Announcements

• Movie screening next week. Not required, but all are invited.

LA History and Culture blog post by Chris

“Pope Francis’ Colombian Visit”

Context for the visit:

• Referendum to pardon the FARC rebels did not pass
• Despite the lack of support, the pardon was passed as law anyway
• The suggested pardon was not widely supported due to suffering endured on the part of the rebels

Controversial decision:

• This move was controversial because the government decided to ignore popular support
• Pope Francis decided to support this move for peace
• Colombia government, despite passing the bill, does not uphold their end of the deal
  • Allowances for re-integration into Colombian society

This article mainly reflects the failures of the Colombian government, while not providing much perspective from Colombian citizens. It also provides emphasis on the influence and involvement of Catholicism in South American politics. Included is a link to an interactive webpage detailing the history of the Vatican and South America.

Questions:

• What was the nature of the conflict between Colombia and FARC?
  • FARC was a Marxist organization with involvement in drug trade
  • The Colombian government wanted to re-use the farm space that was being used to grow drugs
  • FARC was kidnapping political figures for ransom
  • Multiple parties increased the violence of their tactics
  • FARC was one of the most well-funded criminal organizations in the world
• This referendum was not passed?
  • The majority vote did not support the referendum, but the Colombian government decided to pass it into law regardless
  • A storm that was present on the day of the referendum potentially suppressed voter turnout, leading many to call for a second referendum
• Why is the Catholic Church making strides in Latin America?
  • Catholicism in Latin America had relatively recent changes reflecting on what the majority of people want
  • After the ’60s, masses were no longer being held in Latin
  • Shifts in the relations between the public and priests occurred
  • The Vatican has also been making moves with social change
  • Compared to evangelical sects, Catholicism is not as conservative as stereotypes claim
    • In accordance with everyday life, the Catholic Church tends to be more liberal
  • Pope Francis has been drawing on his experiences in Latin America
  • The Church has also been involved in mediation in Venezuela
  • Cuba also had some involvement in Colombia alongside the Church
• Comments about “dirty wars”
  • Huge death tolls
  • Not everybody will necessarily be happy with peace

Questions about the Paper

• How do you want us to get the citation info for the primary sources?
  • The info is available for the web sources
  • Ask the writing center or the Purdue OWL for help on citations
  • The photocopy source doesn’t come with info, so a link has been provided
• Do you want us to cite throughout the paper?
  • Yes, and be sure to use footnotes
• When citing journals, is it necessary to include the dates?
  • Yes, including citations builds credibility as an author
  • When using a quote, be sure to contextualize the quote and explain why you used it
    • Usually, you want to paraphrase
• Zotero is very useful for citations
  • It saves you time
  • Be sure to invest in learning how to use it
  • There are videos available online
• Be sure to pick one primary and one secondary source
  • You are allowed to use two secondary sources
  • Be sure to engage in an argument, not just state facts
• How do we cite a letter?
  • Author, title, reprinted in…
• Secondary sources can be refuted, you don’t have to agree with them
• Make sure the paper is short and focused
  • Each paragraph should be organized and have a topic sentence

Primary source analysis

Professor Holt divided us into three groups to focus on the three different perspectives involved in the primary sources that we had read for this class. The three perspectives were Hernán Cortés, Bernal Díaz, and the Florentine Codex. We discussed the similarities and differences between the sources and determined the factors that contributed to the contextualization of the perspectives of these sources.

Hernán Cortés:

The letter was written to Carlos V. Cortés was trying to emphasize the nature and usefulness of the new world. He describes how the natives disfigured their bodies with piercings. He also compared the architecture to the Moors, showing his perspective of other cultures as being grouped together. He criticized the human sacrifices that the natives took part in and declared that these should be removed from their practices immediately, focusing on how the Spanish will change everything. Similar to Columbus’ letter that we have read in class previously, Cortés had a lot of focus on the body.

The perspective involved how Cortés was trying to be persuasive to a monarch. Unlike how when Columbus saw innocence among the natives, Cortés saw savagery. He saw it as the Spanish’s obligation to convert the natives to Catholicism. Also it was noteworthy that Columbus and Cortés were talking about different peoples. Focus on how the new world can provide assets to Spain, he focused on the “gold, God, and glory.”

Bernal Díaz:

Díaz was a soldier that served under Cortés. The source focuses on the interactions between Cortés and the Nahua people. He called his source “The True History of Conquest.” He wrote it to try and right Cortés’ wrongs from what he had said about the conquest of the new world. By the time of publication, the reputation of the new world was already heavily embedded in Europe.

There is still some overlying bias in Díaz’s account, although much less compared to Cortés. He has a much more balanced approach, and includes more details in his account. However, he still makes some cultural assumptions, understanding that the natives are “savages” and sees the need for no further explanation.

Florentine Codex:

The Florentine Codex (named after the fact that it is being archived in Florence) was an indigenous account of the Spanish post-conquest. It was written by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún who was a Franciscan friar. He learned the indigenous languages and recorded a collaborated account, leading to some still present bias tied to mediation.

The Codex displayed the perspective that they saw the Spanish as godly, but the natives were trying to scare the Spanish away. However, the Spanish did not leave, which led to much concern on the natives’ parts, showing a perspective of “we’re nothing to them.” (Ants among giants).

Bernardino still had his bias as a missionary. It is worth understanding what people were willing to tell him. Cortés was detailed as a divine figure in the Codex. There was a lot of emphasis on the interest in the new technologies, such as the iron armor and weapons. There was also some focus on the curliness of the Spaniards’ hair and beards, as well as the different colors.

Think about:
How do the Spaniards return their hospitality? How to the Spaniards fight?

Announcements/Misc.

• Essay: writing center in library for assistance with citations, general help, etc. Upload to Moodle (preferably as a .pdf) by 12:00 noon on Friday
• Wikipedia Article: sign up for one soon. Look through Prof. Holt’s posted list of underdeveloped topics to get ideas going. To start finding your own topics, google “wikiproject [desired theme/subject]”. This should take you to a “Talk:” page about whatever category you searched. Click on a specific topic. It should take you to a page that contains a colorful chart mapping the importance of the topic versus the coverage already on it. It is much easier to explain in person, so ask Prof. Holt or someone else in class to show you how to navigate this – it makes looking for potential projects significantly easier.
• Midterm coming soon

Yeeun’s Blog Post – Inca Kola

An interesting observation of material culture, we looked at how nationalism for              Inca and therefore Peruvian culture manifested itself in this specific soft drink that          has been around since the early 1900s. Invented by an English immigrant family            (the Lindleys) in Lima, this soft drink has consistently defeated Coca Cola in local            popularity and is nowadays almost tied with its competitor. Other points of interest          were how, in advertisements, traditional Andean clothing and art styles were                    celebrated and capitalized upon, but usually when worn by fairer-skinned,                        European models, and how strongly the drink identifies itself as an embodiment of          being Peruvian.

El Requerimiento

A Spanish document both very straightforward and very dense with meaning and            interpretation. At a basic level, it is a message to be read to any natives of the                New World stating that they will convert to the true Faith or face dire                                consequences (enslavement of family members, destruction of way of life, etc.).              We discussed a few major points: the self-appointed authority and power of the              Spaniards and the Pope over this part of the world, the alleviation of culpability on          the part of the Catholics on the consequences of their actions (it’s the                              natives’ decision to refuse conversion, after all; the Spaniards view it as their hand          being forced if they do so refuse), and the rhetoric used throughout, specifically              the choice to be vague when speaking of what “conversion” actually consists of,              and very explicit when speaking of the threats against the indigenous population.            Also of notice should be the fact that the Spanish believe that conversion should            not be forced. This was shaped greatly by the history Christian Iberia had had in            experiencing a religious “other” with the Jewish and Muslim populations. So                    conveniently they considered it an honest conversion to read a document of great          importance and fine instruction in Spanish to a people who do not know Spanish,            and to preface their ultimatum with saying that most of the other people who                    they’ve encountered converted willingly. If they convert, fantastic; if they do not,              they have made their own “educated” decision and have sealed their fate.

This Monday we passed out our HAPs for Wednesday, September 13. The History department will host a dinner/social gathering event at Bornhuetter pavilion from 5-7 p.m on Wednesday, September 13. Emily presented her LA Culture blog post. Titled “Indigenous woman in politics: a complex proposition”, Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza was an indigenous woman who broke social norms of an indigenous woman running for office in Mexico. Emily connected this to a broad class theme of P.O.V. Eufrosina is viewed as corrupted/unfit for some, but for others she’s a hero. For a long time women and indigenous people are believed to be unfit for leadership roles in their communities, so this woman’s status in her community causes a lot controversy to conservatives in Mexico.

We briefly discussed the massacre in Brazil of an indigenous amazonian group. We have our own biases and when we look at groups like these, we see how we can look at the un-contacted people similarly to the Europeans. We both objectively look at clothing/nudity, as a marker for civilization.

 We looked at the first paper guidelines. We are to use a primary source and through our own interpretation we will analyze a secondary source to form an argument on the primary source we were started with. There are 3 available sources.

• Columbus’ “Letter to the King & Queen of Spain” (1494)
• Pedro Vaz de Caminha, “Letter to the King of Portugal” (1500)
• Martin Waldseemüller, Universalis cosmographia, (1507)

Paper is due September 22 at noon. We will submit this as a pdf to Moodle and Professor Holt will grade it online as well. Use the writing center. Professor Holt Encourages it.  Use Zotero, all the cool historians use it! Ask library if you need any help. Peer-review is encouraged. Rubrics have been passed out.

We split up into small groups. Discussed our weekly words and talked about the culture and atmosphere of the Caribbean in the late 15th century. Some important statements were about the social structure revolved around various forms of art. The economy is marine based, people from the Caribbean would establish trade relations with main-land people more often than not. We then turned to a big group and discussed the map of the Caribbean and why its geographical location affected the people and culture there. The articles mentioned  ceramics and stones that remained on the island. They also talked about material culture, tools, artifacts and value they placed on them. There seems to be more material culture because written language was not there. Also, because the region is so hot, humid, and wet, many artifacts cannot be preserved. Many storms would destroy vessels and various settlements on the islands. (Look at Hurricane Irma of this past week) We shifted our focus to Brazil and compared the demographics of Native Americans from then to now. We look at the sharp decrease in population sizes after the contact with Europeans. Coastal people were more susceptible to plague and violence because of their relative distance to the shore. That explains why interior people populations did not fall at such a steep decline.

We ended our conversation by touching back on our original theme of the class: European agency thought this era. On these islands we find literal traces of colonialism in DNA records. Many natives of these islands have lineage to Native American women. We remind ourselves that women were subjected to a lot of physical and sexual abuse by European men. We have to account and acknowledge that not only were these white European males colonizing the land, but these use sexual assault as warfare for the women who also resisted.

References: 

http://www.funai.gov.br/index.php/indios-no-brasil/quem-sao