Although I had learned about Spanish colonization and the conquistadors briefly in junior high and high school, I didn’t really know much about the Casta paintings until doing this week’s readings. What surprised me about the article of the Casta paintings was that these artifacts were controversial even in their day, albeit the controversy was probably significantly smaller than if the same thing were to happen in this day and age. But even so, the fact that there was dissent in how these paintings portrayed people of different races by attempting to create and represent a social hierarchy through art proves that we cannot make sweeping generalizations about Latin America or the people within it because there will always be another opinion/voice waiting to be heard.
Another thing that I found interesting this week was the notion of Spain having an identity crisis, namely its attempts to unify its peoples under a common culture and set of values – a venture that (in my opinion) ultimately failed due to the extreme diversity that colonization contributed to it. What fascinated me about this was that in attempting to construct itself into a unified political entity, Spain produced identity crises for those it colonized – people who were ripped from their cultures and heritages and socially ranked over their ancestry; something that they had no control over. Looking at this from a modern perspective, I believe that we can see the detrimental connotations that labels like “no te entiendo,” (“I don’t understand who you are”) and “salta atrás” (“a jump backward”) would have had as the phrases themselves denote a dismissive attitude towards individuals without a purely European heritage.
I found Lieutenant Nun to be an easy and engaging read! The translations were extremely well done in my opinion and the fact that the account was given in first person really piqued my curiosity. Having the firsthand account of what she (or he, if he was transgender – not sure what the proper pronouns are in this case, so I apologize in advance) experienced as a conquistador, although a little unconventional at times, gave me insight on what life was like from that perspective. I also very much appreciated the note written by one of the translators of the text reminding readers to take caution in putting her on a pedestal because of her status as a transgender person – what she did as a conquistador is no less abhorrent and cannot be excused under the circumstances in which she lived her life both while as a woman and then as a man.
A question that I think would be interesting to discuss is how/if at all art within the time period of colonization (such as the Casta paintings) reflects and/or shapes the values and impressions of the people during that era.
Thank you for reading!
What do you think the lives would be like for these who identify as “no the entiendo” and “salta atrás?” Do you think that these paintings that positive or potentially negative affects?
Obviously I can’t speak for those people as I have not lived through such experiences, but I would imagine it to be a pretty dehumanizing experience for those people, given the translation of the phrases – it would also be extremely frustrating answering questions like those that really have no purpose other than to perhaps satisfy someone else’s curiosity. I think that the paintings had both positive and negative effects to a certain degree – the positive part is that the art created a controversial discussion about the use of such terms and whether they were acceptable; while it might not have changed much, I still think that facilitating conversations about difficult/hard to talk about issues is important because at the very least it raises awareness and questions about social norms. Another positive impact of such art is that it plays a part in immortalizing the issues of the past, which allows us to learn and hopefully become a better world (haha optimistic thoughts, I know). One of the negative impacts that I can think of is the art exemplifying the use of these terms at the time, being the ‘media’ I think it definitely would have contributed at least a little bit in constructing a normalization – further desensitizing people to the detrimental effects that these terms can have in both a social and psychological sense (again, the idea of an identity crisis). Again, these are just my own thoughts, but I hope this clarified things a bit!
I wonder the same thing as Stephanie, but I like that you brought those in (and I also appreciated the translation, I have an awful memory). I think it is definitely very dismissive of them to call other human beings “no te entiendo” and it reminds me of a family friend who is racially ambiguous, but she straddles the line between passing for white and not passing for white. She tells stories of mechanics, baristas, mailmen, etc. who all ask her the same question “what are you???” and so she tells them that she has some Asian (can’t remember the specific nation) ancestry. It’s very dehumanizing to be boiled down to nothing more than your race, where your family came from and what your skin looks like. I like your point about the Lieutenant Nun, reminding us that, though she’s a trans person from the past, when it’s hard to think of trans people existing at all, she was still a terrible person and committed terrible atrocities. Mostly, I was so excited to see a trans guy from history (rather than a trans woman) that it entirely slipped my mind until I was writing my blog post. Definitely a good blog post for this week, keep it up!