“But if you try sometimes…..”
This weeks readings were a nice change, but also oddly familiar. I suppose going in I though that these would be strictly indigenous, conquest and resistance related texts. (I know, I wasn’t apparently paying enough attention to Lockhart…) In fact I must admit that I was looking forward to some hard-core “I hate you, you *&^%^%$ Spaniard” sort of texts. But, as the Rolling Stones say, you can’t always get what you want.
Well I tried and I do think I got what I needed. Mesoamerican Voices was, in a way, closer to what I expected. Native-language writings (as the book’s title states) on various subjects that relate to life. The power of the conquest is pretty evident in the forms adopted and adapted by indigenous peoples. The Nahua, Maya and Mixtec peoples are certainly still negotiating their places in society, but they have been forced to adopt the forms of the conqueror…not so much new wines in old bottles, but entirely new beverages with completely different properties in those bottles.
As I read these, I couldn’t help but think of a concept enunciated by Dimitri Gutas in a book I read for another class: translation as a culturally creative concept. The situations are not by any stretch of the imagination analogous, Gutas is explaining the cooptation of Greek and Sassanian ideology by early ‘Abbasid caliphs. But the act of translation is a pretty general concept and since indigenous populations were able to at least exist within and comprehend the Spaniards perhaps this line of thought will bear some fruit. Gutas sees translation as an ongoing, organic process with no clearly defined stages, beginnings or endings and this seems to fit with Lockhart and his student Restall’s conceptualization of the Conquest as a process and not an event. What we have is essentially an ongoing negotiated dialogue, each side, while acting within understood social constructs, vying for all they can get. Maybe this even works with Richard White’s idea of “creative misunderstandings” it seems to reflect the same understanding of cultural exchange. Perhaps the pays d’ en haute were not so different than the probenzas of Mexico and early ‘Abbasid Baghdad, at lest in terms of the social and cultural implications of the translation of ideas.
Not to bounce around too much, but I suppose its time to jump of my theoretical trick pony and onto the Clydesdale of the Alvarado brothers. Man, Pedro was mean. I’m not sure if it is simply a difference in education, but in Alvarado’s letters he comes through as a cruel dude. Cortez, I feel, could talk his way put of anything, but Alvarado reminds me of the letters of Oliver Cromwell, kill them and let God sort them out. He even seems a little crazy with all his references to “evil plotting” though this is quite possibly just my reading.
Both of these texts came with a good interpretive apparatus, the first with nice pointers for those with lazy eyes and the second with a good, but brief historical description of the invasion of Guatemala. I also really like hoe Invading Guatelmala was made, the black section dividers were a nice touch, though I’m not sure why I like them.
A final note (neatly hidden at the end): Finally, after nearly ten years in college and five years of graduate school, I have had an epiphany. Primary source documents are much more difficult to read than secondary sources. Don’t get me wrong, I think I’ve always known this but had never really analyzed why I took more time and often felt bogged down while reading them. After reading the different documents in both this week’s readings and really trying to figure out what it was that made me feel like the going was really slow I had this realization. Not that this has a whole lot of relevance for the class, but I get excited when I figure things out about how I work….
