Forging a New World: Books & Writing in Early Spanish America, 1492-1821 (Video)

Transcript

- [Staci] Good afternoon.
On behalf of the general membership and the board of the Tulane
University Women's Association, I welcome
You're in for a big treat today. Along with Doris Baron,
I am one of the presidents this year of the organization,
and we have the wonderful Dr. Hortensia Calvo speaking today.
Dr. Calvo has been the [inaudible]
director of this Latin American Library since 2003.
She is a published author.
She holds a degree in philosophy from the University in Bogota, Colombia
and the MBA in Spanish and Spanish American literature
from the University of Illinois in Urbana- Champign and a Ph.D.
in Spanish from Yale University.
Her research interests and publications
include the Spanish and Spanish American Library [inaudible]
and the Social History of Books and Print in Latin America.
Before coming to Tulane, she taught literature at Princeton University.
Dr. Calvo served as the Librarian for Latin American and Iberia at Duke,
where she also taught in the Romance Studies department.
And since 2006, she serves as the executive director
of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Material,
the absolute foremost professional association
for Latin American Research Libraries worldwide,
and whose headquarters is right here hosted by Tulane University.
Dr. Calvo is an asset to Tulane University
And we are absolutely pleased and delighted
that she has accepted our invitation to lecture and talk today.
I would like to
call in Doris Baron.
-Thank you Staci.
Welcome again, everybody.
We're so glad that you were able to join us today.
This is very important to us.
This lecture series was inspired by and honor former president of Tulane,
Dr. Herbert Longenecker, and his wife, Jane, longtime active member,
leader and supporter of the Tulane Univers Association.
Commonly known as, TUWA , so if I say TUWA that means us, Tulane Womens Assocation.
Dr. Longenecker established a long director award to honor Jane
and to recognize women in the Tulane community for our long contribution,
longtime contributions to the Tulane community as a whole.
This very meaningful and prestigious award
enables us to reflect on our contributions and accomplishments.
As well as inspires us to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
The longenecker award is one that includes many sentiments and responsibilities.
Because of the long connections, family lasting support of TUWA
we have been able to flourish as an organization that supports every
discipline at Tulane, learn from lectures by very distinguished
authorities, such as today's lecturer,
Dr. Hortensia Calvo and contribute to New Orleans and Tulane in many other ways.
Making connections and involving community was very important to the Longeneckers
and to us drives in many ways to carry on this mission. Several years ago,
the Longenecker his daughter Marjorie White, who now
lives in Birmingham, with her husband, Joan. Sorry.
wrote to to wrote to TUWA Presidents
a letter, excerpts of which I'd like to share with you now.
And it says, “dear TUWA presidents, My heart goes out to you and all who help
“put together the Longenecker lecture this year
“and in past years.” Would you like to stand with me? and ...
(audience laughs)
“That my parents kept bringing the Tulane family together?
“Continues at Tulane is rewarding to me. Thank you. Thank you.
“I am thrilled to be a part as I was
“in the fall of 1960 when we arrived to New Orleans. When asked
“what his legacy as president was, my father said that he hoped he had
“ improved life for the students
“by what he had done and the physical and Social building of the institution.
“The first TUWA Longenecker lecture
“by the Tulane architect was a revelation.
“I think father felt more on the Tulane campus
“and as then newly established satellite campuses than any one before him.
“How does all this relate to the important role TUWA?
“Our introduction to the Tulane family came during the trip to Latin America
“that preceded father's employment at Tulane.
“Father's purpose for that trip was to establish
“personal contact with medical schools and faculty, with whom...
“with whom Tulane had and would continue to work.
“For more than two months, we traveled the [unaudible] from city
“to city and Central and South America.
“Everywhere we went, we were welcomed by medical faculty
“and Tulane alumni, the Tulane family.
“My younger brothers and I were teenagers who lived
“who had lived in a tiny suburb of north of Chicago. But in Latin America
“we expanded our horizons and met many fascinating individuals
“who were indebted to Tulane for improving their lives.
“Why do I share this with you? Because I am so grateful that you
“have rekindled these memories for me and my family.
“And because you and TUWA continue that
“tradition of the Tulane family that was there
“before my parents and I arrived in New Orleans
“and also supported and nurtured by them.
“Thank you for this and most importantly,
“for continuing the warmth TUWA and its role in fostering
“the great greater Tulane family as I knew
“and of which I am so happy to be a part.
Yours truly, Marjorie Longenecker White.”
Marjorie and Jim, please stand to be recognized
[applause] Thank you.
Lets see, you sent a picture of my family arriving on the steps of Gibson Hall. Yes.
You wanna come-
and that just flooded back
all these memories because we did not want to move
[audience laughs] and gave father a very hard time.
And here we are on the steps. And everyone was so happy.
And we had gone on this trip to meet everybody in Latin America,
including by the time we got here, we were thrilled to be here.
[audience laughs] So thrilled that you are here to, believe me.
And thank you for bringing your friends and family and for being so supportive
of TUWA. And we wanted to give you a little bit of the history of TUWA
and of the Longeneck lecture and why we think we have prospered over the years.
So thank you.
Staci?
-Today's lecture itself is dedicated
to the memory of our beloved member, Maria Daly.
Her daughters have brought
several pictures for you to look at right here
to treasure. I can tell you that we as an organization greatly miss Maria.
We enjoyed her company and we enjoyed her leadership
for well over five decades.
We are humbled to have her family members here today.
Maria was always warm. She was inviting.
She was gracious, loving, polite to a fault, extremely intelligent.
She was witty and she was very vibrant.
Our organization, the Tulane University
Women's Association, gave Maria one of our highest honors,
honorary lifetime membership because of her lifetime support of the university.
In the spring of 2012, we awarded her
the highest honor that we have the Jane, as long enough her award,
which, as you heard some of Doris's talk that was established by Marjorie White's
father, a former president to Tulane University, Doctor Herbert Longenecker
to honor his wife, Jane, who also was an honorary TUWA member.
They also wanted to recognize other women, such as Maria,
for their contributions to the Tulane comm
Maria was selected by nominations from our general membership,
and she was voted on by past recipients of this award.
She was extremely deserving. I'm glad we had the opportunity to do that.
And every organization that Maria belonged to, even her church,
holy name of Jesus, can probably attest to her compassion and her involvement.
We have several Spanish society members here today that can agree
that Maria Daly was truly a marvelous person.
Perhaps the best way our organization
can honor Maria and learn more about her story and her life is to hear
from one of the people who knew her best, her daughter, Janet. Dr. Janet McGraw,
-Thank you.
I appreciate the compliment but I'm not a its just Janet [audience laughs].
That's my brother and Janet McGraw.
I’m number two daughter, number one daughter is right here,
Maria Page, who many of you know, and my brother Bill Daly.
And he is a doctor. And Dr. Teresa Daly, his wife.
So I'm going to read a little bit about my mom and give you just a little background.
Most of you know or probably already know this, but she was born
on September 20th, 1925, [inaudible] Spain
After she finished high school in Spain, She came to the United States to join
her family, who had moved here the previous year.
She attended and graduated from Newcomb College with a degree in music and French.
After college, Mom went to work at the Spanish Council.
Shortly thereafter, she met and later married William J. Daly,
a practicing attorney in New Orleans. They had five children.
Mom worked at the consulate for many years, serving
several capacities and receiving various awards from the Spanish government.
She finally retired because of the time demands of raising five children.
Once her children got a little older, however, she went back to work
and this time she went to Tulane and she worked as English as a second language.
She really loved her work at Tulane, and she and often
invited students to the house for the holidays and other occasions.
Always remember growing up, we'd have foreign students coming in
and out of the house. Mom had many Tulane connection.
She and her two siblings all graduated from Tulane.
My dad went to undergraduate law school, even played football for Tulane.
And if any of you remember, Tulane did play in the Sugar Bowl one.
Year and my dad played on that football team. Yes 1985
Each of her five children attended Tulane either as undergraduates
or in graduate school. I went to law school here and my brother
went to medical school here. Very extended family members also intended
Tulane. Know Jack McGuire, who is here, has written several books and even is
involved in the library and that he has started the David R McGraw memorial
collection here in honor of his father. My my sister, Maria,
her husband's great aunt Anna Many was dean of Newcomb College.
So even after Mom retired from Tulane, she still stayed very active
in campus and very active in the TUWA organization.
She volunteered with many organizations, so I'm not even going to list them all.
But the New Orleans Museum of Art, Children of Mary, the medical school,
I remember she hosted the medical annual bazaar at our house a couple of times
and Girl Scouts and all kinds of things.
Anyone who knew Mom knew of her passion for her Spanish roots.
She loved music and the arts, and especially Spanish music and arts.
She enjoyed life in New Orleans and always kept
any difficulty that might arise in perspective.
Her children and her grandchildren loved and admired her and were always did amazed
At her ability to stay calm [Janet laughs] and her positive attitude.
She was an inspiration to us all and we will truly miss her.
Thank you very much [applause]
-Thank you, Janet.
And now our guest speaker, Dr. Calvo.
-And well, thank you so much to all of you for being here.
And I want you to- some thank you are in order.
I want to thank Doris Baron and Staci sundmaker,
the president of the Tulane women's association,
for the invitation to speak as well as to welcome and to stay
the Longenecker family for the opportunity to speak.
What a lovely tradition this is really,
this organization at Tulane that has been so many years
has it's been alive for so many years that supports women.
So it may have been ahead of its time. way ahead, way ahead.
And then also, of course, to the Daily family.
But as I said to some of you, it's an honor
for me to have been asked to participate
in this tribute to Maria's memory. So welcome to all of you.
And thank you. As part of the welcome.
I want to say that you are in a very special place,
as I think Ruth knows, I see some old friends here, Ruth,
who worked so many years at the Latin American Library, and Barbara,
who didn't work at the Latin American Library but knows all about it.
This this truly is a special place.
This is considered one of the foremost collections
of its kind in the United States and perhaps in the world.
We receive on a constant basis visitors
from all over the world, really, even from Japan,
who come here to work with the unique materials we have.
I always like to say that what makes a library great
is it just this jewel or that jewel.
What makes the Louvre, Louvre Museum Great?
Isn't only that, it has the Mona Lisa or the Prado
because it has many nice Velasquez. We have some
jewels here, and you're going to see some of them.
But truly, what makes an a research library
great is is the not so- the things that don't look so spectacular
and you're surrounded by them and part of the collection is offsite.
But that's another story. But it's, it's the constant
decades, decade after decades long
ability to collect and curate the intellectual production
of so many countries and to have it here. And that's why people come
to work with this collection, because we not only have the jewels,
we have all the supporting documents so people can make those jewels speak,
so they can work on and and increase our understanding
of so many disciplines and topics. So this is special.
It's also special because there are only three libraries
of this kind in the United States. There are
only three libraries that have their own space.
And it's a discreet collection where everything
what an American is together.
And that is a privilege and also a testament to Tulane's
commitment to Latin American studies.
Since 1924, when the collections of the library came to Tulane so.
So I hope at the end of this talk,
I hope you can heal that you saw some of our treasures
and that you can begin to understand a lit of what a special place this is. So...
I'm going to do this today in the library because I wanted to show you some
of the treasures of the collection. So it won't just be a lecture.
It will also show you the materials that I'm talking about.
And we're going to do a huge sweep.
The Spanish, the the the the period of Spanish rule in Spanish.
America in the Americas spanned three long centuries.
We have here maybe one century. And even at that, it's only highlights
what I chose to do, though, is I chose material that
speaks to major issues, problems, people that, whose contributions
have gone down in history as form- form- formation, that have formed
and informed our understanding of this time. As you will see, there are
people and events that have been contested over time.
But I hope to be able to give you an idea of the richness
and the complexities of this period, all in maybe 40.
Minutes [audience laughs], bare with me.
The starting date of the Spanish Empire in the New World
is 1492, with the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
This is exactly one of the things that is being contested,
has been contested for the last few decades. The so-called colonial period
actually is not the start of history in the Americas.
There were civilizations cultures, arts so
that were here and that had writing and that had history and that had books.
So in honor of that, and to give you a little bit of an understanding of that,
I asked our curator for special collection, Dr. Christine Hernández,
at the Latin American Library, who is an archeologist
and who has worked extensively with Mexico in painted manuscripts.
So we're going to show you a facsimile of book, a Mayan book that was here
before the arrival of the Spaniards. So we help begin with that.
Take it.
All right, Christine, where we're experimenting with this
new thing here that looks to me like a Swedish phone
from the 19th century, [audience laughs] I wasn’t alive in the 19th century.
So I might screen for help, but Chris may be more adept at it,
but it will project the image to you.
Thank you so much Hortensia, for you for asking me to speak. And thanks to you all.
Welcome to the Latin American Library this afternoon.
So Hortensia mentioned she asked me to say a few words
about Indigenous writing and the production of painted texts
that were present in the Americas, and specifically Latin America.
- [audience] [inaudible]
-Okay, I’m going to project because I know I have a soft voice.
So Hortensia asked me to speak
a little bit about the indigenous writing tradition that was President
the Americas at the time of European contact and arrival.
And so I just want to say a few, I’m just going to highlight a few aspects of that
tradition. To begin this is really kind of to set the stage for the materials and
information that Hortensia is going to present to you in just a few minutes.
There are kind of three, three points that I like to highlight.
And the first is that specifically in Mesoamerica, there are diversity .
There were a diversity of cultures and civilizations that were present
and they had a deep prehistory in the Americas well before they arrived
with the Europeans and so a diversity of cultures and civilizations is which also s
to the diversity of languages and probably forms of written language.
But we only have evidence of maybe a handful of those traditions.
And so that was kind of the first I think that's the first important thing to
speak about, because often people are most familiar with the
Mayan civilization and Maya hieroglyphic writing and production of texts.
And I think it's important to remember that they were one of many
of the various indigenous cultures that were present in the Americas.
And but do we have evidence of their
writing and texts were only for for a very
Okay, the second thing I'd like to mention is that, again, this tradition has a deep
pre-history, and in this area it goes back many centuries.
And so some of the earliest evidence that we have for writing
actually we have from the Olmec civilization.
And so the Olmec were people who flourished in
what is now Veracruz area of the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
And when I say early, it's fairly early.
So we have evidence of writing in carved form.
So the carved symbols on portable stone objects
and these materials kind of date to the final centuries before Christ.
It seems that some of the earliest evidenc that we have in Mesoamerica for writing
and that kind of brings me then to say that
the piece that we're going to highlight today, that kind of help to represent
the pre-Hispanic traditions of writing and the different forms of painted text.
So if that were, we would show the imagery that people are most often familiar with
and fits kind of right in with the materials that we're just going
to show you today, which is something that looks more like what we are
kind of familiar with in terms of books an writing. And so we're going to show how
we're going to show to you today a facsimile edition of Codex.
So these are one of the painted books that were produced.
So I’m going to we're going to show them the Maya one within Maya books.
Yeah, there are three, perhaps four, that are still in existence today.
And so this is a facsimile edition that we're going to show.
And so as I mentioned, you know, some of the earliest evidence that we have
for writing from indigenous peoples came from Europe.
And so this is a painted book of the Mayan tradition that kind of then there's
kind of towards the end of their of the pre-Hispanic productions
of the Naples Classic. This book probably dates to the final century before the
arrival of the Spanish, so probably produced during the 1400s at some point.
And the really nice thing about this parti facsimile edition
is that it also gives you a sense of some of the physicality of these works.
So as many people familiar that these painted books were what we call screen
folds, and so you're going to be able to see a little bit how that works.
But these materials were painted on front and back sides, and I'm going to
hold this under the camera so you can get a sense of
what we mean when we say that these are written texts.
This particular book is a definitive book that deals with the prognostication
of both mundane and sacred events for the Maya in this case.
And so you can see some of the hieroglyphic texts that are here
present in these books.
And so today, after the talk, when you all have a chance
to come up and take a closer look, we'd be happy to show you a little bit more
of this work, and I'd be happy to answer any questions
about it. So. So those are the final
the things that I wanted to– to mention to you today about this tradition.
I'm out and I hand it back over to our country and she's going to give
you her talk proper. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
-Thank you. So one of the things that is is very interesting. Also, many of the
chroniclers, people who wrote about their experiences in the New world,
whether they were histories or [inaudible] which are accounts, eye witness accounts,
is that they were fascinated. The the earl Spaniards were fascinated
with this book and tracing that history of interaction with them
is at times tragic because many of them were burned by that times, especially in
Mesoamerica, where they used things that were kind of similar to the Europeans
They use ink, they used native paper, but it was paper. And so they were considered
by some as a threat. They were considered
works of the devil and needed to be eliminated.
So that's how only three of these exist. Four?
yeah four Mayan text. In Peru, the situation was different.
We're going to see later an example of a depiction of a quipu, which is a
completely different system. And this was so outside the realm of what
Europeans would consider writing that they thought it was an accounting system,
that they actually incorporated it in the first decade of Spanish rule in Peru.
But always the fascination with these documents and we'll see
some passages about that. So, of course, we begin
at the beginning with Columbus. So I wanted to I pulled out
this is the letter. This is the first inkling that Europeans have of
you can't say discovery because we know that people already were there.
But for Europeans, they were discovering it.
But of course, Columbus at this point did not know he was discovering America.
The name America comes much later,
not that much later, but about ten years later,
seven, seven or eight years later.
But he did think and he died thinking that he had received
he had arrived at the islands before the island of Cipangu, which was Japan.
And that's where we get the name Antilles, the island, isla antes de la isla, island
before the island. And of course people were then Indians,
which is another misnomer. And so this is also a facsimile.
We have a marvelous repository.
We do not yet have any documents, original documents by Columbus.
You're going to have to tell me if you can see, because I can't see the monitor.
It looks perfect.
I twist it around so that it faces- The text faces them give it a 180. And
what would I do? This is the other thing about this library, this staff is fabulous
[inaudible]
Madeleine, what do you think? Perfect it can go a smidge down towards you.
Other way, towards the light. There we go. perfect.
Towards the light, all right, I got it? Okay.
You can't read it. No. [audiences laugh] Very difficult to read.
And so, Columbus, this letter was written in- so Columbus set sail.
He arrived in the first island he sees in October, October 12th.
That's why we celebrate October 12th. And he quickly gets back to Spain
because he realizes there's something here, not quite what he expected,
but he wants to get back because that was the agreement.
And he writes this on the way back to Spain in March of 1493,
and he writes it to this is called The Letter to Louis De Santange.
Louis De Santangel who was a treasurer of the Crown,
and he had given up his own money to finance Columbus's voyage.
Ferdinand and Isabella were not they were not doing
very well financially, after so many wars [audience laughs]
But I just thought I'd read a few sentences
here to get the flavor, because many of these discretions becomes are repeated
and they start forming an idea of certain tropes
that continue to be used and to consider when dealing with and other.
And so he talks about the islands,
and that's one of the common places of this literature.
He first arrives and he names, so the first one he names,
Santa Maria, no, San Salvador, so he names it for Christ. The second island.
He names that for Santa Maria, the Virgin Mary, de concepcion.
The third Fernandina for Ferdinand the fourth Isabella. I wonder why?
The fifth, Juana, which was their daughter and the island of Juana is Cuba.
That was the island of Juana.
And then the other one he still hasn't mentioned is La Hispaniola. Hispaniola,
which is the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Um, you know, he talks about that
they had no kind of government. He talks about this island Hispaniola,
la Hispaniola like all the others is most extensive. It has many ports along the sea
coast excelling any and Crittenden and many fine large flowing rivers.
The land there is elevated with many mountains and peaks.
They are most beautiful of a thousand varied forms, accessible
and full of trees, of endless varieties, etc. etc.
It is basically a paradise, what he’s describing the
there are many spices and vast mines of gold.
hmmm [audience laughs] Metal in the side
that he has to say that because he wants to be financed again.
Plus there were all kinds of promises
made to him that he would be declared admiral of the ocean Sea, which was his,
um, you know, they had no iron or steel nor weapons, nor are they fit for that.
The people, because all of them, they are well made.
They appear extraordinarily timid. Um, and he goes on, he leads actually
a fort there, Fort Navidad, with the shipwrecked ship la Santa Maria.
But when he returned, they were gone. They, they were killed by
the natives. So they this was not quite accurate. In all these islands,
the men seem to be satisfied with one life except they allow as many as
[inaudible] The women appear to me to work harder than the men [audience laughs].
And so as far as I can see they did nothing of their own.
For I think I perceive that what one had others
shared, especially food in the island. So far I have found no monsters
[audience laughs] about Amazons. I mean, all of these are things in
mythology and in in classical mythology.
One of the things that happens with the New World
is that it it changed everything. It flew in the face of received knowledge,
these people. And as they realized these lands that were not the far east, they
were not mentioned in the Bible, they were not mentioned in classical
antiquity, Aristotle hadn't mentioned them
So this gave way to all kinds of speculation about,
well, were these men, did they have souls? What what is their place?
What in in the vision of the earth? Where is this land? What does it.
It posed all kinds of scientific, geographic and moral issues.
So this is the beginning of all of this. And of course, he couldn't have dreamed
of what the can of worms that he was opening.
I did want to show you something that a lot of fun.
And actually I found it was in the letter, but I realized it isn’t, it's in the diary
It is first, the diary of the First Voyage where he says that Cuba is but la Colón,
la Cristóbal Colón, is the loveliest land that eyes have ever seen.
And look what we have.
-[Audience]Around 180 again. [inaudible]
[laughing]
So this is a tourist brochure from I think this is from the 19th.
We don't have the date here. 30s? So. Yeah, something like that.
And Cuba, the lovely it quotes Columbus
to entice people to come to this tropical paradise. [inaudible]. Here we go
There's Columbus, and of course it's upside down and I can't read it.
[laughs]
This was the exclamation of Christopher Columbus
when on the 28th of October of 1492, he discovered the island of Cuba, etc..
Things live on. All right. So that's as much for Columbus.
We're going to do a broad sweep here. The next thing I have...
yeah, I won't do all too much on Peter Martyr because we won't have time.
But this is. I brought it down. Actually, this is an important writer.
Um, he represents the humanist perspective
of how Europeans first learned of the new world. Peter Martyr was an Italian
diplomat in the court of the Spanish king, and he was there when Columbus
returns, when news of these lands comes ou when others set sail and they return,
and he interviews all these people. So he was full of information
and he would write letters to people in authority in Italy.
So he was Italian. They can imagine that. And with time
these letters become published in different editions.
He wrote until 1526 was when he died. I think the last one was 1522.
So he was there with the discovery of the Islands, then Mexico and then
the mainland. Um, so I also brought in these very interesting
and he was one who was fascinated with the native books and he had been to
Egypt and so he knew about hieroglyphs, Egyptian hieroglyphs,
and there were all kinds of theories as to what these signs were.
And he says that they were from [inaudible they were letters
and they were books and they they they represented concepts.
And that was quite, quite position. I just wanted to show it to you, too.
It is in Latin, which was the [inaudible] of educated people at the time.
Now, Peter Martyr never set foot in the new world.
And when you read some of his descriptions you have [inaudible] behaving like a Roman
emperor and you know, he's a toga [inaudib and that's how he imagined it.
But this is the oldest printed book we have in the Latin American Library.
It was published in 1516. So there you go it's a beautiful edition.
The finding is later moving along. We have okay,
this is really now we're not with facsimiles anymore.
Well, that book wasn't a facsimiles we have original letters
by the Mexican Conquistador of Mexico [inaudible]. We have several documents,
and one of them is actually a letter, which is the oldest letter,
the oldest known letter written, the oldest
known letter written by [inaudible] the mainland.
Um, I'll just kind of show up. Can you see it with a glare? No?
- [Audience] Yeah
Yeah? I just wanted to show it to you.
You know, somebody said to me it was the beginning of Mexican nationalism
because it actually talks about how wonderful Mexico is, etc..
It's w is more the kind of thing a collector would prize
than its real research value. Unlike the other document that we have,
which is actually the first, if any of you are lawyers,
these are the first laws, the first ordinances of the New world.
And we have them here. So I wanted to show you these...
These are also very difficult to read. But fortunately we have a framework.
There we go, yeah. He begins by saying that I, Hernán Cortés, Captain General
and governor of this new Spain and its provinces
by the Emperor and King Donald Cardinals and Queen Dona
Juana, our Lord, seeing how it would benefit the good government of these parts
to issue ordinances so that they may be heard and guarded
by all the inhabitants of then, now and in the future.
So it's to put order. But he orders the settlers very interesting because
he orders the settlers that they need to bear arms. He describes the arms that
that they need to have. They must plant grapes
and other and vegetables and things,
and they must remove the idols from the Indians and forbid human sacrifice
as it's all these regulations about how to behave towards the-
Of course, the ordinances were for the Spaniards, the Indians to stop the
Spaniards, and they were allotted [inaudib
groups of Indians to come to work.
It was forced labor. It was a system of forced labor.
And it says things like Let's take the oldest sons of the nobility,
two monasteries where priests can teach them in the tenets of Catholicism.
They must also feed and clothe them.
But other part of this is that there are strict orders
not to abuse physically harm Indians. They needed to be protected.
And there it's a very disturbing part of this,
which is that there is no taking of women or boys,
no excessive work, and they must teach the faith to them.
So, of course, this has been one of these extraordinary figures amassed or tactician
tactician and politician and negotiator, ruthless. But, despite everything
and thinking of the mentality of the time, is really a less harsh picture.
Of what is commonly believed to be associated with Cortés...
this version of one of the things that happens in the New World
is in the literature of this time that is very new and it's that
history at this time is had been the history of great deeds,
history of great men and feats. And that's that's
the enterprise in the new world creates eyewitnesses to these great events.
And each eyewitness produces his own account.
I using the masculine on purpose because they were mostly natural.
And this creates a different perception of history. It creates the same versions,
narratives of the same event from different perspectives.
And that is very new in the history of the West. And [inaduble] Cortés,
the defeat the Aztec empire takes [inaudible] renames
that Mexico City, Cortés...
is he had his detractors, of course, but there were a series of histories
written about him where he was the protagonist in this renaissance, being of
medieval being actually of, you know, the great deed of the great conqueror
and one of his foot soldiers, Bernal Diaz del Castillo would have none of it.
Bernal of the at the age of 70 begins
to write the true history of the conquest of Mexico.
And if you've read nothing else of this period
and you're interested, I highly recommend it.
And as you can see, it's pretty thorough. It is quite long.
He it it wasn't published through [inaudible] in 1521
and Bernal has this published in 1630 to publish posthumously.
But it is a fascinating account
because the other part of history historiography at the time
was that it was intended to be written by educated men.
And it wasn't that Bernal was illiterate, he just wasn't formed
in the- with the rhetorical instruments of humanist education like Cortés was.
So he given every man's account and his had the passages
that he where he talks about how they walked into,
they saw because Mexico at that time [inaudible] was a series of
bridges to an island that was on a lake. And so he sees this these he sees
the men, the soldiers. And he remembers this as an old man.
And he has behind him something that has been very celebrated,
but it's also been contested, and if I could find... yes.
Recalling his first sight of Dynasty's blo
he appeals to the novels of chivalry. At the time,
these were the serial novels
that would appear of knights who were battling, etc..
During the morning, we arrived at a broad causeway
and continued our march toward [inaudible] and when we saw so many cities
and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land
and that straight and level causeway going towards Mexico, we were amazed and said
that it was like the enchantment as they tell of In the Legend of [inaudibl
That was the bestseller at the time. Everybody read somebody had read it to you
on account of the great towers and buildings rising from the water and all
Bill of Masonry and some of our soldiers even asked
whether some of the things that we saw were not a dream.
It is not to be wondered at that.
It is not to be wondered at, that I here write it down in this matter,
for there is so much to think over that I do not know to describe it.
Seeing things as we did that have never been heard of
or seen before, nor even dreamed about.
-[Audience] What is the name of the book again?
The true history in English. It's the true...
boy I have it in Spanish is the true history of the conquest of New Spain.
And he is Hernán Cortés in the hand of its number... Five.
its number five and I highly recommend. He also, which I will not read now, but
he also has a marvelous account of Moctezuma, the Aztec emperor.
What he wore. He was very princely. He was very elegant.
Cortés wanted to shake his hand and his his helpers, his his
men and lady.
And what pulled him away, because that was considered an insult.
He he he smoked tobacco. The Spaniards had never seen tobacco.
He drank chocolate. This is quite fascinating.
I very much recommend it. And so now...
Do you have to be able to read Spanish to read it?
No, it's been translated to every Western language and non-Western language.
There are many editions of it. Yes, you can probably
there's even a version full text online, but I don't recommend it.
You would want a good edition of it
with footnotes and things that would explain something.
He gets to a point. There were so many battles that he gets to a point
where he says, you know, I'm sorry, I, you know, narrating so many battles.
I feel like in a book by [inaudible]
But but I have to I have to think that one of these battles had a primary.
So he's very aware, you know, that this is lurking in the back of his
of of readers and his readers, you know, these books. So anyway
grace if you want to come up, we have the [inaudible].
Oh, I was going to yes. Yeah. Okay. So quickly to change a little bit of gears,
we wanted to give, I want to teach you a little bit of a view of some text
written by Amerindians on perspectives of colonial life
and of their own societies. So what we have actually this is a [inaudible], but
I show you something. This is by and also everything we've looked
at has mostly to do with Mexico, except maybe Pedro Martinez.
But [inaudible], a modern addition, of course, and he was a Peruvian
Indian and published this in 1614, 1615 And what's so amazing about it
is that he unfortunately, it's not a beautiful facsimile edition
of something else that I'm going to show you, which will give you this flavor.
The original is in the Royal Library of Denmark in Copenhagen, and
there's a website that is at least for me, this is like
I remember looking at this 18 years ago online, full text in color of this.
What's interesting see it's it's it's— it's written it's it's illustrated.
And it's a history and an explanation.
It's a history of the Incas and an explanation of their customs
and what [inaudible] does, after this explanation.
The last part of the book is a quite harsh critique of colonial view,
and he dedicates this book to the King.
So no wonder it wound up in Denmark, it was never published. So unfortunately,
there is no I mean, the great thing is that anybody has access to it online.
And the Danish really jumped on that quickly early on.
But I'm showing you a similar book. This is a facsimile
and it came out about a decade before a couple of decades- 15 years before.
This was published in the late 16th century in Peru.
Well, it was written then.
It was composed then by a Spanish priest, [inaudible],
but he employed native writers and illustrators.
Remember that incas didn't have the tradition of hieroglyphs.
Uh, they used quipu. I'm going to show you what a quipu looks like.
So this is a modern facsimile. These are the marvelous things you can do with
digital technology. And this is what I'm saying.
That unfortunate we don't have an edition like this in in.
Am I doing it right?
-Yeah. [audience]
-Yeah. So it's just marvelous
that it reproduces all the defects of the original that repairs everything.
But I wanted to show you because he has a part.
This is [inaudible] and the marvelous thing is that
[inaudible] did a study and there's something like 80% of
the illustrations here are by Philip Pullman.
The the the the the rebel [inaudible] text is just descriptive.
It doesn't have any of the critique of colonial rule
that [inaudible] included later.
But I wanted to show you what this may look like.
And you see both pages very different.
So this is a quipu this is a, quipu, this is a book.
This is this is a, um, this is called quipu [inaudible].
And these are made these books are made with
strings and knotted cords. And there have been some breakthroughs
in recent years in interpreting these these text.
They were always considered to be accounting tools. So you had strings.
The spacing of the strings, the colors, the placement of the knot,
and all of that would have numerical meaning.
So accountants would use this.
It's been, um, there are many studies now that are showing
other narratives, um, symbolism, this or semiotics rather, um,
that would indicate that stories were told by using these quipu.
So it wasn't just for- that they had a narrative function kind of
initially it was thought they were nemonic device.
They've been shown to be much more complex.
So this is the kind of thing that [inaudible] would have drawn.
I don't know if you get this one, but, um, these are fascinating
texts and windows into, um, life under colonial rule,
but a history of native peoples
from the perspective of a historian from that time Chris, you’re on.
So what we're going to do now is how are we doing time wise?
are we all right?
Yeah.
What do you want to do Staci?
Where is Statci? Yeah? keep going. Okay.
Yeah, we started. Yeah. All right. So, um.
-So I think briefly to kind of, um, to accompany
what Hortensia was saying about [inaudible
- [Audience] Out door voice.
It’s coming [audience laughs] We're going
now is a piece from, again, a collection of painted documents, again
produced by indigenous peoples from Highland Central Mexico.
But these materials posted date the conquest , so these are ...
these were things that were produced
for colonial society and they kind of range from a
from a variety of the things that we're some are more administrative,
others were more genealogical in nature and then some were more historical.
And again, this is from the like, the more the perspective of the
ndigenous colonial resident. And so the piece that I thought
we would select, which was is something that's called
a mapa de [inaudible] Cinco
and I'm going to show you one part of it here.
And as you'll see, it's not even though the title of it is mapa, a
map of [inaudible] Cinco,
it's not a map in kind of the conventional sense that we're that
we generally would think of when someone says, okay, I'm going to show you a
map right now.. The mapa de [inaudible] Cinco is actually again,
this is a copy of an original that probabl dates to the mid to late June 1600s.
It was produced by plus Collin.
So these are people again from just outside the base
of Mexico, kind of in the vicinity of what is today again.
[inaudible] Cinco is still in existence.
It's now as part of the larger metropolitan
area of Pueblo, the city of Pueblo,
the capital of the state, um, not too far from place of
and many of you have probably heard of what's is called Tallulah.
And so the mapa de [inaudible] Cinco is actually 27 painted panels.
Again, one of those show here is copies that were made of the originals that
were held by the town and so at some point,
those are no longer it's not quite clear where the originals went to.
At some point some of the recent scholarship
says that they've tried to go back and see the originals and they're
they're no longer held by the townspeople and they don't know what has
happened to them. They say that people from Mexico City can and collected them.
And so it's not very clear.
So that's why things of this nature, even though, again, as I say, it's a copy,
a facsimile version, probably pretty impor
So again, this
these are two panels that were joined one of a group of 27. And I thought this
would be a particularly good one to show because it's an illustration of a feast,
and I'll give you some context for it, but
- [Hortensia] Chris, we can hear you back here!
-it's called— next week of Thanksgiving. So I thought this would be a good
part of the [inaudible] to demonstrate, to show you all.
And so... so what is Mapa de [inaudible]?
What it actually is a narrative, how perhaps it was a legend,
something that was probably told orally a history of the conquest.
But from the Tuscan perspective and
current scholarship about what this story was,
is that a kind of is it grounded several
royal lineages of this particular town as main participants
assistance to Córtez when he [inaudible] to take down the Aztec
And so this is probably pretty important for indigenous peoples of this particular
period in colonial science society because there had been a long standing decree
that people, conquistadors and anyone who had aided the conquistadors
in the defeat of the Aztecs were then entitled to privileges, land moneys
and also relief from paying tribute or tax
so clearly for illustrious indigenous peoples.
If they could show some kind of documentation that indeed
they had aided in the conquest and they and their descendants
and the people who probably were responsible for creating this document
were probably descendants and were very much interested in being able to document
the assistance of their ancestors, to Córtez because it helped their stature
and colonial society. So it does tell the story of
the entrance of Córtez and Spanish into this area.
Tlaxcala the pictures, documents, battles
and tells also another very strong case in this particular document
was the religious conversion of the native Tlaxcala Christianity
and this particular scene, then this banquet scene actually
kind of takes place after the conquest. This is part of Cortez's return
journey to the coast of [inaudible]
in about 1528 when he has to return to Spain again, kind of for the same reason
Cortez was returning back to Spain to to basically assure himself
of his holdings in New Spain and of his particular position.
And in order to make sure that that happened, he had to go back.
And so that part of this the story was, again, that the Tlaxcalans,
again, were such close allies in a Rome that they were sad to see Cortez go.
And so, of course, when he passed back to
territory on his journey, they threw him a banquet.
And that's when this particular scene, I think
another important feature of this particular
narrative is that at some point
the paintings were had captions written in them in Nawat
and the now what writing is actually key to helping scholars. They this particular
original piece and as I said, these are the copies that are held here as Latin
American migrant watercolor duplicates that were painted probably in the 1800s.
Um, and unfortunately at some point there was a fire.
So some of those were destroyed. Not here. Not here.
And but the copies that we have here, again, that's a pretty important
I should mention, too, that the way that the map de [inaudible]
the equivalent people came to the attention of scholars was
by Adolph Vandilear, who had for
some reason was touring around the southern part of Mexico
and happened to come to this town and see these paintings.
Frederick Starr is the person who did the scholarship,
and we have his documentation of this in his.
And it was through his works that that we learned about
about these he published some of the first images of the originals,
um, of the mapa de [inaudible]
and they had his work also contains the translation
into Spanish Nawat captions and this is how we kind of know about this story
because otherwise the native peoples probably told their version of the
conquest and their image and their language, but it wasn't
necessarily written at the time.
So again, this is why we think that this I started off as an oral history or legend
And at some point, well, there's good reason
to think that during the colonial period,
there is good reason for them to actually it in the way they did.
It was again, kind of in good Indigenous
style was to paint pictures
as opposed to necessarily writing out of history
and one final thing I'll just mention this interesting about this document
is that it mentioned, again, it mentions Córtez
as the market slave, and this helps to date the material.
It also mentions that they had read about the the European and the Colonial
take on the conference and they do mention
or knew about at least [inaudible] Pretty interesting that those
words had been circulated and that indigenous
or at least educated indigenous peoples in Spain
had access to those histories as well. Thank you very much.
- [Hortensia] Thank you Chris,
so at this point you've seen book after book after book.
So I did some editing in my head when I was
sitting there and we had what we can do is we can show you
what is very special about the next two books is that they are
you can see they're not beautiful. These are some of the first works
printed in the New World. Printing arrives in Mexico in 1539.
It's quite early, but it was not something to propagate ideas.
We tend to think of the invention of the printing press and Gutenberg
as, you know, a vehicle for the dissemination of the new science
and of Protestant ideas, etc. the Spaniards.
And it used it as an instrument of empire,
which is the title that I chose for this little section
because it was to print access to printing,
was very circumscribed and it was to print.
It was to aid missionaries in the proselytizism– in
the proselytizing natives and to convert them to Catholicism.
And we can show you some of these books when you come around.
Um, but I won't dwell on them.
They are fascinating. One is a confessional.
These have a wealth of information because it was a manual for priests
to how and it's facing page translation in number and in Spanish,
you know, asking questions so that they could.
[off sceen vocies]
The other thing is very special and this is this little thing.
So this is what's called a Hesperian catechism [off screen noise]
And this is on European Paper, and these are very, very scarce.
We happen to have one of them ummm...
and what they are are manuals to teach natives. Um, they were a catechism.
If you've grown up in the Catholic, you know exactly what a catechism is.
Oh, I can still recite some of the things that.
I had to recite Teaches you a church doctrine who made me?
God made me. Who is God?
God is a supreme being [Hortensia and audience laugh].
But the peculiarity of this is that it was a system invented
by Spanish priests adopting the look of indigenous [inaudible].
So it kind of worked in a rebus fashion. They would they would...
depict an image and it would then the that that would
the word— a word in among Nawat speakers
and that word would sound a Spanish word if you are confused
it's confusing [audience laughs] But people
in fact we have one of our art historians,
Elizabeth Boone, has worked on this kind of material.
And it is fascinating that this kind of method was developed.
But one of the amazing things about the Spaniards in this period is
that they could have set out teaching native
populations Spanish period, and then instructing them.
And then, no, these priests became involve
in the communities they learned the languages and they
instructed them in their native languages.
But today, these documents provide a wealth of information
on language as it was at the time.
Um, and they're great sources for,
um, of, of cultural information like the confessional.
Um, yes, I'm. Just wondering, what were these Jesuits.
Know the Jesuits were not until the late 16th century.
These were mostly Dominicans, Franciscans,
the group of [inaudible] one of these was a Franciscan, very involved.
These were the first order that came to the New World.
You can see this more closely at the end.
And I just wanted umm, I'll leave [inaudible] out.
She's from another century, but I really don't want to keep you much longer.
I just wanted to end with bartolomeo da costa who was a towering figure,
um, and a political activist and a very polarizing figure, even to this day.
And I just thought it fitting because he brings out he was accused
by many of having begun what is known as the black legend of Spain
but what he was a political activist and he wrote what is really a diatribe
he he fought relentlessly in pro of the human rights of indigenous people.
He was active this is from 1552. This is a first edition.
- [Audience] What was his name again?
-Banal— I'm sorry, Bartolomé de las Casas.
[audience mumbles]
Thank you, and the book is it's it's
actually this is several books This this is how big the book is
and it's called “A Very Brief History of the Destruction of the Indies.”
He came to the New world.
He owned Indians or he had been an income of Indians,
and he had an epiphany.
He had a change of moral direction. And he he succeeded actually, in changing
what that seeking to protect the Indians
and to do away with the atrocities committed
that he saw committed by [inaudible]
Unfortunately, as you can imagine,
he made many political enemies, especially among [inaudible]
But he's one of these figures that has transcended.
There's a wonderful article by a historian
I think it was from 1970 that's still very valid.
And I wonder if it has been. I don't think it's been updated.
Benjamin King, who's the great historian, among others, one fear there's another
that traces the history of publication of this book,
because as it was adopted, the book actually describes atrocities.
I wont even go in—
The structure is that it takes the broad sweep
of the Spanish intervention in the new world.
It begins in the Antilles. It then goes into Mexico.
So he enumerate it, you know, first Mexico then Nicaragua, then Guatemala, then
the coast of Colombia, Venezuela. And he describes atrocity after atrocity,
how the Spaniards are killing these Indians and torturing them.
And he did it for rhetorical purposes.
There's been huge debates about you know, is his
are his numbers accurate, etc.. But he is one of the great
human rights activists of all time. And his book has been published
and republished throughout history, even in the sixties,
there was a massacre in Vietnam of My Lai of, um, and this book was invoked.
It's it's invoked from time to time. And I wanted to show you
and we'll end with this.
And if you have any questions about sort of I want to tell you about here,
but this is a book this is a 1665 edition is that right?
No, I didn't put it in there. This was published in Heidelberg.
Um, and it is a Republication and re-edition of
Britannica Historia de la Destruction, The Lost [inaudible].
And it is illustrated with woodcuts by Theodore Debray, who was a Belgian
who lived in southern Netherlands and the Inquisition.
He was— he had to leave because of the Spanish Inquisition, etc..
But these plates that illustrate
the work of Las Casas have been published and republished.
This is one of the more famous ones where the Spaniards
are feeding indigenous children to their dogs [audience gasps].
This is umm—
these kinds of appropriation of Las Casas text are in part more complex than that.
And he also wrote about the black legend of Spain the idea that
anything Spanish is more horrid than, uh, anywhere else.
The atrocities of the conquest. Etc..
Here's another one with people being tortured.
This one,
this guy is running around the sound of an and this one's getting his hand hacked off
It's it's like, so sorry to leave you on such a gruesome
note [audience laughs] but, Stacie, why would you like to do?
I would love for them to come up and see t but I don't know
if anybody has questions I would like to a
I know there is food, and the only thing w is that you don't bring it here.
Because of the books. Please do come if you want to see anything.
I'm trying to clean up here.
I don't know if—
I don't kno should we pass out gloves?
Um well I'm going to ask not to touch them
We can, but we're happy to. We're happy to
Dr. Culver really does want to share some of the treasures that the library has
Oh, pleases feel welcome to come see what she has to show you.
We would like to thank the staff, Veronica
Come down.
[inaudible]
[inaudible] Christine Hernandez.
Also, Rachel Stein is hiding back there
[inaudible].
Veronica Sanchez,
Madeline White, Marie [inaudible] who is n
And where is Sarah Kittleson?
There you go.
Sarah
and Doris,
I would like to thank the committee, twelv that made this happen today.
Please stand.
Patty san— Patty Andrews, thank you for us
And Dr.
Kaufman. Thank you very much.

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Tulane University Libraries Speaker Series

Details

Title: Forging a New World: Books & Writing in Early Spanish America, 1492-1821 (Video)
Creator: Tulane University Libraries
Speaker: Calvo, Hortensia
Hernández, Christine
Sundmaker, Staci
Baron, Doris
McGrew, Janet
Transcriber: Cummins, Mya
Corporate Contributor(s): Media Services
Date Created: 2018-11-14
Description: Recording on November 14th, 2018 of a talk by Dr. Hortensia Calvo, Doris Stone Director of the Latin American Library, titled, "Forging a New World: Books & Writing in Early Spanish America, 1492-1821." This presentation was part of the Tulane University Women's Association's Jane and Herbert Longenecker Lecture Series. The event was dedicated to María García Daly.
Extent: 1 hr., 21 min., 26 sec.
Type of Resource: moving image
Genre: Lectures
Topical Subject(s): Early Spanish America
Publisher: Tulane University Digital Library
Language: eng
Identifier (Local): ForgingaNewWorld.mp4
Rights: In Copyright - http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Forging a New World: Books & Writing in Early Spanish America, 1492-1821 (Video)

Description

In collections