The text “Pedro Naranjo and Josephe. Testimony of Pueblo Indians” reports the declarations of Pedro Naranjo and Josephe, two Indians involved in the rebellions against Spaniards in South America during 1860 – 1861, captured by the Spanish soldiers. The text was created by Marcus in 2007, as a reproduction of the events involved in European campaigns for conquering America, the land of the Indians. It is destined to everybody who wants to understand the historical and social context of the Indian uprising against Europeans, including the ancestors of the Indians or of their conquistadores. The intention of the author is to present an accurate statement of the past, based on the authentic declarations of two Pueblo Indians that guided the revolt against the Spaniards, presenting their reasons of their rebellion as entrenched in the socio-economic order imposed by force by the Europeans.
The article focuses on presenting the declarations of Pedro Naranjo and Josephe, who explain what guided their actions towards rebellion. From the reproduction of their declarations there are significant aspects that readers can learn about social, economic, political and religious aspects of the people living in the nowadays South America in the 16th – 17th centuries. The writing indicates that the Spanish rulers forced the Native Americans to adopt Christianity as their religion, converting them to Catholicism, while disallowing them from practicing their ancient beliefs. In fact, one of the main causes of the 1680-1681 revolt of the Pueblo Indians against the Spaniards was religiously entrenched. As such, Pedro Naranjo declared that the three Indian men who pushed them into the revolt through sorcerous approaches told them that “the God of the Spaniards was worth nothing and theirs was very strong, the Spaniards’ God being rotten wood” (Marcus, 2007, p. 70).
Furthermore, the writing informs that the Indians were living hard times under the domination of the Europeans. They were captured and placed into the Spaniards’ service, being unpaid for their hard works and often experienced hunger, because their masters would not feed them. More than this, the Europeans confiscated everything the Indians owned, enslaving them. As Pedro Naranjo’s testimony indicates, the rebellion against the Spaniards was mainly caused by the social conditions in which the Europeans forced them to live. The cause that he describes as guiding the Indians towards revolt refer to the three Indians who emitted “fire form all the extremities of their bodies”, who forecasted liberation from the Spaniards and a life as it was in the ancient times (Marcus, 2007, pp. 68 - 69).
What can be also learned from the examined text is the Pueblo people’s believes in sorcery and the fact that they guided their existence on magical and mystical events that taught them what to do. This specific rebellion against Spaniards was described as being ignited by dark forces who communicated with the living Indians. The Indians intended to protect their lands, their liberty and their ancient lifestyle, which implied the right to practice their own religion and to work for no foreigners, while they enjoyed the fruits of their work.
In relation with this, an important passage that stands out from the examined writing is found in Naranjo Pedro’s declaration, who explains the difference between the Indians’ living according to Spaniards’ order and their ancient lifestyle. The passage indicates that the demons forecasted a life of abundance for Indians, should they rebel against the Spaniards: “they would harvest a great deal of maize, many beans, a great abundance of cotton, calabashes [pumpkins], and very large watermelons and cantaloupe; and that they could erect their houses and enjoy abundant health and leisure” (Marcus, 2007, p. 70). This passage stands out because it speaks of the Indians’ ideals and goals, which should have been part of their natural living, but because this lifestyle was taken away for them, they came to desire it as an idea for their living.
This passage, as the entire text, confirms my understanding of conquest and colonization in the Americas. I did not perceive the colonization and conquest of the Americas as a peaceful, non – violent process of getting in contact with another civilization and exchanging living habits, but as a violent campaign of conquering the natives by forcing their submission. The sole contradiction that this text outlines is the fact that the Indians fought their conquistadores, while often killing their own people who sided with the Spaniards (Marcus, 2007).
These interactions between Pueblo Indians and Spaniards occurred as a result Europeans’ discovery of Americas, which brought settlers and colonists in the newly found land, attracted by the natural richness of this land that they came to claim as theirs. The encounter between the local people and the settlers was called colonization, often taking the forms of violent confrontations that resulted in enslaving or even killing the natives who did not obey to the new rule of the Europeans (Marcus, 2007). The colonization resulted in political consequences, which implied gradually reducing the rights and territories of the native people, but also in cultural outcomes, which aimed to replace the Indians’ language, habits and traditions with Europeans’ culture.
The text has an authentic flavor that gives the readers an idea about how native Pueblo Indians lived in the 17th century. The authenticity is given by the language used to tell the stories of the captive Indians, using specific words that they utilized in describing the events in which they participated. Estufas is a word used in Naranjo Pedro’s testimony to describe a room (in this context Pedro was describing a house of cult) and junta is a word that Josephe uses to refer at a meeting (Marcus, 2007). These two words demonstrate that process of colonization implied the assimilation of the Pueblo Indians, who used Portuguese and Spanish words to describe aspects from their daily living.
The text is written in an objective tone, but throughout the writing two important themes emerge, namely the sorcery and the oppression. In the given context, the two are interrelated, as the Indians used sorcery for liberating themselves from the Spaniards’ oppression and both of them describe the life of the Indians, caught between the ancient trim and the new order imposed with force by the conquistadores. Sorcery was used as the Pueblo people’s weapons for scaring the Europeans, while the oppression was the Europeans’ way of conquering over the native people, by imposing their religion, impoverishing and enslaving them. Therefore, sorcery and oppression are the main themes of the text, which reflect the confrontational living between the native Pueblo people and the Spaniards colonizers.
The source is relevant for the nowadays living because it indicates that the native people of the Americas were wrongly treated. Moreover, it indicates that the European colonization was, in fact, a brutal invasion, which resulted in the killing of both Indians and Europeans, as a result of the confrontations aimed at changing the Indians’ lifestyle and enslaving them. These aspects are important because the followers of the native Indians need to be respected and treated with dignity, benefiting of their liberty to express their culture and lifestyle, in sign of apologies for the wrong treatment of their ancestors.
References
Marcus, A. (2007) America firsthand. Vol. 1: Readings from Settlement to Reconstruction.
