Strictly Supercilious But Certainly Not Saintly In his biography “Junipero Serra”, Steven Hackel portrays Father Junipero Serra as a notable figure because of his contribution to California’s past archive. Hackel describes Father Serra as passionate, yet hardened (Hackel 3) despite common controversy on Serra’s character. Additionally, Hackel alludes to other influences in Father Serra’s life; apart from his environment, his educational and religious enrichment in various institutions were also a big influence on his values and identity that led him to be known as a “particularly devout and dedicated Franciscan”. (29) Hackel recreates Serra’s image, and takes his readers on a journey into Serra’s personal transformation from his poorly documented early life to his later success in his occupational endeavors and very grand accomplishments in religion which earn him a place as an influential figure in California’s history despite his excessive, strict, ruthless and vastly condescending religious viewpoints which would not be widely accepted by readers in the modern era. Father Junipero Serra began his preaching work shortly after being …show more content…
Hackel speculates that “With each passing year Junipero Serra exerted less influence on the overall shape of the colony itself. In the final years of his life, above all else, the baptisms and the confirmations he could provide to California Indians gave his life direction and motivation” (142). Hackel aims, not to create a sort of idealistic image of Serra as a saint, but rather one which portrays him as a man who was dogmatic, with imperfections and faults, who categorized, captured and reflected the time and culture of “colonial enterprises”.
Additionally, this essay would be a good read for those interested in the topic of sexuality, gender and culture or anyone studying anthropology. This essay contributes to understanding aspects of California history that is not primarily discussed. The reader gets and insight on two different cultures, and the effects of them merging together -- in this case, the cultures of the Spaniards and Indians. I believe that this article supports Competing Visions as the text also discusses how “the object of the missions was to convert the natives to Christianity as well as to Hispanicize them…” and both touch upon the topic of the rapes of
Teja, Jesus F. De La. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin. Austin: State House Press, 1991.
Kaplan spends a great deal of time discussing the local historical significance of Coronado, Cortez and Compostela. He speaks of the hero worship the Mexican citizens display for these men in each city he visits, and then calls these men “crude zealots [who] massacred Indians, built Christian altars where they had smashed idols, and went mad at the sight of gold,” while he calls the white protestant settlers on America’s east coast “children of European Enlightenment.” While somewhat interesting [and slightly strange], this information seems to have little bearing on the rest of the article. If he understood what the significance of this information was, he failed to make the connection apparent to his audience. He does not discuss any historical figures with connection to the American Southwest and therefore any relevance is lost. It almost appears as though he was sidetracked for three or four paragraphs.
Through the entire article, de las Casas discusses how great the Indians of the New World are. In paragraph 2 he states: "And all the infinite universe of humanity, these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve. They are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world. And because they are so weak and complaisant, they are less able to endure heavy labor and soon die of no matter what malady. The sons of nobles among us, brought up in the enjoyments of life 's refinements, are no more delicate than are these Indians, even those among them who are of the lowest rank of laborers.” They are also poor people, for they not only possess little but have no desire to possess worldly goods. For this reason they are not arrogant, embittered, or
Adventures In The Unknown Interior of America, a narrative by Cabeza De Vaca, contains many pieces of information that are applicable to present day society and the culture that has been created. The values of today’s moral code and the moral code of those who lived in the fifteen-hundreds, whether or not they knew Spain as their mother country or America to be the only country, have similar qualities. Not only has moral code contained similar values but it also contains comparable accommodation to different cultures living among one another.
Murderer, liar, manipulator; these are only a few words that describe the enigmatic Sergeant John Wilson. In the historical book, The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson: A True Story of Love & Murder, written by Lois Simmie, we get acquainted with the complex balancing act of a life John Wilson lived. We find out about his two-faced love life, the bloody solution, and the elaborate cover up. In Simmie’s thought-provoking book, John Wilson abandons his family in Scotland, for a better life in Canada on the force. John battles debilitating sickness along with the decision to double-cross his wife. His young love interest Jessie cares for him as he battles tuberculosis. While, “many young women Jessie’s age would have had second thoughts about commitment
In the beginning of Something Wicked This Way Comes the story introduces Jim Nightshade and William Halloway. Jim is an ornery and impatient teenager, desperately wanting to break free from the yolk of childhood to become the adult he has always desired to be and Will wants to stay inside his comfort zone, which involves him staying a child for as long as he is able to. Something Wicked This Way Comes accurately addresses the sometimes difficult transition from adolescence into early adulthood.
Young, Al. “Coastal Nights and Inland Afternoons”. California Ethnic Literature from 1900. Ed. Anthony Rizzuto. Sonoma State University: Spring 2014. 12.
[2] Davis, Williams. Seventy-five years in California; a history of events and life in California. Part 67
When Spaniards colonized California, they invaded the native Indians with foreign worldviews, weapons, and diseases. The distinct regional culture that resulted from this union in turn found itself invaded by Anglo-Americans with their peculiar social, legal, and economic ideals. Claiming that differences among these cultures could not be reconciled, Douglas Monroy traces the historical interaction among them in Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California. Beginning with the missions and ending in the late 1800s, he employs relations of production and labor demands as a framework to explain the domination of some groups and the decay of others and concludes with the notion that ?California would have been, and would be today, a different place indeed if people had done more of their own work.?(276) While this supposition may be true, its economic determinism undermines other important factors on which he eloquently elaborates, such as religion and law. Ironically, in his description of native Californian culture, Monroy becomes victim of the same creation of the ?other? for which he chastises Spanish and Anglo cultures. His unconvincing arguments about Indian life and his reductive adherence to labor analysis ultimately detract from his work; however, he successfully provokes the reader to explore the complexities and contradictions of a particular historical era.
Have you ever felt so much guilt and shame that you want to kill yourself? Francis Cassavant in Heroes, by Robert Cormier, is a realistic and relatable character who has suffered from this feeling ever since he was little. Even as a child, he has felt unusual and out of place compared to everyone else. Francis’s characteristics determine his actions throughout his story and motivate him to join the army, beginning his expedition as a so-called “hero”.
... gives insight into Junpero Serra’s world, his views, and how he changed New Spain and California. He inspired to spread Catholicism, the suppression of natives’ individualism, and the rejection of materialism. The books helps to show Juniper Serra in the good and bad. He had faults like any human being. Apart from seeing Junipero Serra in his life the world around him was also on display. It shows how New Spain and California was with the influence of Junipero Serra and how has drastically changed over time to what it is today. Now here in California there are various religions not just Catholicism anymore. California society is now individualistic something Serra had fought against; furthermore in society materialism is even more important than ever before. There changes have provided us the people a picture of the California of the past. One we should not forget.
Nevertheless, in the author’s note, Dunbar-Ortiz promises to provide a unique perspective that she did not gain from secondary texts, sources, or even her own formal education but rather from outside the academy. Furthermore, in her introduction, she claims her work to “be a history of the United States from an Indigenous peoples’ perspective but there is no such thing as a collective Indigenous peoples’ perspective (13).” She states in the next paragraph that her focus is to discuss the colonist settler state, but the previous statement raises flags for how and why she attempts to write it through an Indigenous perspective. Dunbar-Ortiz appears to anchor herself in this Indian identity but at the same time raises question about Indigenous perspective. Dunbar-Ortiz must be careful not to assume that just because her mother was “most likely Cherokee,” her voice automatically resonates and serves as an Indigenous perspective. These confusing and contradictory statements do raise interesting questions about Indigenous identity that Dunbar-Ortiz should have further examined. Are
It is important that historians use Díaz’s account because it was his own eye witnessed manuscript on the Spanish conquest after reading slanted, inaccurate, and fabricated stories. Díaz wrote this document for Spain and its people to clarify the rumored false statements about natives. It is important to consider his audience because they were the ones who stood by the falsity. From the start historians can use the manuscript to rule out that early American society was primitive and uncultivated. Seeing that Díaz participated in all major events of the Conquest, he described what he saw when he and the other Spaniards first ...
In the interior, the desire to control house herds - a critical resource in California was the reason for American trappers, horse thieves, Mexican soldiers and rancheros congregate. Sutter’s connection to an Indian woman (p. 39)