Students will reach a general sense of the extensive complexity of the Americas and the peoples that inhabit them. In order to do so, they will learn about the complex history of power, domination, migration, cultural and ethnic amalgamation, conflicts and change that created the Americas in their earlier stages.
There is always controversy when using the terms Spanish, Hispanic and Latino. Spanish is a person born in Spain; Hispanic is a person who descends from one of the Spanish-speaking countries in the world. The term "Hispanic America" is frequently used to refer to the Western Hemisphere countries that were once colonies and in which Spanish is still the official language. These countries include Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. All of these countries are also part of a broader region called "Latin America," which comprises all those countries or territories and nations where the predominant language is of a Latin origin, including Portuguese (Brazil); and French (Haiti, Martinique and French Guiana,) as well as Spanish. (Ochoa, 6.)
The debate is always pending about whether the term "Hispanic" is somehow offensive or whether it is correct. I personally think it is correct and respectful, but I have come across different people and authors who consider it to be offensive because it directly refers to the Spanish heritage and reminds them of the violent and barbaric ways the Spanish imposed their culture to the natives that were in the Americas when they arrived.
The Hispanic Americas are the result of a mixture of biological and cultural development; a mix of Spanish, Native American and African traditions. As a result of this blending we see a group of societies and nations that possess an astonishing devotion to local tradition but also an incredible willingness to mix. These two main characteristics were inherited from Spain. Spain has historically been marked by the blending of cultures/peoples and separation into distinct regions. Many Hispanic Americans who come to the United States still share these features. Despite their diverse origins, Hispanic Americans are aware of their common heritage and identity. This identity sometimes leads to disagreement, even with the term Hispanic. Some people in this large community prefer to call themselves or be called "Latinos" rejecting the English coinage "Hispanic" for its emphasis on Spain (
Hispania
is Latin for Spain). They consider the term to be "euro-centric." Latino, on the other hand, is an authentic Spanish word that does not directly mention Spain, but does credit the ancient origin of Spanish as a Latin language. I am going to use Hispanic American or Hispanic in this unit, because I consider it to be more accurate since I will not include Brazilians and other non-Spanish-speaking Latinos in this particular unit.
European Heritage
I refer to the peoples of a Hispanic background who live in the United States as opposed to a resident of one of the Spanish-speaking countries as Hispanic American. This ethnic group is currently estimated to be 12.5% of the United States population. Hispanic Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. Experts predict that Hispanic Americans will add up to more than 50 million by the year 2025. (Ochoa 7)
There is neither a single Spanish race nor a Spanish culture. Hispanics may be white, black, Native American or any combination thereof. The very nature of being Hispanic, with its mixture of ethnic influences and stocks, weakens the notion of race as a clear and separate category. This blending of cultures is, as mentioned before, one of the central characteristics of Hispanic America inherited from Spain. From the distant past, many Spanish people have exhibited both the keenness for blending of cultures and the devotion to local traditions that would characterize the Americas (or Hispanic America).
Because of its geography, Spain welcomed peoples from many places and cultures: from Africa, southern Europe and Asia (via the Mediterranean); and from northern Europe (via mountain through the Pyrenees). So all of the following peoples contributed to Spain's ethnic mix: Iberians, Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Alans, Vandals, Suevi, Visigoths, Jews and Moors. Once in Spain, each group tended to become isolated by geography, dividing the country up into separate regions. The result was a wide-ranging collection of distinct local cultures independent of each other in most of the cases; although they exchanged some aspects with each other in some occasions, as for example in Toledo, where in the 14th and 15th centuries the Jewish, Christian and Moorish communities lived together.
Right before the birth of Hispanic America, Spanish society was a unified, stratified, autocratic and colonialist society empowered from a great military victory against a rival religious and political power. The country became a unified kingdom (by the union of the two main Spanish kingdoms when Isabella I (of Castile) married Ferdinand V (of Aragon) in 1474 and dedicated themselves to preserving and expanding the Catholic faith. Isabella and Ferdinand, the "Catholic Monarchs," initiated the Inquisition in 1478, completed the reconquest of Spain from the Moors and were responsible of the ruthless expulsion of the Spanish Jews in order to spread out Catholicism.
The peoples that Spanish explorers found in the New World shared some cultural characteristics, but not their identity. These peoples had completely different ways of life marked by their geographical conditions. As a result of these, they varied greatly in their fundamental cultural traits: they had different languages, living arrangements, religion, economic, social and political structures, and different diets. They also differed greatly in other aspects such as music, clothing styles, arts and crafts.
The Role of Race
Although the Spanish colonizers did have slaves, their attitude towards slavery and race was completely different of the English settlers. The long period of Arab domination in the Iberian Peninsula left a unique legacy of racial and cultural blending. By the 15th century, there were mixed groups such as the
Mudejar
(Muslims that continued to live under the Christian rule) or the
Mozárabes
(Christians who learned to speak Arabic and adopted Muslim habits.) This tradition of racial mixing made it more acceptable for Spanish settlers to engage in sexual or marital unions with both Amerindians and Africans.
But racial mixing did not mean racial equality. As the Indian population of the Americas gradually rebounded and the black slave labor assumed a greater role in colonial plantation production, the Spanish and Creole classes became fearful of revolt. As a result, the Council of the Indies -the Crown's administrative body for the colonies-banned all marriages between whites and free blacks or
mulatos.
The ban did not stop the practice of mixed racial marriages. (Gonzalez, 18-19)
Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, a former landowner who become a Franciscan missionary, was the first to denounce and condemn the ill treatment of the Amerindians. As a result of his campaign against Indian enslavement, Spain adopted the "New Laws" in 1542. The codes recognized Indians as free and equal subjects of the Spanish Crown, but landowners in many regions refused to observe the codes and kept Indians in virtual slavery for generations. (Gonzalez, 12)
Native American Heritage
Native Americans (or American Indians, in commemoration of Columbus' mistake when he thought he had reached the Indies) are those people whose ancestors lived in the Americas and developed indigenous societies before the arrival of Columbus. These Native Americans were living throughout North, Central and South America 11,000 years ago; they lived by fishing and hunting. Later on, in the valley of Tehuacan (south-Central Mexico) they started to grow different crops such as tomatoes, potatoes, corn, cocoa, peanuts or tobacco. Having to take care of crops, gave these peoples leisure time facilitating the development of arts and science and often this led to social stratification: leisured people were at the top and hard working peasants at the bottom of the hierarchy. This societal system encouraged people to stay in one place and therefore, cities and towns began to appear.
This model of the Americas was established long before Columbus and was the site of several flourishing urban civilizations – Aztec, Maya, Inca and Chibcha among others- all of which contributed greatly to the Hispanic American heritage. Upon contact with the Spanish, many of these Native American cultures contributed distinctive elements to the wide-ranging mixture that would later become Hispanic America.
Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean
The islands in the Caribbean –the first location of the Americas to be reached by the Spanish explorers- were populated by two rival groups of people who lived of farming, hunting and fishing: the Carob and the Sarawak (or Thins.)
The Carobs:
The Carib (or Carob) occupied various regions of South and Central America. They probably came form the valley of the Orinoco River. The tribe practiced cannibalism (as a matter of fact, the word cannibal comes from the Spanish term for these peoples). During the late 15th century, they lived in today's Venezuela
and most of the islands of the Lesser Antilles. They were really skilled in warfare and canoeing. Unlike some other Native peoples, they were not organized into a hierarchical structure under a chief, but fought as individual warriors and raided other people. Male captives were tortured and eaten; female captives became slave-wives. On land, they lived in small settlements where they farmed and fished.
The Arawak (or Tainos):
The Arawak originally inhabited the islands of the West Indies and present day area of Florida, as well as the coastal area of South America as far south as today's Brazil. They were skilled at weaving, pottery making and working with wood and metal. The Arawak were the first of the Native peoples Columbus encountered in his first trip.
Large Caribbean islands had elaborate societies ruled by hereditary chiefs who ruled over other classes. These groups developed a political and social hierarchy. A class of hereditary chiefs ruled over other three classes, of which the lowest was composed of slaves. Religion had a structure of deities parallel to their social formation.
Aztec, Maya, Inca and Chibcha
The Aztec:
When the Spanish conquered Mexico and Central America, the Aztec were the most prominent people in the region. They built the most powerful empire in Mesoamerica. Their language, legends, and art forms continue to influence the present day Mexican culture.
The founders of the Aztec empire settled in the valley of Mexico at the beginning of the 13th century. At the beginning they served as warriors for other groups. Later on, they founded Tenochtitlán in 1325. Their capital, Tenochtitlan, was one of the largest cities in the world at that time, an astonishing metropolis of about 250,000 people. As they gained power, they took over other surrounding older states, making them pay a tribute. By the 16th century, they were an empire with about 5 or 6 million inhabitants.
The Aztec society was extremely militaristic and possessed a highly centralized political system which was entwined with religion. The Aztecs built colossal pyramids to honor the gods, practiced an elaborate system of astronomy and calendar keeping, and educated their young people in fishing, food preparation but also in the arts: painting, stone sculpting and writing detailed histories in pictographs.
The Maya:
They were based in the Yucatan peninsula, but they ended up extending their power as far as Guatemala and Honduras. The civilization of the lowland Maya began about 600 and 400 BC in today's jungles of Guatemala, southeastern Mexico and Belize. The Maya lasted until the Spanish conquest, but the Mayan civilization reached its zenith during the Maya classic period (A.D. 300-900), when they built pyramids, reached great advances in scientific knowledge such as mathematics, astronomy, calendar keeping; and writing, agriculture, pottery and monumental architecture. These states developed into highly populated centers (with tens of thousands of inhabitants) with enormous temple platforms and ceremonial plazas which were built to reflect the power of the Maya.
Unlike the Aztec, the Maya did not develop a unified political structure but built city-states with a common culture (el Mirador, Tikal, Cerros, Becan, and Dzibilchaltun). The Maya chiefdoms had strong economic ties to one another. Like other Mesoamerican societies, the Maya were ruled by nobles who possessed both political and religious power. Smaller cities paid tribute to the rulers, who resided in the major urban centers.
Unfortunately, after A.D. 900 many of the lowland Mayan cities were abandoned without any reasonable explanation. They survived in the Yucatan area until the Spanish arrived in the 16th century.
The Inca:
Around A.D. 1200, the Incas settled in South America, in the valley of Cuzco (today's Peru).
The Inca was a strict hierarchically organized, centralized and stratified theocratic society; at the top of the hierarchy there was the emperor, believed to be a descendent from
Inti
(the Sun god). The Inca held religious ceremonies (animal and sometimes human sacrifices) devoted to their god: the sun. They had a large farming population subordinated to a small ruling class. The emperor ruled with divine authority and all power was in his hands. He chose his most important administrators or governors from blood relative (aristocracy) who would rule one of the four quarters (
suyus
) in which the territory was divided. Serving under each governor, there were other ten distinct governors for about 10,000 peasants, and so on until reaching the lowest unit which would be 10 peasants. Therefore, for every 10,000 people, there were 1331 officials who could control everything and kept strict accounts of all the people, gold, land, crops, and projects of the empire.
The Incas had no writing system; they kept records by means of what they called
quipu
a series of short, knotted strings hung at intervals from a long top string. They varied the colors and kinds of string used and the spacing of the strings and knots in order to document populations, troops, and tribute, as well as information. The
quipu
was a complex memory aid rather than a literal record.
Agriculture was the economic base, producing all the products necessary for their diet corn, potatoes, beans, peppers, squash, peanuts and cereals. Their economy was also supported by their extensive deposits of gold and silver until the ransacking of the Spanish in the 16th century.
In the 15th century, they established an enormous empire around Cuzco that was more than 250,000 miles from north to south and about 500 from east to west, along parts of today's Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.
They built a network of stone roads to unify the vast empire, raised great temples and palaces, and were able to build irrigation canals and rope suspension bridges. They established a lunar calendar, and possessed accurate standards of measurement. The Incas were also able to develop art (textiles, pottery and metal work) as well as culture. For example, they produced a rich body of music.
The Chibcha (Muisca):
Settled in three different areas: the Northern Andes area (what is today's Colombia), northern tropical forests (Venezuela) and Southern South America (Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile).
The Chibcha, who lived in the northern Andes area were politically powerful; settled in numerous towns and villages and built palaces and temples. They developed extensive agriculture with a wide system of irrigation, wove cotton, traded and showed great artistic skills in making gold ornaments (although they were ignorant in the use of bronze or copper).
The Chibcha resembled to the Inca, next to them, they had the largest and most politically centralized society when the Europeans arrived, being able to resist the Spaniards until they were finally subdued and almost exterminated.
When the Spanish colonizers arrived in the 16th century, they enslaved and forced these peoples to work the land. The indigenous Native Americans could not survive under the conditions of slavery and some of these groups were exterminated because of their exposure to European diseases (measles, smallpox, bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, pleurisy, mumps, diphtheria, pneumonia, whooping cough, malaria, yellow fever, and various sexually transmitted diseases) or as a cause of the unbearable labor they were forced to produce.
The Spanish then started to bring Africans to the Americas because it was believed that they could endure forced labor and could bear any climate.
Before the United States:
When the Spanish arrived to this continent they found still more Native American peoples in what is today's Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Colorado and Northern Mexico. Among these people there were:
The Animal of Arizona:
They were the descendants of the Hookah who migrated to Arizona from Mexico around the year 300 B.C. The Animal were farming people who irrigated their fields and lived near the riverbanks in villages in huts. They were governed by an elected chief and a council.
The Pueblo:
Descendents of the Anasazi who originally settled in the southwest of today's United States, the Pueblo flourished around the year 700 B.C. They built stone constructions and
kivas
(underground chambers used for rituals). They grew corn, beans, squad and probably cotton. They were really skilled in weaving and pottery making.
The Navajo (Diné) and Apache:
The Navajo and Apache are closely related; both tribes migrated from western Canada and settled in the southwest between 1400 and 1700.
The Navajo were nomadic hunting-gatherers and warriors who were used to raiding the Pueblo towns for food. They learned weaving and pottery from the Pueblo, and silversmith from the Mexicans. Originally, they hunted deer and smaller game, gathered wild plants and carried out raids on farming peoples. When they interacted with the Pueblo and the Spanish, they became shepherds (goat) and farmers, growing corn, beans, squash and some fruits.
As for religion, they believed in mythology relating to nature, with gods who were believed to intervene in human affairs. They frequently invoked their gods, making offerings to them. Navajo also believed in ghosts (spirits of dead ancestors), witches and healing rituals.
The early Apache were nomadic as well who extended throughout what is now Mexico and the United States. They were warriors for centuries, hunted bison and practiced limited farming. When the Spanish arrived into their territory in the late 1500s, they disrupted the Apache trade connections they had with the tribes nearby. They made little pottery, but were known instead for their fine basketwork.
In the traditional Apache culture, each band was made up of extended families with a headman chosen for leadership abilities and merits in war. Men participated in hunting and raiding activities, while women gathered food, wood, and water. Religion was a fundamental part of their life. They believed in supernatural beings such mountains spirits, or
Yusn
(the "Giver of Life"), who were represented in religious rites such as the puberty and healing ceremonies.
The African Heritage
The associations between Africans and Hispanic Americans are key to the Hispanic / Latino identity.
Black Americans were brought to the Latin American and Caribbean regions as slaves to the colonies, where they contributed to the cultural and genetic heritage of Hispanic America. As a fact, African immigration to the Americas could have started before the arrival of Europeans: before the transatlantic slave trade began, African societies captured, sold and used slaves. This slave trade increased after the Portuguese explorers reached Cape Verde and the mouth of the Senegal River in 1444-1445. The Portuguese began to trade with the Africans in exchange for pepper, gold, ivory and slaves.
Blacks traveled with Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492, such as the navigator Pedro Alonso Ni–o and the black colonists who helped Nicolás de Ovando form the first Spanish settlement on Hispaniola in 1502. The earliest Spanish and Portuguese explorers brought to the Americas their slaves (black Africans) who were born or lived in the Iberian Peninsula. The traffic of slaves was light at first; they would send them to Europe to work as domestic servants, or as laborers, especially in the mines (depending on the geographical area they would be sent to).
These slaves –called
ladinos
(word derived from the Latin term for "learned" and still a strong identity in Guatemala) were heavily Europeanized: they shared their masters' language, religion and culture. They were the first Africans to go to the Americas. The
bezels
(a highly offensive word which referred to the muzzles used on dogs or horses)
on the other hand, were the slaves sent to the Americas directly, and therefore, they were unfamiliar with the diverse European language or culture.
After the discovery of gold on the mainland, free Spaniards were reluctant to do manual labor or to remain settled in certain areas. The demand of slaves was enormous since only the slave labor could assure the economic viability of the colonies. By 1518, King Charles I of Spain sanctioned the direct transport of slaves from Africa to the American colonies because the slave trade was controlled by the Crown.