Bartolomé de las Casas was successful in his defense of the mistreatment of indigenous people in part because of his character. He was intensely passionate, devoted to his faith, and an informidable scholar. Through his life experiences, Las Casas amassed many successes throughout his life. Las Casas found success in his plight of the Natives leading to the New Laws of the Indies, in the debate of social injustices with Sepulveda—which resulted in Las Casas’ ability to continue his fight for the Natives—and the powerful and long enduring ways, through the life he led and his many written works, that continued to contribute to the human rights of indigenous people in the Americas.
Bartolomé de las Casas passion for the plight of the Natives
…show more content…
Native people in the Americas, up and to recent history, have benefited from his advocation of human rights for indigenous people. Many different human rights movements and struggles for independence from all over the Americas have referred back to his works and legacy throughout the centuries. Abolitionists throughout time, called upon his works. Bartolomé de las Casas was referred to as the “Apostle of the Americas” and a “humane hero” by a hero, in his own right, of Hispanic independence in the early 19th century in Latin America, the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, who was inspired by Las Casas’ works. An important time after WWII and the creation of the United Nations gave rise to a declaration for human rights. Human equality and human fraternity expressed as follows: ‘“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”’ in the rights declarations of the enlightenment and in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are ideas Las Casas upheld in his time. Las Casas has been referred to as one of the early fathers of the 20th century modern social movement of indigenismo, the indigenous peoples in Latin America represented by an outsider in defense of issues some regarding political and social sciences discourses . A “Defender of the Indians”, Las Casas could have been …show more content…
Perspective is in the eye of the beholder. His narrative on the mistreatment of the indigenous people and the Spaniards actions are his truths as he witnessed them and therefore accurate. One has to understand who the narrative belongs to and the consistency of their accounts. Las Casas was severely criticized by those who studied him. Daniel Castro, an author, referred to Las Casas as an imperialist of the religious kind: fighting for the rights of the Indians, but never questioning the push of Christianity itself on the Indians, a contradiction.. Christianity never needed to be forced on the Indians since their customs and traditions did not deviate far from Christianity. LasCasas was able to persuade the Indians to convert. Persuading the Indians instead of forcing them to convert to Christianity, still allowed for religious freedom. Taking part in the encomienda system and owning Native slaves, was a contradiction to his teachings and in 1514 Las Casas rejected the encomienda system and freed his slaves. In doing so, he saw the err of his ways and understood that it went against his faith and everything it and he stood for,and forever more lived his life accordingly. It brought a more feverish rise to his crusade for better treatment of the
Guillermo González Camarena was a Mexican electrical engineer who was the inventor of a color-wheel type of color television, and who also introduced color television to Mexico,
The mission was established initially in 1690 as Mission San Francisco de los Tejas in East Texas. The mission was abandoned and moved to the West Bank of the San Antonio River and was called Mission San Francisco de la Espada in 1731. Its purpose was to serve the Coahuiltecan tribes and educate them in religion.
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
Zinn’s viewpoint of Bartolome de las Casas is that Bartolome wants to spread the Christian faith to Indians in America. He does not want to own land and make Indian people his slaves. Bartolome somehow admired the Indians because Indians have a lot of living skills and are capable to do many things to protect their home from other tribes.
Bartolome de las Casas: “In Defense of the Indians”(c.1550). Bartolome de Las Casas describes the treatment of Native Americans during the early settlement of the first thirteen colonies. Bartolome de las casas was a Spanish historian, who in the 16th century was given the title of Protector of the Indians and sat at the Council of the Indies. Bartolome de las casas had the “intent to reveal to Spain that.its colonial rule would lead to. punishment at God’s hand” (LUNENFELD 6).
Although, Father Las Casas wrote about these historical events, we must also state that the events he wrote could be exaggeration on his part in trying to save the Indians from the Spaniards cruelty and brutality.
What he and his men did to the Indigenous people is told in horrifying detail by the Dominican priest Bartolome de Las Casas, “whose writings give the most thorough account of the Spanish-Indian encounter.” Las Casas witnessed firsthand Columbus’ soldiers stabbing Natives for sport, dashing babies’ heads on rocks, and sexually abusing Indigenous women. His testimony was corroborated by other eyewitnesses, such as a group of Dominican friars, who addressed the Spanish monarchy in 1519, hoping to bring an end to the atrocities. At the very least, Columbus was complicit in the actions of his men. He cared so little for the welfare of the Indigenous people that he let his soldiers commit reprehensible acts that would be considered crimes against humanity in the present day. Christopher Columbus’ actions suggest he had no issue with serving as an enabler of the horrifying actions committed by his men against the Indigenous
Las Casas emphasizes on three main issues throughout his account. First, in almost each chapter, Las Casas writes about the luscious qualities of the land and the different indigenous peoples that inhabit them. Second, he explains and describes in detail how the natives were rapidly being massacred by the invading Christian Europeans. Finally, Las Casas discusses how God had brought justice to the Europeans for their diabolical acts upon the natives. Las Casas, a former slave owner himself, realized that those whom he previously enslaved were just as much human and capable of learning and practicing the Christian faith as he was. As a bishop, he realized he could do little for the Natives except document his experiences (in as much detail as possible) and hope that the royal administration would have sympathy for the Natives and establish laws to protect them from the Europeans.
Cabeza de Vaca, like many other Spaniards, wanted to seek fortune in the new world, but things did not go as planned, and he eventually lost everything. Although he came to conquer in the name of Spain, he ended up living amongst the Native Americans in need for survival and became very close to them. Although originally the Spaniards were very narrow minded and believed the Indians were uncivilized and barbaric, Cabeza de Vaca shortly found out that they were not uncivilized, but quite the opposite. He saw that they were just as human as the Spaniards were and were no less than they were. His perception of humanity altered as a result of living with “the others.”
Two conflicts during this time are seen as significant towards this battle between the interests of the Natives in the Americas. One of which was between two men: Bartolomé Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Las Casas defends t...
The arguments presented by Las Casas is in defense of the natives stating that if he can convince the king of the wrongful doings of the Spaniards that they would pay for what they've done. The doings of the Spaniards was a shock to Las Casas making him want to spend as long as he could defending them. In the great kingdom and provinces of Peru, Las Casas states "the way the Spanish have behaved has been an offence to God and a disservice to the Crown; the Treasury has been defrauded and, in my opinion, it will be long and a costly business to recover for the Crown this territory which could easily have provided sufficient food to support the entire population of Spain." Just a short example of how Las Casas feels about how the natives are being treated and how he feels about the land bei...
Many countries have the pleasure of celebrating Independence Days. These historic holidays are filled with nationalistic celebrations and delicious traditional food. In Chile, the natives celebrate their break from Spain with Fiestas Patrias. In Mexico, the president begins the celebration by ringing a bell and reciting the “Grito de Dolores” and he ends his speech by saying “Viva Mexico” three times.
...s others whether it is one of their own or someone completely different. This variance shows that instead of being vastly different as de Vaca often describes, the two groups were in reality equals. The best insight is de Vaca’s own words on the matter. At various times he describes the Indians as “savages”. However, at the end of his journey, he states that “Clearly, to bring all these people to Christianity and subjection to Your Imperial Majesty, they must be won by kindness, the only certain way” (123). Cabeza de Vaca’s transformation from a condescending invader to a man declaring the need for kindness towards natives proves that his ideas towards Indians had transformed from superiority towards equality. If Cabeza de Vaca’s advice to governmental power on expansion had been heeded it is possible that the horrors of future imperialism would have been averted.
The Case of Amontallido In a psychological perspective, the author’s life is linked with the behavior and motivations of characters in the story. The author’s name is Edgar Allan’s Poe who portrayed his self in his writing. The miserable life of Poe can be measured through “The Cask of Amontillado” in which character named “Montressor” showed indifferent feeling towards his victim. After burying Fortunado alive, Montressor felt bad after burying his victim alive but then he attributes the feeling of guilt to the damp catacombs.
Leer la poesía de Julia de Burgos es abrirse paso a un mundo de emociones, luchas y temas múltiples. En sus tres poemarios, la poeta inaugura un estilo y unas temáticas que en ocasiones coinciden y en otras se apartan de los poetas entre los que convivió (López Jiménez, "Julia de Burgos” 141). Julia buscó abrirse paso hacia nuevas formas de escritura y trazar rutas alternas a los cánones establecidos, tanto por sus contemporáneos como por la tradición literaria. Poema en veinte surcos, su primer libro publicado en 1938, representa ese anhelo de trazar múltiples rutas mediante las cuales pueda realizar una búsqueda de nuevas voces, perspectivas y temáticas. Precisamente, en la poesía de Julia, sobre todo la de su primer poemario, se advierte un deseo de definirse y afirmar sus principios poéticos y políticos. Según Ivette López Jiménez, muchos poemas de su primer libro se destacan porque “se alejan de las fórmulas de la poesía criollista” y porque en ellos “la voz se afirma como una ‘rama desprendida’ o como ‘brote de todos los suelos de la tierra... de todos los hombres y de todas las épocas” (“Julia de Burgos” 143). Hay pues, un intento por alejarse de los discursos autorizados, lo que la lleva a identificarse con los espacios y los sujetos marginados. Desde esta perspectiva, Julia de Burgos pasa a ocupar el rol de “poeta cívico” y su discurso a ser uno de denuncia y protesta. Por ello, propone una reconsideración de los espacios marginales, del “otro” con el objetivo de traerlos a primer plano. Con esto, establece una “actitud a la avanzada del pensamiento y de las costumbres, sobre todo lo relacionado con los cambios necesarios en la sociedad”, en palabras de Manuel de la Puebla (16).