poma supported is evangelization of the Andean people. His vivid drawings and issues suggest that he pressed on the need of evangelization (Figure 2). For example in this figure, an Andean woman is terrified by these animals and forced to become a Christian. Her fear is

Representation” by Michael Schreffler argues that “ . . . early modern rhetoric and iconography . . . constructed a distorted view of painting in Aztec Mexico and entangled it in the conventions of colonial historiography” (407). This essay is effective because of its thorough examination of the accounts that explain a painting made by the Aztec’s at San Juan de Ulúa on Easter Sunday of 1519.

Sor Juana was very different from the other women living in Colonial Latin America. She was a woman that strove for more out of life, regardless of gender and social stratifications. Even as a child, Sor Juana begged her mother to dress her as a boy so she could attend the schools and Universities in Mexico City. She chose to live her life in the convent, not because of her undying need to study the lord's word, but because it opted her out of the marriage life and allowed her to study and continue her learning. She wanted nothing to do with the lifestyle of a normal colonial woman and the only "children" that she was interested in having were her precious library, telescope and other tools of learning. Women of colonial Latin America we seen as objects, that provided a means of reproduction. Sor Juana greatly disagreed with this and based the majority of her work on this concept.

The Earth’s third largest continent, taking up a massive 9.54mi, is North America. With 23 separate countries making up this huge land mass, there is certainly room for variety. One of these countries is Mexico, which is located in the mountainous west. Mexico has its own unique history, culture, and geography that sets it apart from the other countries in North America.