Posts tagged Spanish Conquistadores
Homer and the Aztec muse in Mexican literature
Feb 8th
It seems that one can never take anything for granted in the academic world, at least because there is always someone somewhere waiting to contradict everything that has been said previously. This is especially true of revisionist history.
Of course new evidence and different ways of interpreting the “facts” of history may justify revising standard historical accounts. However, one hopes that at least some thread of consistency may be found in a particular historical interpretation; that some justifiable confidence can be placed in a given historical record; and that the inherent bias of the historian or researcher will not completely obscure the “truth,” however one defines that elusive term.
However, when it comes to the hapless Aztecs of ancient Mexico, it is open season. The fate of the Aztec empire at the hands of the Spanish Conquistadores is so well-known, even among non-specialists, that almost anyone can be an expert with a new theory or re-interpretation of Aztec society and culture.
Much controversy has recently arisen over several collections of poems in Nahuatl, in particular the Cantares Mexicanos, a manuscript in the National Library of Mexico.
These poems are of particular importance because they appear to support a much different picture of the ancient Aztecs than we get from the tzompantli (skull rack) in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán or the horrendous accounts of Aztec human sacrifice left to us by the early Spanish soldiers and missionaries.
In place of the savage barbarian ever posed ready with obsidian knife in hand ready to plunge into the breast of yet another unfortunate sacrificial victim, we have, according to the orthodox interpretation, philosopher-kings and poets meeting in order to discuss the real meaning of “Flower and Song” (in Xochitl in Cuicatl), i.e. Poetry, and seek the “truth” here on earth. This interpretation advanced by two prominent Mexican scholars, A. Garibay and his student M. Leon-Portilla, is based primarily on the Nahuatl poems in the Cantares Mexicanos and the Pomar Manuscript of 1582.
This interpretation has been seriously challenged. In 2004 G. Payas delivered a scathing indictment of the orthodox interpretation of Aztec literature (“Translation in Historiography: The Garibay/Leon-Portilla Complex and the Making of a Pre-Hispanic Past, Meta: journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators” Journal, vol. 49: no.3, 2004,p. 544-561).
In brief, Payas accused Garibay and Leon-Portilla of purposely creating a literature for the Aztecs by their slanted politically-motivated translations of the Nahuatl texts. Others have joined the ranks, including the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which states unequivocally that the Aztecs did not have any concept of “art for art’s sake,” and therefore it is potentially misleading to translate and interpret the recurring phrase “In Xochitl in Cuicatl” as “poetry;” rather, it is said, the phrase refers to artistic activity in general, such as composing and performing song-poems.
Since the Cantares Mexicanos comprises precisely poems that were obviously meant to be performed in a musical style, the philosophical subtlety of this fine distinction escapes me. A recent translator of the Cantares, J. Bierhorst, thinks the phrase In Xochitl in Cuicatl refers not to poetry but to songs intended to summon the spirits of dead Aztec warriors to return to earth to help their beleaguered descendants under Spanish rule. Some of these commentators seem unwilling to credit the Aztecs with any spark of originality or speculative ability.
Rather than reiterate all the charges and countercharges in this literary war of words I propose a different approach by way of analogy. It is undeniably true that distortions of various magnitudes have crept into our written sources from the time of the Conquest in the 16th century up until the present. However, if the orthodox interpretation is so wrong and the correct interpretation of classical Aztec society and culture is still hidden so deeply in the mass of historical works by Spanish missionaries and others, native codices, and official colonial documents, then perhaps we should look for parallel examples that might at least help to explain how (allegedly) pre-Hispanic texts such as the Cantares Mexicanos managed to get into writing. This might help a little in settling the matter of the authenticity of the poems.
Among the charges brought against the orthodox interpretation of Aztec literature is that Garibay was a “Christian Humanist” who saw Nahuatl literature in the wider context of Greek, Hebraic, and Hindu traditions (as if this were a grievous fault). According to Payas, Garibay saw an analogy between Classical Greek literature and Nahuatl and used it to justify his own methods and interpretations. In short, Garibay forced the Nahuatl texts into a contrived classical format and his pupil Leon-Portilla then interpreted the texts to correspond with his preconceived notion of the Aztec mode of thought.
Academic controversy is nothing new and this one reminds me of the old Homeric controversy between the Analysts and the Unitarians. Are the Homeric epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, the work of a single poet or a committee of hack composers, each throwing in their own little contribution? One Homeric question at least seems relevant to the Cantares Mexicanos — namely, the problem of the transmission of oral compositions into a written form. Were these Nahuatl poems composed before the Conquest and somehow preserved more or less in their original form? Or were they composed after the Conquest and so reflect Christian values? Or were they simply a reaction against Spanish domination, as J. Bierhorst thinks? In following articles in this series we shall attempt to find some answers.
As previously noted, it all got started with A. Garibay’s translations and interpretations of the Cantares Mexicanos and other poems in Nahuatl. In Epica Nahuatl (Mexico, 1945), Garibay classified what he regarded as Aztec epic poems, or at least epic traditions, into cycles reminiscent of the Greek epic cycles. These he named Poemas Sagradas, Ciclo Tenochca, Ciclo Tezcocano, and Ciclo Tlaxcalteca. He based his classification on a wide variety of sources, including references in non-Nahuatl sources and, in his Historia de la Literatura Nahuatl (Mexico, 1971, 275-329), he devoted a whole chapter to epic poetry in which he outlined in some detail the actual texts on which he based his comparative study of what he referred to as Epica Nahuatl (Nahuatl Epic).
The Homeric epics, Iliad and Odyssey, are the most widely known but they were not the only Greek epic poems known from antiquity. Many early Greek epic poets are known only from testimonials given by later commentators; some are known only from a few fragments or titles of lost works.
The cyclic poets dealt with two main themes, the Trojan Cycle, which completed the heroic story from the beginning of the world to the end of the traditional heroic period, and the Theban Cycle, which told the story of Oedipus’ double curse on his two sons with dire consequences for the royal house of Thebes. The Epic Canon included the most important epic poets, Homer, Hesiod, Peisander, Panyasis, and Antimachus. Details cannot be given here, but I simply wish to show where Garibay probably got his ideas about Nahuatl epic cycles.
With regard to native chronicles about the Conquest of Mexico in 1521 Leon-Portilla wrote: “It is no exaggeration to say that the dramatic force in some of these accounts is comparable only to that of the great classical epics. Whereas Homer in the Iliad recalled so vividly many tragic scenes during the fall of Troy, the native writers, who witnessed the struggle and the humiliation, also knew how to bring out the most dramatic moments of the Conquest and the events which followed it (Miguel Leon-Portilla, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico, Norman, Oklahoma, 1969, p.150).
The main purpose of this present comparative study is to ascertain the extent to which Garibay (and later Leon-Portilla) were justified in setting Nahuatl literature beside classical Greek models, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. It would be overly optimistic to expect that the comparative approach to the problem of the authenticity of texts in Nahuatl and Mayan can solve all the problems and establish with certainty their pre-Hispanic origin. The aim here is more modest.
Arguments from analogy can only suggest plausible ways in which the Iliad and Odyssey,and the Cantares Mexicanos may have been preserved and passed down from the oral to the written tradition. However, with the accumulation of sound evidence, we may be a little more certain that we are indeed hearing authentic voices from ancient Mexico unadulterated by Spanish or Christian influence.
History of Mexico – Spanish Invasion and Post Colonial Period
Dec 24th
Mexican History
Mexico is a country that has a very interesting and rich history. The region that is now known as the Mexican Republic was the home of many developing cultures since the 1800s BC. A considerable number of these cultures have matured into Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations like Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Toltec and Aztec.
These civilizations had developed on this land for thousands of years before the Spanish conquistadores had come there. These peoples had come up with a lot of inventions in various areas, such as building pyramids, astronomy, medicine and they are famous for inventing the wheel. However, the use of the wheel didn’t serve them too many useful applications as they didn’t use animals for labor.
Most applications of the wheel in this area have been used for art and toys. These civilizations are also known for using metallurgy, the major metals being copper, gold and silver. Astronomy was a very important factor for these civilizations and it can be observed that most of the cities had been carefully build according to major astronomical events.
This science was a central factor in developing other manifestations of these cultures, such as religious systems, writing systems, art and even architecture. The civilizations that developed on the Mexican land had quite a consolidated power and successfully managed to co-exist by distributing their influence in matters of trade, politics and technology. Throughout the centuries there have been a lot of other civilizations that competed with these Mexican peoples and at times there was the case of alliances or of war.
The Spanish Invasion
At the beginning of the 16th century, in 1519, the Mexican civilizations were invaded by the Spaniards. The Spanish invaders managed to successively conquer the civilizations by allying themselves with their main enemies. Thus, in 1521 the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan, was conquered with the help of their enemies, the Tlaxcaltecs.
The most important of the early Spanish conquistadores was Hernan Cortes, who invaded the region in 1519 from the coastal city that is today known as Vera Cruz. However, this event does not coincide with the complete conquest of Mexico. There were continuous attacks and wars between the Spanish and the natives that lasted early 2 centuries till Mexico had been entirely conquered. One of the major factors that contributed to the conquest of the Aztec Empire was due to their religious beliefs.
The Aztecs stronglt believed that the universe will fall apart if they didn’t constantly sacrifice thousands of people to their gods. The Aztecs used to get people for the sacrifices from wars with some other smaller civilizations who in at a point in time decided that they didn’t want to be a source of human sacrifice any longer and thus allied with the Spanish troops. At this point the Spanish army has become extremely powerful and succeeded to conquer not only the Aztecs but also the other civilizations.
Another factor that made it easier for the Spanish to conquer Mexico is represented by the plagues and epidemics that had been brought along by the Spaniards. Some of the most lethal diseases that decimated the indigenous populations were smallpox, influenza, bubonic plague, measles and syphilis. It is believed that these deadly diseases took the lives of about 8 million natives in only a few years.
The Post Colonial Period
After the 1521 conquest Mexico became a Spanish colony known as the New Spain. The colonization period lasted till 1810 and the subjugated territories included besides the today Mexican land also territories, such as the Spanish Caribbean islands, the southern part of Central America as far as Costa Rica, the Philippine Islands and a considerable area of what is now a part of the southwestern United States.
In 1807 the French emperor Napoleon I has invaded Spain and put his brother on the throne. This event has considerably weakened the Spanish forces, thus the people in the colonies started to catch a glimpse of the possibility of becoming an independent entity. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was the man who finally declared the Mexican colony’s independence on September 16th 1810 and in the year 1821 the first Mexican Empire was created.
After this important event in Mexico’s history the government encouraged people from other regions to settle in the areas that were scarcely populated under the condition that these people would convert to Catholicism and become Mexican citizens. Another measure that was taken by the new Mexican government was to forbid the slave import.
The first Mexican Republic was formed under the presidency of Guadalupe Victoria and the constitution was very similar to the one in the US. There had been numerous rebellions through out the following decades as some regions wanted to become independent themselves.
The biggest problems appeared in the northern area where some territories had been successively possessed by either Mexico or the US. Texas had been one of the most important territories that wanted to become independent and it finally lead to the Mexican-American War (1846-48) when Mexico was defeated and forced to sell some of the northern territories to the US.
