1492What Is It Like to Be Discovered!

sav age (sav'ij), 1. wild: He likes savage moun-tain scenery. 2. not civilized; barbarous: Gaudycolors phase a savage taste.. S. person living some-what as wild animals do. 4. fierce; cruel; ready tofight: The savage lion attacked the hunter. 6. afierce, brutal, or cruel person, adj., n.sav age ly (sav'ij li), in a savage manner, adv.sav age ness (savlj nis), 1. wildness: thesavageness of ajungle scene. 2. savage or uncivilizedcondition: the savageness of some African tribes.3. cruelty; fierceness, n.

sav age ry (savlj ri), wildness; savage state;cruelty, n., pi. av tfe ries.

Deborah Small with Maggie Jaffe

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They don't wear clothes.

They don't speak English.

They don't read.

They don't use napkins.

They forget to ask permission.

They don't bathe in tubs.

They don't say grace.

They don't write.

They don't keep journals.

They don't believe in private property,

They give away their things.

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Its 1492.I want to discover something.I want to discover something in a big way.We all do.I want to be famous.Everyone wants to be famousfor fifteen minutes.I want to be famous forever.

iTierra! jTierra!Land! Land! I cry.The future doesn't just happen

You're right, Columbus,the mutinous men cry.I always am.

It's 1492.I sail the ocean blue.Two rhymes with blue.I gaze skyward.

I get together three ships.The Nina, the Pinta, the Santa MariaWe set sail.We head WEST.We always do.

I discover AMERICA.

We disembark.I sit astride a white horse.I wear a white hat, tight boots, teflon shirt.All conquistadors do.

We plant a few crosses.We carry a few trinkets.We look around for gold.

We battle the elements.The men are mutinous.We could be struck by lightning.I write in my journal:April is the cruelest month.I nail a gold doubloon to the mast.We keep going.

The WEST is a VIRGIN.The West is always a virgin.

I gaze skyward.I hold a sword in my right hand.I grasp the banner ofmy expedition in the other.The men surround me.Several fall on their knees, kiss the earth.

I gaze skyward.

This is MY country.

But where is the GOLD?

I see us painted in the Capitol rotunda.Sculpted on the doors.Modeled on the frieze.

But not yet.There is the problem of the natives.What is to be done about the natives.

The natives are naked.Natives are always naked.

There is the RAW.There is the COOKED.

The natives don't speak English.They don't speak Spanish, German,French, or Dutch.

The cutting edge of LANGUAGE is a knife.

Savage/savages.

But where is the GOLD?

The natives are pagans.The natives are barbarians.The natives are heathens.

We like to save souls.We always do.

At first we want to convert them.Later we don't.We exterminate them.

We always end up exterminating the natives.One way or another.We can't help it.

In the name of the FATHER.In the name of the SON.In the name of the GHOST.

AMERICA is a VIRGIN.I am her white knight.

We perfect our methods.First we tread softly.Then we use dogs.jTomalos!Sic em!

We dress for success:Armor, swords, pikes, crossbows,Rope and green wood.

We've come a long way.It's the only way to come.

Veni, Vidi, Vict

It's a jungle out there.

Winning is the only thing.

It's easy to burn in hell.We burn Indians.We string them up in groups of thirteen.We light the fire.

We honor our Lord and His Apostles.All thirteen of them.

Life imitates art.

Extermination is a thirteen-letter word.The Last Supper is a painting.Civilization is for the civilized.

Bum, baby, burn.

The best things about AMERICA are free:Free markets.Free fire zones.Friendly fire.Open seasons.

Nobel prizes yes.Noble savages no.

You are free to honor me.My self-reliance.My persistenceMy zest for life.My feeling for beauty.

My sheer guts.

My communion with the UNknown.

Take a minute.Gaze skyward toward Columbus Circle.My statue throbs in the heart of America.My monument is 39 feet tall.

America is reality.

I want to be famous.I am.

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In Columbus by Ingri and Edgar Parin D Aulaire(recommended by the American Library Associa-tion, the Child Study Association, and The Califor-nia Reading Institute), a child comes across the fol-lowing passage: "The Spaniards did not mind be-ing treated like gods by these gentle hea-thens."

Ten pages later, the children learn that the"heathens" Columbus meets on his Second Voyageare not gentle but "wild" cannibals who eat their en-emies and shoot the white men with poisoned darts.

I look up "heathen" in my Thorndike Junior Dic-tionary. The dictionary uses the word in a sentenceso I can better understand the proper usage: "Thewild savages of Africa are heathen."

There are wild savage heathens everywhere.

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wild (wild), L living or growing in the forests orfields; not tamed; not cultivated: The tiger is awild animal. The daisy isa wild flower. 2. with nopeople living in it3. waste; desert: Much ofnorthern Canada is wildland. The wilds meanswild country. 4. notcivilized; savage. 5. notchecked; not restrained:a wild rush for the ball.6. violent: a wild storm. 7. rash; crazy. & wildly.adj.9 n.f adv.wild cat (wild/kat/) 9 L a wild animal like acommon cat, but larger. A lynx is one kind ofwildcat. 2. wild; reckless; not safe, it., adj.wil der ness (wil'dar nis), wild place; regionwith no people living in it. n.

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sav age (sav'ij), 1. wild: He likes savage moun-tain scenery. 2. not civilized; barbarous: Gaudycolors please a savage taste.- 3. person living some-what as wild animals do. 4. fierce; cruel; ready tofight: The savage lion attacked the hunter. 5. afierce, brutal, or cruel person, adj., n.sav age ly (sav'ij li), in a savage manner, adv.sav age ness (sav'ij nis), 1. wildness: thesavageness of ajungle scene. 2. savage or uncivilizedcondition: the savageness of some African tribes.3. cruelty; fierceness, n.

sav age ry (sav'ij ri), wildness; savage state;cruelty. n. t pi. sav tfe ries.

godgoldglory

October 13, 1492:

was bent uponfinding out if there was CjOld. . . .

October 15, 1492:

/ do not wish to tarry, in order to reach and visit many islands so as tofind QOld.

November 12, 1492:

. . .they indicated by signs the people collect CjOld on the beach at night by candlelight.

. . .without doubt there are in these lands very great quantities of QOld.

December 23, 1492:

ITtez/ named among other places Cipango, which they call Cibao, and there they affirm there is

great quantity ofCjOld, audits Cacique carries banners of hammered QOld.

January 8, 1493:

A river allfull ofQOld, to such an extent that it was a marvel. . . .

Gold: its abundance in the Indies, 14, 56, 88,236, 367, 369, 375, 383n, 384; and blood, 340,367; and Columbus, D, 20, 21, 369; cost of,367; debased, 379; detrimental effect of, 290n,375; its effect on scientific research, 375n; andEnciso, 80; fed to Spaniards, 340n; fluidity of,376-77; God's gift to the Spaniards, 374,382n, 383, 384; in Hispaniola, 18, 70, 370;historical role of, 374-76; in Jamaica, 21; aslure to the Indies, 55, 56, 319, 366-73; asmainspring of Spanish action, 368-69; men-tioned in capitulations, 118; and Michele daCuneo, 31; origin of, 66; and Peter Martyr, 51,57, 73, 375-76; as ransom for Holy Sepulcher,21n, 384; reflected in colonists' faces, 366-67;in rivers, 73, 370; scorned by natives, 55n,114; as sole appeal of the Indies, 121; andspices, 369-76. See also El Dorado

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/ am a wild woman,from the deep, deep mora bush,from the high mountain top.I am going to carry someone away.I wonder who it will be.

Carib Indian song from Guyana,quoted in The Wild Woman

It is 1493. In his letter to Isabella and Ferdi-nand, Columbus reports finding parrots, gold,and warrior women. His warrior women arethe legendary Amazons who live without menand use bows and arrows to defend theirgilded island from invasion. Once a year theyprocreate with ferocious cannibals from anearby island.

It is 1510. Columbus's description of exoticCarib Amazons inspires Garci-Rodriguez deMontalvo's romance of the chivalric hero,Amadis, who fights and subdues Queen Calafiaand her Amazons. Queen Calafia's island par-adise is called "California."

Amazon legend so dear to Columbus's heart,but also takes on Joseph Conrad's Heart ofDarkness, Francis Ford Coppola's ApocalypseNow, as well as contemporary feminist theory.

In Cannibal Women, ethno-herstorian Margo(Marlow) Hunt and sidekick (playboy) Bunnyenter the treacherous, uncharted avocado jun-gle to find the missing Dr. Francine Kurtz,feminist author of Smart Women, Stupid, In-sensitive Men. Two years earlier, Kurtz hadventured into the jungle and, like Conrad'sKurtz in Heart of Darkness, never returned to"civilization."

The Avocado Jungle, deep in California's heartof darkness, is populated by the beautiful,voluptuous, and deadly Piranha women, whoafter having sexual intercourse with their cap-tive males, sacrifice and eat them. The Pi-ranha women are cannibalsnot merely ball-busters but ball-crushers, ball-consumers, ball-connoisseurs.

"Know then, that on the right hand of theIndies, there is an island called California, verynear the Terrestrial Paradise," Montalvowrites.

It is 1989. Paradisiacal California and Amazonwomen both make an appearance in the movie,Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle ofDeath. Released by Guacarnole Productions,Cannibal Women not only parodies the deadly

Imagine a cannibal . . .

The Cannibal women throw the leftover scrapsand bones of any hapless male into the deadlypiranha pool. The piranhas merely finish offwhat the women began.

Feminists, it turns out, deeply and connivinglywant what all women want: to dominate men.Their public denial of this fact only signals the

perverse ritual that inevitably followssex ofthe most sordid kind followed by the erasureof any trace. Feminists such as Dr. Kurtz arewomen who devour like the piranha, the bar-racuda, the praying mantis.

The vagina dentata . . .

It is 1502. Explorer Amerigo Vespucci upsthe ante on Columbus. In his description of"New World" women, his female archers don'tmerely consort with cannibals; Vespucci's war-rior women are cannibals. Like the CaliforniaCannibal Women living in the Avocado Jungleof Death, Vespucci's women are man killers aswell as man consumers.

"All women are WILD, but some are WILDERthan others," according to the male fantasiesanthropologists Sharon Tiffany and KathleenAdams examine. The WILDEST women, ofcourse, are the most dangerous, the most de-sirous, the most deadly.

It is 1989. Dr. Francine Kurtz, it turns out,unlike Kurtz in Heart of Darkness, has no in-tention of going native. Intrepid trackersBunny and Margo discover that the voraciousfemale Kurtz is merely gathering material forher next textual foray, My Life as a PiranhaWoman. When Margo confronts Kurtz with herdeception (the native women think she is nowone of them), Kurtz desperately confesses thatinvitations on the talk-show circuit had wanedand sales of Smart Women had plummeted.

Without another best-selling book, Kurtz canno longer claim her role as leading feministspokesperson for smart women or as leadingfeminist castigator of stupid, insensitive men.

Like her male counterparts, she knows thatyou're only as good as your next book, yournext performance, your next deal, your nexthard-on. . . .

Unable to face another appearance on theDavid Letterman show, de rigueur on the talk-show circuit for best-selling authors, FrancineKurtz casts herself into the deadly piranhapool. 'The horror! The horror!" she cries be-fore plunging to her death.

The ending of Cannibal Women, except for Dr.Kurtz [she's dead), is a happy one. Margo re-turns to the civilized terrain of the university,but first unites the Barracuda and Piranhawomen who have been fighting for years overwhether to eat clam or avocado dip. Jean-Pierre, a handsome and virile male due to havebeen sacrificed in the piranha pool, follows herto the university and enrolls in a FeministStudies class. (Playboy) Bunny gets married.

In a probable sequel, scantily clad Margo willappear on the David Letterman show to talkabout her adventures with the exotic andscantily clad Cannibal women in the AvocadoJungle. Jean-Pierre, of course, will be waitingfor her at home with a drink, an erection, theVCR in reverse. . . .

It is 1510. In Montalvo's tale, Calafia liesawake at night, wondering whether to wearbattle armor or more feminine attire to meether handsome and virile enemy, Esplandian.In the morning, Calafia slips on a gold dress.

"A dangerous woman makes a brave man.anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons reminds us.

It is 1510. Domesticated and defanged afterbattle with the superior, chivalric, and verymale Amadis, Queen Calafia forfeits her inde-pendence, embraces Christianity, and suc-cumbs to the temptations of love and marriage.

Another triumph of light over darkness.Another triumph of civilization over savagery.Another triumph of patriarchy over matriarchy.

It is 1542. Fifty years after Columbus's"discovery," the Brazilian river is named the"Amazon" by Francisco de Orellana, who issure he has sighted the legendary warriorwomen. The same year "California," namedafter kneeling Queen Calafia, is noted in the logbook of Juan Cabrillo as he sails north fromNew Spain. Conquistadors in both the "Old"and "New" worlds read Montalvo's chivalricromances, which give meaning and nobility totheir search for these dangerous, desirous, anddeadly women.

As for the gold, it is always said to be close athand.

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ANACAONA

QUEEN ANACAONAMaggie Jaffe

GOLDAnacaonawife of Caonabo(executed for sedition),sister of Behechio(executed for sedition),named Woman Is Pure Gold.What does she feel?Fear, yes, fear

the snake pressedagainst her heart.Alternately she feelsrage and, oddly, bored.With them. Their gold-lust,insatiable appetites.Barbarians! witness the tinyman nailed to a treeworn round their necks:her eyes drawnto this bright point of death.

She placates themwith gold, no more valuedthan the white seashells used for trade.And with food: coconut frondsloaded with cassava bread,shellfish with maize,sweet potatoes, succulent dog.Afterward, Chief Speaker lightsup his most potent cohoba.When sated the signal is given:

CAOWASO AJD AJIACAOK4

GODYour worship:It is imperative that I,Nicolas de Ovando,explorer for God and Empire,relate a most unfortunate altercationthat occurred on Hispaniola, 1503,autumn, mid-day.

Seventy of us,hidalgos on horseback,as well as three hundredfootsoldiers, marched intotheir heathen village.You know our men:restless, hungryfor women, for pearls, for gold.To come to the point,we massacred the savages.Those we didn't burnwe ran through with our swords.We decently hanged Queen Anacaona,although she is, by all accounts,"queen" of the perfidious whores.These barbarians are littlemore than two-legged dogs.

[Hail Mary, Full of Grace]

GOREDe Biy's illustration forThe Devastation of the Indiesshows a child, no more than twelve,carrying wood for the auto-de-fe.In the foreground a conquistadorstruts in front of burningbohios: the screams comefrom another country.In the backgroundhorsebacked conquistadorstest their swords.Indians run or kneelimitating a Christian's postureof mercy.

Anacaona,first woman namedfirst woman hangedwears the crown asthe lambs simulacrum.Her face, half darkness,half light, is accordingto Las Casas, "gracious,dignified, benevolent."The flames, her crownthe tree's gnarled roots.

Iconography of genocide

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GUACANAGARI CAONABO ANACAONA

I

It is 1493. In January, thirty-nine men areleft behind to guard the fort at La Navidad inthe "New World" while a triumphant Columbussails back to Spain with parrots, gold, Indians.

It is 1493. In November, Columbus returns tothe "New World," this time with a fleet of 17ships, 1500 men, as well as horses, dogs, ar-mor, and cannons. The thirty-nine men whohad been left on Hispaniola to guard the fort atLa Navidad are found dead. Guacanagari, whohad helped Columbus construct the fort fromthe timbers of the Santa Maria, blames thedeaths on Caonabo, a cacique from the interior.

Later, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo (officialChronicler of the Indies), writes that the"natives could not endure the excesses, forthey [the Spaniards] took their women andused them as they wished and committedother violences and offenses. ..."

It is 1493. The honeymoon period of the"discovery" is already over.

It is 1494. Caonabo eludes the grasp of theconquistadors. "Treat him thus with wordsuntil you have his friendship, in order the bet-ter to seize him," Columbus tells his soldiers.Columbus's lieutenant Hojedo invites Caonaboto visit the "great white chief." He gives thecacique European giftsbrass handcuffs and

foot shackles. Unaware of their purpose, Caon-abo allows them to be placed upon him. TheSpaniards seize Caonabo and deliver him toColumbus. In irons and chains, he is displayedas a warning to other "rebellious" Indians.

It is 1496. Caonabo, leader of the first indige-nous resistance to the European invasion, isloaded for shipment to Spain with twenty-nineother prisoners. Caonabo will die at sea.

II

It is 1503. Nicolas de Ovando, governor ofHispaniola, marches into Xaragua with his mento pay a visit to Anacaona. Widow of Caonabo,she now governs the western half of the island.

"Lady Anacaona and the many noble chieftainsof the province, all very dignified, generous,and far more polite, virtuous people than the[Christian] people of this island," according toBartolome de Las Casas, "felt the presence ofthe Spaniards to be excessively onerous, per-nicious, and altogether intolerable. . . ."

In the middle of a banquet prepared for thecolonizers, Ovando gives the signal for themassacre to begin. The surprised and over-whelmed caciques are burned to death orhacked into pieces. "As for the Queen, theyhanged her as a mark of honor," Las Casaswrites.

Ill

Oviedo, official historian, tells us why this mas-sacre, like countless massacres that will follow,is necessary. It is the threat of insurrection,he explains, that precipitates slaughter.

Insurrections, uprisings, rebellions, revolts...

Las Casas interprets the massacre differently:"[Ovando] decided to perform what Spaniardsalways perform on arrival in the Indies, that isto say, when they come to a heavily settledarea, being so outnumbered that they makesure all hearts tremble at the mere mention ofthe name Christians; therefore, they terrorizethe natives by performing a large-scale andcruel massacre."

IV

It is 1598. In one of Theodore de Bry's illus-trations of Las Casas's BriefAccount of the Dev-astation of the Indies, a woman hangs from atree. On her head is a crown. Conquistadorsheap wood on the fire to fan the flames engulf-ing the nearby bohio and its inhabitants. Thewoman is Anacaona.

"Satan has now been expelled from the island[Hispaniola]," Oviedo writes. "Who can denythat the use of gunpowder against pagans is theburning of incense to Our Lord."

In his official history, Oviedo tells us about thesexual predilections of the native women ofHispaniola: "[They] were restrained with thenative men, but they gladly gave themselves tothe Christians." Anacaona, in particular, was"very indecent in the venereal act with theChristians" and "the most dissolute woman ofher rank or any other to be found in the is-land."

According to Oviedo, Anacaona, like (all) other(native) women, is a willing participant in herown degradation.

In his Brief Account of the Devastation of theIndies, Las Casas contradicts Oviedo's accountof the massacre, as well as his depiction ofAnacaona: "So noble and fine a lady, so graciousto the Christians and long suffering of theirinsults."

VI

It is 1975. Anacaona not only must suffer theinsults of the conquistadors and Oviedo but ofcontemporary Historians as well. In Nature inthe New World, Antonello Gerbi describesAnacaona as a "New World" femme fatale"crafty and lascivious." Gerbi discovers his in-sight in Oviedo rather than Las Casas.

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Native women: their attractiveness, 62, 84, 10711 On; as concubines, 222; fair-skinned, 62,352n; lascivious, 30, 41n, 49, 107, llln, 339,350-51; portraits of individuals, 351; theirpreference for white men, 350; promiscuous265, 350n; put to work by their men, 33,their treatment by Spaniards a cause ofunrest, 30, llOn, 350n; unaccommodating,114. See also Amazons

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PRISONHOUSE OF LANGUAGE

It is 1492. "We will convert them by Loverather than by Force," Columbus writes.

As point man for colonization and agent of Im-perial Spain, Columbus sets out to conquer thehearts and minds of the "New World's" inhabi-tants. Soon Columbus finds that love is insuf-ficient. His men have confused love with rapeand plunder, and the Indians fight back. Lovemay be Columbus's first choice for his coloniz-ing mission, but force is the reality of his en-terprise.

II

It is 1493. "While I was in the boat, I cap-tured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom theaforesaid Lord Admiral [Columbus] gave to me,and with whom, having brought her into mycabin, and she being naked as is their custom,I conceived the desire to take my pleasure,"Michele de Cuneo writes.

His paradise . . .His pleasure . . .His prerogative . . .

Columbus "gives" a captured Carib woman toMichele de Cuneo, a friend who accompanieshim on his Second Voyage to the "New World."

She is captured near the island now called St.Croix in the Caribbean.

"I wanted to put my desire to execution, butshe was unwilling for me to do so, and treatedme with her nails in such wise that I wouldhave preferred never to have begun."

All women are wild but some are wilder thanothers, myth and folklore tell us, according tothe authors of The Wild Woman.

"But seeing this (in order to tell you the wholeeven to the end), I took a rope-end andthrashed her well, following which she pro-duced such screaming and wailing as wouldcause you not to believe your ears."

She screams, but then succumbs . . .She wails, but then submits . . .She resists, but then surrenders . . .

"Finally we reached an agreement such that, Ican tell you, she seemed to have been raised ina veritable school of harlots."

Writer, swashbuckler, perpetrator, Michele deCuneo vividly describes the Carib woman'stransition from an intractable and nakedwoman to a tractable and insatiable harlot inthe space of only four sentences. His "natural"desire has become her unnatural lust, de-graded and dissolute. A "harlot's" lust.

De Cuneo's narrative, the first documentedrape in the "New World" written by the pro-tagonist himself, is the stereotypical rape sce-nario where a woman at first resists, but thensuccumbs voluptuously to what she desired allalong. The tenacious power of this scenario

women "ask for it" because of the way they aredressed, "no" really means yes. and womenenjoy being rapedmeans that rape is an intri-cate display of deception on the part of womenwho are not victims but the perpetrators oftheir own desire to surrender to self-evidentlysuperior male Europeans.

of the "New World." A naked woman sits in ahammock surrounded by exotic flora and fauna.Vespucci has just discovered and awakenedher from a deep and dark slumber, and there-fore she (the hemisphere) is named after him.America is Amerigo, feminized.

The WEST is a VIRGIN.I am her White Knight.

The feminized "New World" is a pliant body tobe penetrated, then domesticated and de-fanged.

Ill

It is 1493. Rape precipitates the first indige-nous resistance against the European invaderson the island named Hispaniola. The rapes ofindigenous women presage and are simultane-ous with the "rape" of "virgin" land, the takingpossession, naming, and subjugating of the"New World."

IV

It is 1498. "When they had the opportunityof copulating with Christians, urged by exces-sive lust, they defiled and prostituted them-selves," Amerigo Vespucci writes.

It is 1589. The artist, Jan van der Straet,(Stradanus) depicts that first glorious momentwhen Amerigo Vespucci debarks on the shores

VI

It is 1991. "New World" women bear littlerelation to their contradictory representationsin "Old World" chronicles, diaries, journals,letters, and images. Columbus and Vespucci,as well as the explorers who accompaniedthem, depicted the women as innocent andsubmissive, or alternately as lascivious and in-satiable. The conquistadors were drawing onan already established pantheon of images ofwomen as Amazons, mermaids, nymphs, wildwomen, hags, and harlots. Wedged betweenthe prisonhouse of language and theslaughterhouse of history, the women areprojections of the explorers' fears and fan-tasies.

AMERICA.y^jpimgricrn ^Americas rctexit

,(^-> Semcl vocauit itulc Jemger ncritam

What is it like to be discovered?

his colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizingMs colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizingMs colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizinghis colonizing

gaze

desire

pleasure

imagination

inscription

penetration

terror

obsession

description

perspective

scrutiny

discovery

discourse

enterprise

quest

exploration

intervention

domination

domestication

exploitation

articulation

force

history

SLAUGHTERHOUSE OF HISTORY

It is 1942. "If I were to select a shipmatefrom all the companions of Columbus, he wouldbe no haughty if heroic Castilian, but merryMichael of Savona [Michele de Cuneo]," SamuelEliot Morison writes in his Pulitzer Prize-win-ning biography of Columbus.

According to Morison, Michele de Cuneo's ac-count of the Second Voyage written in 1495was the "most sprightly narrative" written:

"That genial gentleman adventurer never com-plained, but extracted interest or amusementfrom everything that happened," Morison tellsus.

Exploitation can be adventurous and rape canhave a charm all its own.

II

It is 1405. "I am therefore troubled andgrieved when men argue that many womenwant to be raped and that it does not botherthem at all to be raped by men even when theyverbally protest," Italian historian Christine dePizan writes in The Book of the City of Ladies."It would be hard to believe such great villainyis actually pleasant for them."

It is 1405. Ninety years before Michele deCuneo writes that no no no really means yesyes yes, Christine de Pizan refutes the propo-sition that women want to be raped.

Ill

It is 1982. Four hundred eighty-seven yearsafter de Cuneo tells us that no no no reallymeans yes yes yes, literary critic TzvetanTodorov refutes the proposition that refusal ishypocritical. For Todorov, the Carib woman isnot a "harlot" but the "object of a doublerape," as an Indian and as a woman. Todorovrefuses to continue the travesty that de Cu-neo's narrative is just another account of a jollyadventure by a good old boy.

IV

It is 1493. After the fight on St. Croix,Columbus and his fleet sail off and sight islandafter island. Columbus names them the VirginIslands after Ursula and her 10,999 seagoingVirgins, who were brutally slaughtered by Atillaand his Huns.

Hail Mary, Full of Grace.

These islands, unlike the Virgin Mary, are ripefor possession, penetration, and plunder.

It is 1989. "We all feel she asked for it forthe way she was dressed." A jury in Floridaacquits a man accused of kidnapping and rap-ing a woman at knifepoint. "With that skirtyou could see everything she had. She was ad-vertising for sex," the jury foreman adds.

It is 1989. Twentieth-century jurors confirmwhat our conquistadors knew when they firstset foot in the "New World." Dress, accordingto the jurors, is the outward sign of a woman'sinner desire to be raped.

It is 1493. The Carib woman Michele deCuneo captures is not dressed but naked, theoutward sign of her inner desire to be taken bybrute force, beaten, and then raped.

VI

It is 1494. Columbus "gives" an island to deCuneo. "[I] cut down trees and planted thecross and the gallows too and in God's name Ibaptized it La Bella Saonese," de Cuneo writes.

According to de Cuneo, there are "37 villageswith at least 30,000 souls" on his island.

Carib islandsCarib womenCarib souls

European gallows

13#VOQ#8ib

his indomitable willhis fierce determinationhis Undaunted couragehis insatiable curiosityhis single-minded devotionhis Unwavering resolvehis audacious visionhis adventurous spirithis Stubborn persistencehis remarkable perseverancehis fervent dedicationhis imaginative boldnesshis heroic ambitionhis Unshakeable confidencehis passionate longinghis navigational prowesshis Consummate seamanshiphis unparalleled skinhis persuasive powers

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^ no latitude^fejji^ no pikes

no papal bullsno swordsno crosses

no souls

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his Vast ambitionhis impassioned naturehis boundless imaginationhis Obstinate assurancehis burning faithhis missionary zealhis enterprising boldnesshis eloquent simplicityhis inspiring self-disciplinehis exalted idealshis StOlC endurancehis Selfless devotion

his noble purposehis deVOUt self-sacrificehis daring inspirationhis ardent enthusiasmhis divine impulsehis Solemn renunciationhis Creative intuition

iK ?' J

TAINO

There was then no sickness.We had then no aching bones.

We had then no high fever.We had then no small pox.

We had then no burning chest.We had then no abdominal pain.We had then no consumption.

We had then no headache.At that time the course of humanitywas orderly. The foreigners made itotherwise when they arrived here.

From the Maya book, Chilam Balam of Chwnayel,referring to the time before the invasion

of the Europeans

amoebic dysenterybloody fluxbubonic plaguecatarrhchicken poxcholeraconsumptiondengue feverdiphtheriainfluenzamalariameaslesmumpspleurisypneumoniascarlet feversmall poxscrofulatuberculosistyphoid fevertyphusyellow fever

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INDIANS, AMERICAN:arts ofbestial character ascribed tocolor ofconversion of, see conversion, religious"cowardice" ofdiseases contracted byenslavement ofextermination of, see genocideidealization ofidentification withinternal dissension amongas interpretersknown cultures compared tolanguages ofLatin learned bynakedness ofnascent Christianity seen inas objectsofficial protection ofprivate property andpunishment inflicted onreligion of, see religions, Indiansself-determination proposed forUtopian vision ofveracity ofsee also specific tribes

From the index of The Conquest ofAmerica, 1982,Tzvetan Todorov

CARIB

"When the Spaniards first went to conquer the is-land they call San Juan de Porto-rico on account ofthe abundance of gold and silver found there, theIndians believed that they were immortal.

"A certain chief decided to put the matter to the testand ordered his men to seize a Spaniard who waslodging in his house, carry him to the river, andthen hold him under water so long that if he wasmortal he would be drowned. Having thus drownedhim, they carried him back on their shoulders totheir master, who, seeing that he was dead, consid-ered that all the others must also be mortal.

"Thus he concerted a revolt with the other chiefswho had suffered ill-treatment from the Spaniards.They killed about a hundred and fifty who were dis-persed about the island seeking gold and had notDiego Salazar arrived with reinforcements theSpaniards would have been cut to pieces to a man."

From La Historia del Mondo Nuovo, 1565,Girolamo Benzoni

eat christian gold

Those they caught alive,in particular the captains,

they used to tie up bytheir hands and feet.

Then they would throw themto the ground and pour

molten gold into their mouths saying,"Eat, eat gold,

Christian."

From La Historia del Mondo Nuovo, 1565,Girolamo Benzoni

hell heaven hell

When the cacique Hatuey is tied to thestake, a Franciscan attempts to

persuade him to convert to Christianity.

The friar explains to the cacique that ifhis soul is saved, he will go to heavenand be spared the eternal torments of

hell

Hatuey asks if there are anySpaniards in

heaven.

Assured by the friar that there are,Hatuey replies: I prefer

hell

From BriefAccount of the Devastation of the Indies, 1542,Bartolome de Las Casas

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"After the death of Columbus, other governors weresent to Hispaniola, both clerical and secular, till thenatives, finding themselves intolerably oppressedand overworked, with no chance of regaining theirliberty, with sighs and tears longed for death. Manywent into the woods and having killed their children,hanged themselves, saying it was far better to diethan to live so miserably serving such ferocioustyrants and villainous thieves. The women termi-nated their pregnancies with the juice of a certainherb in order not to produce children, and then fol-lowing the example of their husbands, hangedthemselves. Some threw themselves from high cliffsdown precipices; others jumped into the sea andrivers; others starved themselves to death.

"Finally, out of two million inhabitants, through sui-cides and other deaths occasioned by the excessivelabor and cruelties imposed by the Spaniards, thereare not a hundred and fifty now to be found."

From La Historia del Mondo Nuovo, 1565,Girolamo Benzoni

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FATHER BARTOLOMEMaggie Jaffe

1. 1502. Savage natives, untamedjungle.2. 1514. Savage but possessing souls.3. 1515. Conquistadors are infact the savages.

Bartolome de Las Casasbelieves inKING, CHURCH, GOD.Though the sextant tiltscrazily he won't falloff his watercourseto bless the NewWorld's "gentle people."sweat-choked jungle,thin-aired sierras, coral reef.

Never has he seen an Indian:"man-eating" Carib"dog-faced" Tupinamba"war-fierce" Florida sodomite"excrement-eating" Palma"child-like" Arawak"time-obsessed" MexicaMaya, inventor of zero.

2.

Do they possess souls.Yes they do.Thereupon he frees his Indians

but retains his African: "pitch-black, sturdy and slavish ..."

The King agrees.If not for Africans who will workthe fields, the mines?Later he repents.

No body shouldbe shackled to the richNew World's earth:CHURCH, GOD, KING.

3.

Compulsive scribblerto the King, he writesthat spring, 1515:torture, hanging,Indians-as-dog-meat,death by slow burning, rape,gold disease:

Conquistadors stretch their bodiesbetween two branches ofa treeand place burning logs beneaththeirfeet. And a boy, with a swab

of oil, sprinkles their soles.They continue to be tortureduntil the bone marrow comes out.

Alone, his make-shift study,quilled, papered: junglemoisture makes ink bleed.J won't stopper myselfunless the butchering stops.

Now the ghosts of millionsobsess him. Why were theymurdered? Becausethey are naked,"three-fourths human,"more numerous than birds,disrespectful to gold.

Yet Las Casas's faith is intactin spite of Hell carved outwith the cross-bow, branding iron, riversof native blood.

Still, he(GOD, CHURCH, KING)doesn't see it that way.

Crydelitates Hispanorvm

Hac mortccommunirerDominoSj&: Nobiles mulcla-bant. Perricis furea iufFuhis craticulas ftruebant,paruoq; igncriippofitoJiimiicripaulatim,animam,magnisclamonbus

3tor-

mcntoi-umqjdelperatione,cfflabanr.Vidi aliquando quanior,aut quinque ex potentioribus

Doii:inis,bis craticulis impofitos torreri; & non procul duq,velties alia: cranculavjidem mcrcibusinftruchc vifebantur; cum-

que ma-

"They made some low wide gallows on which the hangedvictim's feet almost touched the ground, stringing up theirvictims in lots of thirteen, in memory of our Redeemerand His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood at theirfeet and thus burned them alive.

"To others they attached straw or wrapped their wholebodies in straw and set them afire. With still others, allthose they wanted to capture alive, they cut off theirhands and hung them round the victim's neck, saying 'Gonow, carry the message,' meaning, Take the news to theIndians who have fled to the mountains.'

"They usually dealt with the chieftains and nobles in thefollowing way: they made a grid of rods which they placedon forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid andlighted a smouldering fire underneath, so that little by lit-tle, as those captives screamed in despair and torment,their souls would leave them.

"And because all the people who could do so fled to themountains to escape these inhuman, ruthless, and fero-cious acts, the Spanish captains, enemies of the humanrace, pursued them with the fierce dogs they kept whichattacked the Indians, tearing them to pieces and devour-ing them. And because on few and far between occasions,the Indians justifiably killed some Christians, theSpaniards made a rule among themselves that for everyChristian slain by the Indians, they would slay a hundredIndians."

From BriefAccount of the Devastation of the Indies, 1542,Bartolome de Las Casas

APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS

It is 1493. Eighteen-year-old Bartolome deLas Casas watches as Columbus parades hisparrots, gold, and newly discovered Indiansdown the streets of Seville after his tri-umphant return from the First Voyage to the"New World."

It is 1498. Las Casas's father, who accompa-nies Columbus on his Second Voyage to the"New World," returns to Seville with a TainoIndian slave.

It is 1502. Las Casas travels to the "NewWorld" for the first time with the newly ap-pointed governor of Hispaniola, Nicolas deOvando. There, Las Casas receives a repar-timiento, a land grant, and the right to use In-dian labor.

II

It is 1511. "Are these Indians not men?"Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos asks."Do they not have rational souls? Are you notobliged to love them as you love yourselves?"

It is 1514. A Spanish official reads the Re-querimiento to the Indians. Spanish law de-crees that this judicial declaration must beread to the Indians before any hostilitiesagainst them can commence. Many of the

Indians do not understand the Spanish lan-guage. Nonetheless, the official tells them thatif they submit peacefully, all will be well. But ifthey refuse to acquiesce to the "truths" of theRequerimiento, their lands will be confiscated,their bodies enslaved, their children held ashostages.

In other words, the full brute force of theSpanish empire will be mobilized against them.

"I am a voice crying in the wilderness."

Ill

It is 1514. Las Casas, now a Dominican priestin the "New World," renounces his gold minesand possessions and then frees his enslavedIndians.

"I thought about the misery and slavery inwhich the native people are living here," LasCasas writes. "And the more I thought about itthe more convinced I was that everything wehad done to the Indians so far was nothing buttyranny and barbarism. ..."

It is 1515. Las Casas begins his first of four-teen journeys between the "New World" andSpain to petition the Crown and the Council ofthe Indies on behalf of the Indians.

It is 1516. The Spanish crown appoints LasCasas "Protector of the Indians." He has beenworking tirelessly on behalf of the indigenous

inhabitants of the "New World" for over twoyears.

It is 1520. Las Casas suggests that Africansreplace Indians as slaves in the "New World."

Later, Las Casas will realize the horror of hissuggestion. "The priest Las Casas was the firstto suggest that one should introduce Africansto the West Indies." Writing about himself inthe third person in his History of the Indies, LasCasas accuses himself of the enormous injus-tice of this suggestion. "He did not know whathe was doing. When he heard that the Por-tuguese were catching people in Africa againstall laws and made them into slaves he bitterlyregretted his words. . . the right of blacks isthe same as that of the Indians."

It is 1555. Las Casas proposes that the Kingof Spain renounce his empire in the "NewWorld": 'The true remedy to all these evils . . .is to deliver the Indians from the diabolicalpower to which they are subject, to restoretheir first liberty to them . . . ."

Las Casas, an early advocate for the "peaceful"colonization of the "New World," now insiststhat to stop the death and destruction, Spainmust return the "New World" to its originalinhabitants. Las Casas finally realizes thatChristianity is merely a carrot when the stickof military force must accompany the conver-sion of native people and the appropriation oftheir land. Colonialism is never a peaceful en-terprise.

Pacification is conquest.

It is 1566. Las Casas dies working on his finalmanuscript, About the Sixteen RemediesAgainst the Plague Which Has Exterminated theIndians.

Later, Las Casas will be called a "maliciousbishop." a "deluded churchman," and a"fanatic," as well as a "pigheaded anarchist," a"preacher of Marxism," and a "dangerousdemagogue."

It is 1991. No one knows where Las Casas isburied. In his introduction to Las Casas's BriefHistory of the Devastation of the Indies, HansMagnus Enzensberger notes that in Spain,there are no monuments to the memory of theofficial "Protector of the Indians."

IV

It is 1866. Las Casas, officially known as the"Protector of the Indians," is also unofficiallyknown as the "Apostle of the Indians." Threehundred years after the Apostle dies, the Vati-can begins beatification proceedings, but notfor Las Casas. Christopher Columbus is theircandidate for potential sainthood. In the Vati-can's providential interpretation of history, itis Columbus who is chosen by God to discover a"New World" and to spread His word.

It is 1819. Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, pro-poses that the new revolutionary republic be

called Colombia and its capital Las Casas tohonor both men.

Later, Colombia will indeed be named Colom-bia, after Columbus, but its capital will benamed Bogota, not Las Casas as Bolivar pro-posed.

It is 1891. One year before the quatercen-tenary of the "discovery," Columbus's beatifi-cation proceedings grind to a halt. The Vati-can cites two reasons why Columbus cannot bebeatified: first, he had a mistress, Beatrice deHarana; and second, the irrefutable fact thatColumbus introduced slavery in the "NewWorld." People elevated to sainthood do notovertly support the enslavement of one groupof people by another.

It is 1891. In the Church tribunal's final de-liberation, only one vote is cast in favor ofColumbus's beatification. The next year, how-ever, Columbus Day is declared an official U.S.holiday.

It is 1988. "If they need a saint, they shouldcanonize Bartolome de Las Casas," Ed Castillo,a Cahuilla Indian and historian, tells the audi-ence at a colloquium discussing the recentbeatification of Junipero Serra and his role asfounder of the California Missionsa system offorced labor, forced conversion, and confine-ment. The Vatican beatifies Serra in spite ofthe strong opposition of many descendants ofthe "mission" Indians and others.

It is 1991. The San Diego County ChristopherColumbus Quincentenary Commission hosts agala reception at the Junipero Serra Museum.

It is 1550. In the great debate at Vallodolidin Spain between Las Casas and Gines deSepulveda, the latter uses Aristotle's doctrineof natural slavery to justify the enslavement ofIndians "in whom you will scarcely find evenvestiges of humanity." Some men are fit torule, others are born to be slaves.

"How can we doubt that these people, so un-civilized, so barbaric, so contaminated withso many sins and obscenities have been justlyconquered. ..."

Sepulveda knows his Aristotle, but he doesn'tknow any Indians.

VI

It is 1550. The debate continues. Sepulvedaargues that one Indian soul saved is worthmany destroyed: 'The loss of a single dead soulwithout baptism exceeds in gravity the death ofcountless victims, even were they innocent."Sometimes we have to destroy the savages inorder to save them.

Las Casas, on the other hand, argues that it isworth nothing to baptize an Indian if in doingso that Indian must be destroyed.

"It would be a great disorder and a mortalsin," he writes, "to toss a child into a well inorder to baptize it and save its soul, if therebyit died."

VII

It is 1769. In Alta California, FranciscanJunipero Serra, a "Sepulvedean," baptizes In-dian infants moments before they die. Becauseof a widespread epidemic, "the Fathers wereable to perform a great many baptisms . . .sending a great many children ... to Heaven."This epidemic, and others that follow, arebrought to California by the Franciscans andthe Spanish soldiers.

It is 1989. Even staunch promoters of Serra'

s

canonization will concede that Serra, likeColumbus, was a "man of his time." Thevirtues of sainthood, however, are timeless.

At the end of his life, Las Casas argues to re-turn the land to its rightful caretakers, theIndians. Las Casas was considered "ahead" ofhis time. Ahead, perhaps, of our time.

NIGRIT^IN SCRVTANDIS VENIS METALLICIS Iab Hi/panis in Infulas ablegancur.

f^*3 Ttritis,&pcncabfumptiscontinuo IaboreHifpaniol* Infill* incolis, Hifpani aliunde man-Wf&ti cipiaconquircrc cceperunt, quorum miniftcrioinperfodicnd* montibus , vcmsqucjmetal-|&?\\| lids pcrfcrutandis vtercntur. Itaquc nrdcmpris fua pecunia,& accnis ex Guinea Quart*gjaSLSl Africa partis Prouincia mancipijs xthiopibus fiueNigriris* illorum porro

opera vli lunt

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earn Africa: partem quam ipfi Guineam ( lncolx Genni aut Genna appelant )UDi

fubic&am reddidcrant ; fingulis annis aliquot incolarum centuxias

cxtcris naaonibusdiuendebant , quae mancipiorumYicemfuppleicnt.

"When the natives of Hispaniola began to be extirpated, theSpaniards provided themselves with blacks from Guinea. . . .When there were mines they made them work at extractinggold and silver; but since those came to an end they have in-creased the sugar works and it is in this industry and intending the flocks and in the general service of their mastersthat they are chiefly occupied. Some of the Spaniards werenot only cruel, but very cruel. If a slave had committed somecrime, or had not done a good day's work, or had failed to ex-tract the usual quantity of gold or silver from the mine, hemight be severely punished. . . .

"Thus, on account of these very great cruelties, some of themescaped from their masters and wandered the island in adesperate state. . . .

"But in the end the negroes learned to keep watch and bevery vigilant whereby the Spaniards often got the worst of it.Thus the blacks have become so fierce and numerous thatwhen I was residing on the island it was asserted that therewere upwards of seven thousand. And in the year '45, while Iwas there, it was reported that the Cimaroni (for so theSpaniards in those countries call the outlaws) had joined ageneral rebellion and were rampaging all over the island anddoing all the mischief they could. Many Spaniards prophesyfor certain that the island in a short time will fall entirely intothe hands of these blacks."

From La Historia del Mondo Nuovo, 1565,Girolamo Benzoni

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empty empyre enterprise

".. . the Archive of the grandest enterprise ever

undertaken by a nation: discovering, conquer-ing, evangelizing, colonizing, humanizing,and populating an empty and silent continent,from pole to pole and from sea to sea.

"The cases and shelves . . . hold thirty-eight thou-sand papers and documents, including the mostimportant Diary of Columbus and the Mapa Mundiof Juan de La Cosathe narrative and graphic birthcertificate of Americawhich contain the names ofthe conquerors of the sea ... of the ambassadors ofChrist, of those who gave their flesh, their blood andtheir word to fill an empty, silent continent

From Seville, 1970, Manuel Bendala Lucot

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