Christianity in 16th century Latin America

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Christianity in 16th century Latin America

• The good, the bad, and the ugly

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Questions/big picture

• Latin America vs. Asia two very different models
  of cultural contact
• How do you understand the conquest?
• What motivated the different Christians involved?

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Spanish Conquest

• Explorers come first (1492ff)
• Happens before reforms of Trent
• Model remove and replace local religion
• Columbus kidnap locals, take to Spain, get to
  act as translators
• Cortes destroy Aztec symbols and replace
• First offer chance to convert, then use force
• Missionaries arrive
• Franciscans arrive in 1524
• Eventually, Augustinians, Jesuits, and Dominicans
  also active

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Notable Exceptions

• Bartolome de las Casas (d. 1566)
• Argued against coercion and enslavement
• Argued for their humanity
• Paul III (1537) Indians have rights to freedom
  and property
• Dominicans at Salmanca, Spain (1539) conversion
  by conquest not right
• Force can only be used against aggressors

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Indigenous Christianity

• Natives made Christianity their own
• Neither outright rejection nor total acceptance
• Find in Christianity (esp. Mary and saints) the
  means to assert themselves
• Our Lady of Guadalupe
• Soldiers of the Virgin
• Santiago Chimaltenango

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Our Lady of Guadalupe

• Story
• Content
• Rhetorical analysis (author, audience, purpose)
• How is the story meaningful to believers? In
  Latino/Mexican culture?
• How does the story show inculturation?
• Why were some Marian apparitions accepted and
  others not?