This discrimination is seen through the eyes of Bishop Latour when he is giving his sermon. As he looks at the native Acomas he characterizes them as “antediluvian creatures”(Cather 100). Not only does he view the people as being more similar to a different species than himself but all of Acoma seems foreign to him. He observes that, “something reptilian he felt here, something that had endured by immobility, a kind of life out of reach, like the crustaceans in their armour”(Cather 103). This description gives the sense that Latour is in a different world where nothing is alive but instead dead and hard. The church also seems foreign to him as it is described as, “gaunt, grim, grey, its nave rising some seventy feet to a sagging, half-ruined roof, it was more like a fortress than a place of worship”(Cather 100). The church isn’t a typical church that he is accustomed to as he describes its disutility as a place of worship. This church displays another example of missionaries thinking of the Indians as being a lower class of human as the needs of the Acomas weren’t thought of in the construction or style of this structure. Latour remarks that the missionary or Priest who built the church “was not altogether innocent of worldly ambition, and that they built for their own satisfaction, perhaps, rather than according to the needs of the Indians”(Cather 101). Not only was the church designed without the Acomas in mind but, the natives also had to perform the labor necessary to build such a church as the Acomas had to carry the materials from forty miles away. Since Latour sees these people as being pre-historic beings, he doesn’t see any of himself in them and therefore, they become non-human to him.
The conflict for Latour continues when he doesn’t connect with the Acomas and gives up on them during this sermon as, “when he blessed them and sent them away, it was with a sense of inadequacy and spiritual defeat”. Latour feels so far removed from this community that he dismisses them as being a lost cause. When we interact with a culture that is extremely different from our own, either we embrace it or we turn away from it and become homesick for our comfort zone. An example of Latour’s rejection of his surrounding is when “he was on a naked rock in the desert, in the stone age, a prey to homesickness for his own kind, his own epoch, for European man and his glorious history of desire and dreams”(Cather 103). Here, Latour has an ethnic disconnect between the Indians and his European background.
When Latour is unable to connect or relate to the natives, we see his racism. Or, is this racism or just ignorance? Even though this passage in the chapter leaves us with a picture of Latour’s faults in that he is not a perfect picture of acceptance and un-biased views, it’s easy to be sympathetic to his experience. Since Latour has never encountered people like this, they are new to him and he doesn’t know how to interact with them. Latour’s European background takes place in a different environment where “through all the centuries that his own part of the world had been changing like the sky at daybreak, this people had been fixed” (Cather 103). This could be the same between any two cultures that are dramatically different. Not always can we relate to others that are so different than ourselves that we find no similarities.
During “The Legend of Fray Baltazar”, Bishop Latour learns of the fate of a former priest of Acoma. The conflict shown in this story occurs between the different lifestyles and ethnicity of Baltazar and the Indians of Acoma and how he uses these differences to treat the Indians with disrespect and as lesser humans. Baltazar was from a “religious house in Spain which was noted for good living”(Cather 105) while the Indians worked on farms and toiled for their food and simple possessions. Baltazar disrespects the natives by making them work for him and chose to practically enslave them for his own benefit. He believes that the natives are beneath him and are therefore a lower class of humans. In fact, “it was his belief that the pueblo of Acoma existed chiefly to support its fine church”(Cather 104). This belief shows that Baltazar views the natives not as equals but instead as worker bees to support him and further his cause and lifestyle. He even takes their best crops and their water as, “he took the best of their corn and beans and squashes for his table”(Cather 104). Baltazar doesn’t consider the Indians and their possessions and therefore treats them with inferiority.
This view of non-human is shown in the fact that the Indians are perceived as a lower class of citizen in the eyes of Baltazar. We see this mistreatment as Baltazar is described as “of a tyrannical and overbearing disposition and bore a hard hand on the natives”(Cather 103-104). In this case, ignorance is not an excuse for Baltazar. Here, he continued to exert power on the Indians incrementally as, “Baltazar’s tyranny grew little by little, and the Acoma people were sometimes at the point of revolt”(Cather 106). Baltazar and the students of this story learn the fate of treating others with inequality. The Acomas accept Baltazar’s treatment until he kills one of their own. This is when the formerly submissive people revolt and throw Baltazar off a cliff. People can only take so much mistreatment until they reach their breaking point as, “so did they rid their rock of their tyrant, whom on the whole they had liked very well. But everything has its day”(Cather 113). This lesson shows that with discrimination and bad treatment comes revenge to the abuser.
When people view others as being un-human because their differences are so great from their own, is this racism or just ignorance? In the case of Bishop Latour, it seems to be racism. With Fray Baltazar, he takes the Acomas for granted and exerts tyranny over them. Even though we may be unfamiliar and ignorant about another culture, that doesn’t mean that these people are any less human than we are. What really makes a human is there genetic makeup. Who cares what they look or act like? Scientifically, what qualifies as a human is clear. But it’s more difficult in our mind to view others that are are so different from ourselves and like something we’ve never seen as being the same as we are. Even though we are taught to embrace our differences, it’s difficult to do that when we have trouble relating to others that are completely different from us. Even today, would an upper class European view a native from the Amazon as being not just primitive but so unlike themselves that they feel this person is of a different species? There’s a good chance that they would especially if this nationality is new to them they can’t relate with each other. The Amazonian may view the European in the same way and think that they are a different creature altogether.
“Acoma History Part 2”:
This clip from the Haaku Museum in Acoma Sky City, talks about the building of the mission church along with the Indians’ revolt. The video also describes the missionaries and Europeans that came to Acoma to convert the Indians and how the Acomas had to adapt to the ways of the Europeans.
Picture of an Acoma woman taken in 1904 by Edward S. Curis. Source: http://www.old-picture.com/indians/Acoma-Indian-Woman.htm. This is what a native Acoma woman would have looked like when Father Latour gave his sermon. We can see that she doesn’t look reptilian at all and in fact, looks more similar to Europeans than Father Latour thinks. Her shawl would have been bright along with the other fabrics of her clothing.
Acoma cliff where Fray Baltazar might have been thrown. Picture taken by Richard Dean Star. Source: http://www.richarddeanstarr.com/images/Acoma.jpg. This picture helps to visualize the cliff that Fray Baltazar might have been thrown from by the Acomas. It shows how steep it is and its proximity to the community.
Thank you for your insightful remarks. We have just read Death Comes in a class about the American West. I was wondering whether Baltzar was areal historic figure. Perhaps not. Cather's story however, speaks to the incredible insensitivity of many of the missionaries who arrived and not only wished to convert but also subdue and control the native population.
ReplyDelete