I recently re-read a book, “Coloquios y Doctrina Cristiana,” written in the 1500s that documents a debate that took place in Mexico City-Tenochtitlan in 1524 between 12 Franciscan friars vs the many rulers of the region. It is this debate that can perhaps best explain the theological basis for the Christianization, de-Indigenization, hispanicization and the colonization of the Americas.
It also helps to explain why a great many native peoples in this country with roots in Mexico and points south see themselves today not as native, but as hispanicized mestizos, who deny/hate the native part of their being, often also identifying as white..
In this debate, the main argument the Franciscans, whom had been sent by the Pope, used for conversion purposes was that Christians possessed divine truth, while everything that native peoples knew originated from the devil.
All the reasons given by the Franciscans were actually either false or based on “dark ages” superstitions. There in fact was no 1524 debate; it was but an opportunity for the representatives of the church and crown to denounce all things native, while proclaiming their own moral and spiritual superiority.
It’s been decades since the right of all peoples to their own religions, histories and identities have been universally acknowledged and respected. However, this “debate” took place in the 1500s. The only reason the Franciscans “won” it, was because they were backed up by Spanish military forces. This, according to the church, is what gave them the theological rationale for Christianizing “the natives.” Earlier, they had created the “Requerimiento” in 1513 – a manifesto written in Latin that they read to native peoples – which also purportedly gave them the right, if there were no Christians living there, to possess the “newly discovered lands.” It was the same rationale for the “Doctrine of Discovery,” which presupposed that the original peoples of this continent, were not fully human and thus capable of living on, but not possessing, the land.
These concepts are actually still with us, both theologically and embedded (land ownership) within the law. As such, one can argue that Christianity has never accepted Indigenous beliefs as co-equal; which arguably continues to be the basis for treating the original peoples of these lands as less than human.
The book mentioned here, speaks to the theological basis for the colonial project of Christian conversion, when superstition, ignorance and anti-science reigned supreme. It was actually a time when such beliefs were imposed upon entire peoples on several continents.
The church has always insisted that their doctrine does not permit them to impose their religion upon anyone and thus it argues that native peoples willingly accepted the gospel, and thus were willingly converted. One can argue that because 500 years have passed, that all of this is irrelevant today, though those that benefitted from these conversions, land theft and slavery, not to mention genocide, are the ones that conveniently believe this. The opposite for those that come from peoples/communities that were subjected to extreme violence, dispossession, slavery, forced conversions and the destruction of their own beliefs and knowledges.
If this 1524 debate had never taken place, we probably would be facing the same dilemma today, based on how U.S. society treats people of color, though an argument can be made that there is a direct linkage between the attitudes here and those of the nations where the Spanish language is dominant. Both were/are based on dehumanization and demonization.
These dark ages beliefs have never been fully renounced, especially by the church. To do so would be to admit to the mass theft of souls, and the land.
In that 1524 debate, the Franciscans believed they were part of a cosmic drama, and in effect, injected Mesoamericans into it, involving fallen angels and devils, etc. In the Franciscan worldview, the Mesoamerican deities that the peoples here believed in, were the same fallen angels that God had expelled from heaven, becoming their eternal enemies thereafter, and thus the need for stamping out their beliefs and worldview. In this venture, even children were recruited to turn in their parents.
This imposed worldview continues to have real-life consequences today, contributing to the dehumanization and de-Indigenization of the peoples here, including those known as mestizos. Many of them see themselves not as native, but as Spanish/Hispanic or white. In this country, this is especially true on Census forms and on birth/death certificates, etc. Those that carry this deep inferiority complex, continue to believe that things Indigenous are not simply inferior, but a straight ticket to hell.
Beyond apologies, perhaps it is time for the church to offer up reparations, beginning by renouncing its theological basis for imposing its religion on this continent, which in effect, served to justify genocide, etc. Perhaps then, the European colonizing nations could also follow suit by paying up their reparations.
Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez is associate professor at the University of Arizona and is the author of several books including “Our Sacred Maiz is Our Mother” (2014) and “Yolqui: A Warrior Summoned from the Spirit World” (2019). Email XColumn@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2020
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