Читать книгу A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture - Группа авторов - Страница 38

Intertwined with economic and expansionist motivations, the colonization of the Americas by the Spaniards was also driven by evangelization. With the Reconquista of the last Muslim kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and the arrival of the Spaniards to the New World, Spain became a powerful nation. Supported by the papacy in a series of papal bulls, Spain would legitimize its presence in the new lands through a series of political theories based on the observation of Indigenous peoples’ lives and manners. Taking the European way of life and religious beliefs as the model of civilization, the colonizers developed unscientific images of the Indigenous populations. Indigenous cultural practices and beliefs that differed from the European paradigm were perceived as barbaric. But Christian principles had derived from Roman law for the Iberians. Debates emerged on the legal and moral bases to justify the conquests and “civilization” of the Indigenous people, who by natural law had the right to their own laws and practices. From different schools of thought emerged what B. Keen has called “anti-Indian” and “pro-Indian” policies (1990,108). For some, such as the Spaniard Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who negatively portrayed the Indigenous people as inferior to Spaniards for their lack of civil laws and peaceful manners, a Spanish civil superiority, gave them the right to “civilize” the Indigenous populations, even if by force. On the other hand, proponents of an Indigenous image based on the nature of human equality, represented in the ideas of the Dominican Friar Bartolomé de las Casas, proposed that, since the Indigenous people were human beings with equal natural rights and capabilities to all men, their manners could be changed by merciful persuasion.

For the religious orders, evangelization had to be achieved mainly by instructing the Indigenous masses in Christian doctrine and conduct. The encomienda system, whose purposes were native labor and tribute as compensation for Christian education, and which adhered to anti-Indian policies, was proving to be inefficient in its pedagogical purposes. Instead, to the proponents of pro-Indian policies, it had become a vehicle for native exploitation and for economic gain. The friars’ instruction in European value systems was based on experimentation; they implemented a variety of techniques, from theatrical representation to painting, to preaching, to alphabetization. Unlike secular priests accustomed to operating in European urban centers, friars were used to a more ascetic lifestyle, and proved to be a better choice to convert the Indigenous masses. As early as 1503 the Franciscans inaugurated the first convent in Santo Domingo, and even before the proclamation of the Laws of Burgos (1512), which recognized the Indigenous people as vassals of Spain and encouraged conversion through education, the Franciscans were already gathering in their convents noble Indigenous children to convert them.

In 1523, only three years after the conquest of Tenochtitlan, three Franciscans arrived and began the enterprise of evangelization-colonization, followed a year later by another 12. The Franciscan Pedro de Gante founded the first school of New Spain, San José de los Naturales. This school proved the natives’ ability to learn, in subjects ranging from manual labor and crafts to grammar and basic Latin. Although the Franciscans were the first order to arrive in New Spain, optimistic projects to evangelize through education were also designed by the Dominicans upon their arrival in 1526, and by the Augustinians when they later came on the scene in 1533. By the 1530s perhaps 600 natives had already begun to learn to write as a result of the friars’ education projects (Gruzinski 1993, 47). Learning in those first centers went both ways. The friars evangelized and alphabetized the natives but they also acquired linguistic proficiency in native languages, facilitating inquiry into Indigenous polities. For the friars, the more linguistic and cultural knowledge they gained from the vencidos, the more effective would be the enterprise of conversion. This knowledge would also be beneficial to Spanish officials in designing economic and political policies for the new colony.

After the Primera Audiencia (1528–1530) (a court of law and administrative body) had failed to establish effective colonial government, research on types of tribute, political organization, and social institutions was encouraged by the president of the Segunda Audiencia (1530–1535), Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal, to aid the governmental logistics of the new colony. To exploit these enquiries, Fuenleal petitioned the Franciscans Andrés de Olmos and Martín de Valencia to produce a book on the antiquities of the natives, with special regard to the major centers of Mexico, Texcoco, and Tlaxcala. European education, for the Indigenous people, especially of noble status, would serve several purposes. On the one hand, well-educated Indigenous people would aid research into native languages and polities; on the other, they could serve as intermediaries in religious and secular matters. Outnumbered by the natives, Spaniards believed they would benefit from trusted native participation in developing the logistics for a better colonization. The moral and intellectual benefits of a higher education were also needed to prepare future caciques (lords) to lead Christian communities. Thus, higher education for the native elite was considered achievable as well as advantageous. The Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza and the Franciscan Bishop Juan de Zumárraga granted the privilege, to the Franciscan order, to open an institution of higher education to natives.