Hernan Cortes: Letters to Charles V (1519-1526)
When reading the letter Cortes to the king, he paints a picture of the Yucatan peninsula being a picture perfect place. He tries to make his discovery seem like something great. When he describes the mountains and the animals you would picture this place being a paradise, a heaven on earth. He talks about their being precious metals such as gold. But I do not believe it is how it really was. Also he goes on to talk about how these people sacrifice their people to their gods, cutting off their ears, tongues, or stabbing themselves. Although, I do not know for sure if it is true, I find it hard to believe that they would do that to their people for their gods. It seems that he is sugar coating reality to make it sound better to the king. Hearing what it was like to discover this land from a primary source is nice to understand what it was like, but I feel like the reality of what really happened is tainted. It appears to me that his image of them is bias because it is not something that he is used to experiencing.
Cantares Mexicanos & Codex Mendoza
The poem Cantares Mexicanos, was describing how Tenochtitlan had fallen. I think the poem was pretty straight forward. It describes how the Aztec people reacted to his death. Also, it talks about how they fled the area and ran away like a women. The Codex Mendoza has pictures of what people sacrificed to the Lords, maps, and history. I think that these sources are useful to modern historians because it shows how cultures of the past dealt with situations and recorded information. People used pictures, stories, or poems. The pictures in Codex Mendoza could be used to analyze how the ranking systems worked in the Aztec empire. Also they can be used for a history. The picture of the things that were sacrificed to the Lords give us an idea and perspective from the Aztec perspective instead of the European perspective. The best way I think to use these images and texts is to analyze their culture and belief system.
Captives and Cousins
This reading was hard for me to understand. In the beginning it was talking about the Christ Child and how they were walking around trying to get people to listen to them. This image reminds me of how the Europeans were trying to force the Indigenous people of America to believe in Catholicism. It also talks about how women are treated more as a posession or object than a human being. The trades of the women made the leaders look superior. The women are looked at as being property.
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I agree with what you are saying about Catives and Cousins. I really did not understand the role of the Christ Child, it was unclear. Also I think your analysis of the pictures from Codex Mandoza is quite eye opening. I was thinkign the same thing about the ranking systems.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about your comments on how Cortes' report is distorted. We can see this when you point out how he makes this land seem like heaven on earth.
ReplyDeleteYeah I also agree with what you said about "Letter to Charles V." There is no way that there is as much gold as Cortes said and no way the people were as cruel as Cortes said. He definitely is twisting the image of what really is there to appeal it to the king. I like how you said that the reality is being tainted.
ReplyDeleteIn your response to the Hernan Cortes’ letter I think that you are absolutely correct in the assumption that Cortes is “sugar coating reality”. I believe that he did this because his expedition did not hold the final result that he had planned. Since he has nothing to offer he spends the second half of his letter condemning their rituals such as human sacrifice. If the Americas lacked the gold and goods he had expected to find what else is he to propose but to “convert” the savages who kill and sodomize. This provides the King justification to colonize. I think that Cortes’ was a horrible person for stepping this low, but how else would we expect a glory hungry and greedy explorer to act?
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