The Black Legend
Spain’s conquest of the New
World in memory
“A distinctive feature of legends is that their
veracity is in some way suspect. A legend
is a story that someone else believes.”1
1
Charles Gibson, The Black Legend (1969)
What is Historical Memory?
• In part, it is how society chooses to
remember certain events of the past.
What effects memory?
• Self-interest is a powerful motivator in
shaping the way humans remember the
past.
How does the past “change?”
• Indeed, the interpretation of the past can
and does change dramatically over time.
New societal norms, political objectives,
varying cultural or religious perspectives
are but a few factors that change the
moral assessment given to the events of
the past.
The Black Legend
• This presentation will look at the contested
memory of Spain as both a European
power and as a colonial empire.
• In short, we will examine the “Black
Legend.”
What is the Black Legend?
• The importance of Las Casas’s Very Brief
Relation. (Only work of Las Casas
published within 300 years of his lifetime.)
Other Origins of the “Black Legend”
• Trends coinciding with Las Casas’s Very
Brief Relation (1552)
– The Inquisition (Spanish)
– The Protestant Reformation & Religious Wars
•
•
•
•
French Wars (1562-1598)
Netherlands Revolt (1567-1593)
Sinking of Spanish Armada by England (1588)
Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)
Early Critics
• William of Orange (Hero of
Protestant Netherlands)
Apologia (1580)
– Accusations of Spanish brutality,
sloth, and depravity.
– Mentions Spain’s atrocities in New
World (cites Las Casas)
– Fighting King Philip II of Spain for
independence
– Coincides with early Dutch
translation of Brief Relation.
Black Legend in the New World: Las Casas is
translated into English
• The first English translation of Las Casas
appears in Oliver Cromwell’s England in
1656: The Tears of the Indians: Being an
Historical and True Account of the Cruel
Massacres and Slaughter of Above Twenty
Millions of Innocent People
Oliver Cromwell
• Cromwell’s Speech at
the Opening of
Parliament (1656)
repeats the account
of Las Casas,
recently translated
into English.
Anti-Spanish Literature in the
Enlightenment era.
• Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters (1721)
• Voltaire Alzire, 1736
• Emphasizing, describing reasons for the decline of
Spain. Both familiar with Las Casas.
Modern Critics
• Lew Wallace, The
Fair God (1873)
• Continuing in the
Protestant tradition of
beating up on Spain
• A time of turmoil in
Latin America:
Looking for answers.
More Modern Critics of Spain
• Diego Rivera’s
political murals depict
a modern
interpretation of the
Black Legend.
On one hand, an idealized Indian past
Rivera
• In Rivera’s
murals, the
Conquistadors
stand in as a
metaphor for
greed,
capitalism, and
European
brutality. They
are the words of
Las Casas put
into pictures.
I took this picture at the National Palace in Mexico City, Fall 2003
Rivera’s Perspective
• A self-styled champion of
the underclass and Indian
causes, Rivera also
identified with Marxism.
His works often
celebrated Socialist
ideals – the very opposite
philosophy, at least on
paper, of European
imperialism.
Diego Rivera and exiled Russian Revolutionary Leo Trotsky
(before Trotsy’s ended up with an icepick in his back!)
Contemporary Black Legend
• The elevation of Las Casas
– His writings are on almost every course
syllabus, often uncritically, in classes that deal
with the Spanish conquest
– Las Casas as a path-breaker. An early
champion of human rights struggles. (A
predecessor of Ghandi, King, Mandella.)
– Las Casas’s stories are most useful in this
regard, especially if they are true.
Attacking the Black Legend
• Spanish apologists: Julián Juderias, The
Black Legend (1914)
• Coins the term “Black Legend” – in every
sense of the word, “legend”
• Construction of the “White Legend.”
– Las Casas was a liar.
– Spain spread greater good in the New World,
far in excess of any bad.
– Las Casas, if true, was an isolated incident
Food for thought
• How different was Spain’s conquest of the
New World with that of the Protestant
European powers? (Dutch, English)
• Persistance of Indianismo
• The Mestizo vs the absent English
counterpart: The creation of Latino society.
Contemporary Conflicts: Oñate
In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate crossed the Rio Grande, becoming
the first European (he was actually a mix of Spanish and Indian
– a mestizo, or perhaps more accurately, a Latino) to enter what
is today the American Southwest.
One Hand: Heroic Oñate
• Oñate, by virtue of being the first Latino to
cross the Rio Grande has become
something of a hero in the US Latino
community.
• Growing politically powerful, these Latino
communities want to validate their position
through statues of Oñate.
• He’s become something of a Latin George
Washington.
There’s a rub…
• Oñate could be one mean hombre when
he wanted to…
– After an uprising at the Acoma pueblo, he
punished 24 of the men by chopping off their
right foot, among other grisly things
– Even King Phillip II of Spain ordered an
investigation of his overly zealous behavior
when punishing hostile Indians.
Monumental Controversy
• Descendants of the Acoma vs.
Conquistador champions: The Oñate
monument craze.
• A barometer of political power and its
influence on historical memory.
Points to ponder
• What forces drive historical memory?
• Is an objective truth possible?
• In criticizing the “Black Legend” do we
fabricate a “White Legend” in its place?
• How much of an historical narrative is
really about the present than the past?