Virgin Of Guadalupe Summary

In Spain and the Spanish colonies in South America in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, gender roles were distinct and the opportunity gap was enormous. Catalina de Erauso compares the two roles through her memoir, “Lieutenant Nun,” where she recounts her life as a transvestite in both the new and old world. Through having experienced the structured life of a woman as well as the freedom involved in being a man, de Erauso formed an identity for herself that crossed the boundaries of both genders. Catalina de Erauso’s life demonstrates the gap in freedom and opportunity for women, as compared to men, in the areas of culture, politics and economy, and religion.

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.

Convinced of the superiority of Catholicism to all other religions, Spain insisted that the primary goal of colonization was to save the Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under the sway of Protestantism. The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove the Indians, but to transform them into obedient Christian subjects of the crown. To the Spanish colonizers, the large native populations of the Americas were not only souls to be saved but also a labor force to be organized to extract gold and silver that would enrich their mother country. Las Casas’ writings and the abuses they exposed contributed to the spread of the Black Legend-the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer. This would provide of a potent justification for other European powers to challenge Spain’s predominance in the New World.

For decades, the history of Latin America has been shrouded in a cover of Spanish glory and myth that misleads and complicates the views of historians everywhere. Myths such as the relationship between natives and conquistadors, and the individuality of the conquistadors themselves stand as only a few examples of how this history may have become broken and distorted. However, in Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall goes to great lengths to dispel these myths and provide a more accurate history of Latin American, in a readable and enjoyable book.

The Spanish began exploring America with “gold, glory and God” large in their minds. Cortes and the

In colonial Latin America, one aspect of life that was constantly under attack and had to be guarded at all costs was the ideal of one's Honour. Women in colonial Latin America had to especially be on their guard to protect their honour, as an unanswered attack to their honour could ruin a family's honour. But if a woman's honour was attacked there were ways for her to protect it. The honour women possessed at the time was said to be not as important as the honour of a man, but it is, in fact, more important then the man's. By using Richard Boyer's document Catarina Maria Complains That Juan Teioa Forcibly Deflowered Her and Sonya Lipsett-Rivera's document Scandal at the Church: Jose de Alfaro Accuses Dona Theresa Bravo and Others of

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

“Victors and Vanquished,” through excerpts of Bernal Diaz del Castillo The True History of the Conquest of New Spain and indigenous testimonies from the Florentine Codex, represents the clash between European and indigenous cultures and how there was no simple “European” or “indigenous” view. Rather, there were a variety of European and indigenous opinions and interpretations that were influenced by personal interests, social hierarchy and classes, ethnic biases and political considerations.

In “Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Transvestite in the New World” by Catalina de Erauso, a female-born transvestite conquers the Spanish World on her journey to disguise herself as a man and inflicts violence both on and off the battlefield. Catalina discovers her hidden role in society as she compares herself to her brothers advantage in life, as they are granted money and freedom in living their own lives. Erauso decides to take action of this act of inequality by forming a rebellion, as she pledges to threaten the social order.The gender roles allotted to both men and women in the Spanish world represent the significance of societal expectations in order to identify the importance of gender in determining one’s position in the social order in the Spanish World.

Holly Brubach’s article, “Immaculate Perception,” is, in fact, an exploration of the Virgin Mary cult. Only, not a cult in the inflammatory sense of which people are accustomed. Rather, a cult in terms of an abstracted, deep-seated idolatry. Being the “cornerstone of ideal womanhood,” men and women of Catholic faith sanctify the Virgin Mary (Brubach, 130). However, doing so, does not come without consequence. Women of Catholic faith expected to meet the impossible standards of the Virgin Mary. How can anyone top giving birth to Jesus Christ? Nonetheless, women are expected to be the perfect wife and mother, along with submissive and asexual. Essentially, maintain “gender roles, behaviors, attitudes, and experiences [that] are defined as normal

Catalina de Erauso’s memoir, Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World, depicts gender relations in the early 17th century Spain. Erauso, through her detailed narrative of personal encounters with transvestism, reveals significant implications of the roles and expectations of the gender binary during this era. Her memoir evidently portrays gender binaries in dress, emotion, and interaction within society as she describes aspects of her journey from the perspective of both a woman and man. The male gender exhibits idealized masculine qualities, such as being violent and spontaneous, and the female gender exhibits idealized feminine qualities, such as emotional suppression and tranquility. Erauso expresses the distinct

This historical site encompasses a chain of five frontier Catholic missions, built by Franciscan missionaries along a 12.4 kilometer (7.7-mile) stretch of the San Antonio River in southern Texas in the early part of the 18th century. These missions tell a story of the Spanish colonial period in North America, and the efforts of the Spanish Crown to convert natives to Catholicism and protect and sustain New Spain’s northern frontier. The five missions are: San Jose, Espada, San Juan, Concepcion, and The Alamo/San Antonio de Valero. The San Antonio Missions also represents a blending of cultures-that of the Spanish and Coahuiltecan people, as evident in the decorative Catholic symbols and nature-inspired indigenous designs of the compounds. Today, Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan and Espada still serves as active Catholic parish churches.

December 12, Dia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, or better known as the day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a day celebrated by many Mexican Catholics. The night before on December 11 millions of people from every state visit the Basilica of our lady of Guadalupe, a Catholic church in Mexico City. Some people take several days or weeks to get there because they go by foot from state to state to reach to the Basilica. Mexicans honor their patron saint with prayers and songs, exactly at 12am she is praised with many special happy birthday songs. Mexicans praise her because hundreds of years ago on a hillside near Mexico City, a beautiful dark skinned woman appeared to Juan Diego, a poor Indigenous Catholic.

Both women may perform vastly different roles, but they are given the autonomy to choose what they do, and unlike the traditional Virgen, they are allowed to be in motion. Ester Hernandez also paints La Virgen de Guadalupe as a lesbian with short hair (Anzaldúa, 2015, 53). This is a powerful image because the virgin/whore dichotomy dictates that lesbians are traitors, and hence must be associated with Malinche, the opposite of the Virgen. By associating themselves with what their mothers see as a symbol of purity, lesbian daughters may be able to express their sexuality to their mothers. Similarly, Alma Lopez’s depiction of La Virgen similarly portrays her as a woman who has control over her sexuality.

Written in the mid 1500's, when Spain's perception of the monarch was divine and strongly linked to the Catholic Church one can draw the conclusion that each party (both the crown and De Las Casas) had a political interest in this situation. De Las Casas repetitively speaks of the horrific treatment of the Natives by the Spanish settlers and then cleverly draws a connection to the divinity and purity of the crown by stating that such terrible events could only have occurred because the monarch was unaware of what was going on. Due to the connection between politics and the Catholic Church, De Las Casas' writings were taken into serious consideration by the King who was having his own concerns regarding the Americas.