Baptism of Cultures

The Dominican missionaries in New Spain converted the natives to Christianity using the Baptism of Cultures, or the assimilation of Christianity with native traditions as a technique of conversion. For example, natives can still perform certain rituals as long as they don’t have fake idolatry behind them. The most well known example is the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe in which a recent convert, Juan Diego, is visited by the apparition of the Virgin Mary and she tells him that he has been chosen as a messenger to the bishop of Mexico City. The bishop does not believe him and tells him to get proof. Juan returns to where he found the apparition on Tepeyac Hill and she arranges flowers in his tilma (cloak) and tells him not to unravel the tilma until he was in the presence of the bishop. When he goes back to Mexico City, he opens the tilma for the bishop and there miraculously sits an image of the Virgin Mary. Now the Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico.

Los Moros y Cristianos

Los Moros y Cristianos, also known as Los Doce Pares de Francia is a play that was brought to New Spain early on in the colonization process. It was used a tool to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity. Missionaries would often tell the indians stories of heathens either being defeated or converted to Christianity. At this time, many indians would identify with the losing side, but today they are more than happy to identify with the Christians.

The story is of Charlemagne and his twelve vassals fighting the Moors: Admiral Balan and his children Fierabras and Floripes. It is a purely religious war and after many battles the Christians win. Balan realizes that his god is no match for the Christian god and therefore decides to convert but is instead sentenced to death because he won’t renounce his dead soldiers. The play ends with Fierabras taking his father’s place as the Christian ruler of Turkey and a celebration between the Christians and the ex-Moors.

FIERABRAS:

Aqui teneis carlo magno

A la duena de turquia

La rreina del cielo y tierra

Que vencio la idolatria

Diciendo todos acordes

Eon placer en este dia

Que viva por siglos eternos

La guadalupana maria

CARLOS:

Que rregocijo me causa

que enagenan mis sentidos

Al mirar esta hermosura

Y estos moros comvertidos

Marchemos todos unidos

Ala patria donde ufamos

Celebrando el santo nombre

Los catolicos romanos

To paraphrase, Fierabras is happy to have converted and Carlos is happy to have new allies and to have saved the ex-Moors’ souls in the name of the Catholic Church.

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz stands at the beginning of Mexican literature in spanish. She was born in 1648 in San Miguel, Nepantla, Mexico. She was registered as a “daughter of the church” because her parents were unmarried. She was raised in Amacameca where her grandfather owned a hacienda called Panoaya. As a child she hid in the hacienda chapel to read her grandfather’s books from the adjoining library, something forbidden to girls. She learned how to read and write when she was three, and by thirteen she was teaching latin to young children, she also learned Nahuatl and wrote in the language. When she was sixteen she moved to Mexico City. Her parents refused her permission to disguise herself as a male student and attend university so she continued being an autodidact. At the age of seventeen she was tested by a panel of intellectuals on subjects of science and literature, and she astonished all of them. Because of this and her literary accomplishments, she gained popularity all over New Spain. Five years later she entered a convent and became a nun. She was a feminist way before her time and her “thinking out loud” was considered dangerous because of the counter reformation. She gave up writing and sold all of her books in order to show her devotion to the church over her ideas. It is a shame that she was never allowed to reach her full potential as an intellectual. At this time a woman’s place in society was absolute, and the closest thing she could obtain to a university education was what was available to her in the convent.

Excerpt: You Men

Combatis su resistencia

Y luego, con gravedad,

Decis que fue liviandad

Lo que hizo la diligencia.

 

Bien con muchas armas fundo

Que lidia vuestra arrogancia,

Pues en promesa e instancia

Juntais diablo, carne y mundo.

 

You batter her resistance down

And then, all righteousness, proclaim

That feminine frivolity,

Not your persistence, is to blame.

 

I well know what powerful arms

You wield in pressing for evil:

Your arrogance is allied

With the world, the flesh, and the devil.

 

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