What Is Carlos Fuentes Attitude Toward The Native Americans

1. Carlos Fuentes described the civilization discovered by the European in a way that seems, that the native’s people progression has halted and they needed help from others who are more advance (European). Fuentes mentioned the Eurocentric view of why the native people were not advancing. He said “they [Indians] were blessed by nature, but dwarfed by it,” most scholars believe that the Indians were “lazy,” thus making their civilization backwards compared to the rest of the world. However, that was not the case, the native people demonstrated extraordinary abilities in, agriculture, architecture, mathematics, sculpting, and astronomy. Fuentes explained that the native people believed in divinities that represents natural forces and objects …show more content…
The Spaniards attitude towards the people they encountered was distasteful, they didn’t even give a chance on how a friendly alliance will work. They did not even bother to relate to the people or learn and understand their culture, they went to the new world with one mindset, which is to conquer and impose their ideas and beliefs on the people they encountered. The Spaniards justification for their acts is that, the Europeans has surpassed all other people in intelligence, physical dexterity, and they are the more superior race. Which qualifies them to govern the other parts of the globe. The saw the native people an inferior race, they disrespected them, destroyed their cities, cultures, and monument without consideration.
3. Carlos Fuentes opinion about the conquest was not fully positive nor negative. However, it seems to be slightly positive than negative. He said that the conquest would have been fully negative if something good didn’t come out of it. A few good things Fuentes mentioned that overshadowed the evil of the conquest were new cultures, new beliefs, and a new race (mestizos). He believed that without the conquest, he would have not existed. The native people were civilized enough to survive, but the conquest was destined to happen to take them to the next …show more content…
The Spaniards dominated the Indians, due to several reasons. The Indians will say they were defeated by the Spaniards, because the confused Hernan Cortes for Quetzalcoatl, a redeemed god who left his people and promise he will return back on the day that coincided with the day Cortes came to the world, so they didn’t fight back. While the Spaniards will say they dominated the Indians because of their superior armament, and war tactics. A bow and arrow was no match for a gun, stones were no match for cannons, and finally horses were faster than humans which was a huge advantage for the Spaniards. Other reasons that might be regarded were disease brought by the Spaniards, the internal division within the empire, and most of the Indians stopped fighting once their leaders were defeated. From a neutral perspective, the Indians should have dominated the Spaniards, because they were greater in size and they fighting in their environment.
7. The impact of the conquest for the native population was not in any way ideal for them. They were forced by the Spaniards to accept their culture, change their lifestyle, and their culture and traditions were diluted. Today, the native people’s language is almost nonexistence, the native race are very few in number and they are isolated by the society. The conquest also cut short the independent development of brilliant civilization or the Aztecs and