Ever since 1492 and the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the lives of Indigenous people of the Caribbean and Mexico were permanently changed. Although Columbus never made it to Mexico, ending at Hispaniola which is now the Dominican Republic and Haiti, his followers went on to follow his ideas of conquest and Catholic Crusading. Although the initial purpose of the journey by Columbus was to find a shorter route to the Far East, once Columbus arrived in the Caribbean those plans changed to include expansion and conquest.1 Future Spanish conquistadors like Hernán Cortés, were able to experience the vast wealth within the Mexican borders including monstrous mountains filled with silver. These new silver mines needed to be worked by someone and Cortés and his followers used the Indigenous people or Indians to do all their manual labor.2 However this ran into great contrast against the church’s belief that these Indigenous people were humans and had souls worth saving. This presented a conflict between the church’s belief system and the mercantilist society which the Spanish were trying to create. So in 1585, lawyer Alonso de Zorita, wrote Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain, which chronicled the negative situations the Indians were facing in New Spain. You can almost consider the passage as an early public relations campaign to try and gain a massive change. The passage Why The Indians are dying was written to cause a massive change in the way the Indians were being treated and to reiterate the Catholic Church’s position regarding the Indians.
According to Alonso de Zorita, “In the old days [the Indians] performed their communal labor in their own towns. Their labor was light, and they were well treated. They did not have to leave their homes and families, and they ate food they were accustomed to eat and at the usual hours.” 3
There is a great contradiction between the Catholic Church and the way the Indians were treated by the Spaniards. The Catholic Church believes that the natives have to be treated better because they are human beings. In The Spanish version of the caste system, the Native Indigenous people are towards the bottom level. They are below the Castiliano, Creole, Mestizo, Zambo and Indio. Yet they were seen above the African slaves who were seen as animals. 4 Since the Indigenous people were considered people their souls were eligible to be saved. Local priests put increased pressure on Catholic priests back in Europe to have the Indigenous people treated better.
To help make the Catholic Church more relatable to the Indigenous people, the Catholic Church created their own idols for the Indigenous people to worship which appealed to them more than traditional Catholic idols. The Catholic Church put an extreme emphasis on the Virgin de Guadalupe. This idol was and still is a key symbol of devotion for Indigenous Catholics. Today in Mexico, images of the Virgin de Guadalupe are still present. 5
This idea of Catholic tolerance and flew in stark contrast to the way things were really happening to the Indians according to Zorita. The Indians were viewed at the bottom of society only above the African slaves. 5 They were worked constantly nearly to death due to Spanish mercantilism. Mercantilism is an economic idea created by the Spanish where a colony produces only cash crops in this case gold and silver mines and that colony exports those goods to the mother country. The mother country in return trades those goods for necessary goods for the population such as food. This idea completely ripped off New Spain as they were trading gold for food. 6 The Indians worked tirelessly in the mines. “Their numbers have also been diminished by their enslavement for work in the mines and in the personal service of the Spaniards…They died in the mines or along the road, of hunger and cold or extreme heat, and from carrying enormous loads of implements for the mines or other extremely heavy things.” 3 The colonial government in Mexico only cared about their increased wealth due to the services provided by the Indians. The physical, mental wellbeing didn’t matter at all because that only messed up the bottom line for the leaders.
This passage from Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain, was written because Alonso de Zorita as a supporter of the Indians, he felt they were being mistreated by the Spanish in control. He constantly paints a picture between the “good lives” the Indians had before the Spanish conquest. The building of the temples and houses of the lords [principales] and public works was always a common undertaking, and many people worked together with much merriment.” 3 Zorita goes on to contrast that to what happened when the Spanish took over. “What has destroyed and continues to destroy the Indians is their forced labor in the construction of large stone masonry building in the Spaniards’ towns. For this they are forced to leave their native climates, to come from tierra fría to tierra caliente, and visa versa, 20, 30, 40, and more leagues away.” 3 To portray how the previously “good lives” were turned into awful experiences for the Indians. Zorita probably also followed the belief sent down from the Pope that the Indians were humans with souls worth saving. As a good Catholic, Zorita would have to go against the practice of mercantilism which was making the Spanish incredibly wealthy, which made a lot of people unwilling to think about the treatment of the Indians. They were so willing to continue profiting on the labor of the Indians they cared little about their treatment and well being.
Alonso de Zorita could be viewed two ways. The first way he could be viewed as would be as an early whistle blower. Predating writers like Upton Sinclair, Zorita could simply be one in a long line of whistle blowers on a quest to fix injustices for the general public good. Another way you could view Zorita as just a fanatical Catholic who believed that by saving the souls of these Indians he would be able to get into heaven easier or be viewed more highly by God.
The dichotomy of the Spanish government in Mexico and the nature of the Catholic Church together were responsible for this passage being written. The Spanish government and economy was so dependent on the work of the indigenous people they had little doubts about the treatment of those indigenous people. With massive mines of silver and gold and other goods the indigenous workforce was needed to mine. On the other hand, the Catholic Church had increased political power and fought for the rights of the indigenous people who slaved away. Since these people had rights they had to be treated in a certain way or else it would hurt their change of salvation. Plus religion was used to squelch uprisings of the people who were providing valuable economic resources to Spain. This balancing act accounted for Alonso de Zorita writing his passage.
The decedents of these Indigenous people along with the other natives of Mexico eventually grew tired of Spanish colonization. Yet it wasn’t until 1812 when the colonization in Mexico officially ended. So for four centuries, the Mexicans were subjected to subjugation at the hands of the Spanish. Once the Spanish occupation ended the Mexicans had to assimilate into their own culture and nation and their development was permanently harmed.
Works Cited
1 John McKay, Bennett Hill, John Buckler, Patricia Buckley Ebrey, A History of World Societies 6th Edition (New York; Houghton, Mifflin Company), 510 – 512.
2 McKay 515.
3 Alonso de Zorita, Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain: Why Indians Are Dying, 122 – 130.
4 Three American Empires, 1400 – 1600. Expansion, Political Power, and Religion. 126.
5 Three American Empires, 1400 – 1600. Expansion, Political Power, and Religion. 117 – 119.
6 Three American Empires, 1400 – 1600. Expansion, Political Power, and Religion. 124 – 125.
