Religion as a mechanism of colonization over native minds
Both The Legend of the Silent Bell and Pong's Dream demonstrate how the tenets of Christianity were used to justify the actions of colonists from Spain. Although characters wholeheartedly and respectfully believe in the catholic God in both stories, these indigenismo pieces critique religion as the monolithic and aggressive mechanism of Western cultural imperialism. Although not inherently evil, racial condemnation in Catholic practices and aim to convert the world, thus destroying culture of indigenous civilizations whose goods and materials are used to stimulate Spain's economy.
In The Legend of the Silent Bell I believe the call of the church of Clarisas for citizen's precious metals as an act of personal faith represents the cultural sacrifice many indigenous peoples were forced to decide between under colonization: assimilate or become an enemy of the Queen. I was a little confused why, outside of them also being gold, was Clara to trust in a miracle and give up her eyes for the bell? Her struggle over keeping her her sight was emphasized by a dream sent to her, where the aspect of her indigenous background and Christian conversion collide. In expounding"...blood of the two races, blindness of the two races, tears of the two races" Clara is cursing her own cultural dichotomy, damned in either outcome of her decision by the institutions responsible. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptive imagery, at times I felt that at times it took away from the clarity of the story, like all of this, that's just my perception as a reader. Clara, having sealed her fate, explains that her act of expunging her eyes with the nail of Jesus' crucifix was the mixing of sun, "the sun of her tenuous race sacrificed and sacrificing and Christ the Spaniard, brave and bloody." This announcement of her sacrifice as crossing of cultural boundaries is dominated by the sound of the bells being tolled, exemplifying how historically assimilation into Christianity overlooked and aimed to deafen the voices they exploit and discriminate against.
Pongo's Dream emphasizes Spain's enforced caste system of colonial, feudal Peru which was designed with the intention to pit sections of society against each other. I felt that Poncho's dream of holy retribution is told to his master in the most respectful and calm tone, which makes me want to see the reaction out of the master, but in reality if such a thing were said by a servant, the realistic outcome would be that person's story ending. However, it is said carefully in such contrast to the silence of pongo through the mistreatment and abuse inflicted to him by his master. The patient explanation of his dream is the crescendo of the story, and since José María Arguedas Altamirano aimed advocated for cultural autonomy, it makes sense. He wanted the reader to understand that even under the constraint of an enforced conversion into Catholic ideologies, as men these two would be treated as equals in heaven and the master, according to the book he prays to daily, will receive eternal suffering for the evil darkness within his soul during his lifetime. To me this story was more stylized for a general audience, especially since this is an adaptation which helped to fuel the peasant movements of the 1950s.
Both legends recounted converted indigenous peoples narratives under the influence of Christian enforced colonialism. The abuse of class differences in these discriminatory colonial systems are delved into in these literary pieces of resistance in denouncing the exploitation of indigenous minds, cultures, and bodies. I am excited to learn more about the backgrounds of these stories and to learn the little things that I missed while reading.
I loved reading this response! It was interesting that you mentioned how you felt that the pongo's dream was relayed to the master in a calm respectful way, as this is also how I read it. I was thinking once I was finished reading I can only imagine how his master would've taken it after he was finished.
ReplyDelete"these indigenismo pieces critique religion as the monolithic and aggressive mechanism of Western cultural imperialism"
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely sure that this is so. Though both stories do indeed illustrate ways in which (specifically, Catholic) religion was an integral part of the imperial project, I think that, in perhaps different ways, they show that religion was not quite so "monolithic" as might appear at first glance. Not only were indigenous people drawn to the Church and--as in Asturias's tale, for instance--even prepared at times to undergo significant sacrifice on its account, some of the church's teaching could be turned against the colonial enterprise and its legacies, as we see in "The Pongo's Dream."
This ambivalent status of the Church continues to this day. In the twentieth century, for instance, the Church could both be mobilized in support of murderous regimes such as that of the Argentine generals in the 1970s, and also be the inspiration for sustained popular revolt as in the guerrilla insurgencies of El Salvador and Nicaragua during the same period.
Oh, I see that my name didn't come up to sign this comment! (This is occasionally a problem with Blogger.) The above comment is by me, Jon! :)
Delete