Conquest's Gender Dichotomies

The prevalent European ideology on gender was used in America to justify oppression of the indigenous population. During the time of the conquest of Mesoamerica, the European views on gender were dichotomous aligning male and female with superior and inferior. Moreover, women, as inferiors, were more likely to use deception and to align themselves with the devil. Influenced by the prevailing European ideologies, the Spanish colonization of America used comparisons with gender to support and justify Spanish dominance over the indigenous people.

During the European Renaissance the one gender model saw women as defective men. Qualities like intellectualism and logic were supposedly lacking in women. Moreover, women were weak because they were susceptible to "invasion" and domination by men More independent and outspoken women were suspected to have conspired with the devil because they were instruments that the devil used to ruin humankind. While men could fend for themselves from the devil with their "superior" intellect and logic, women were said to "have weak memories and it is a natural vice in them not to be disciplined, but to follow their own impulses without any sense of what is due" (Kramer 1971 [1486] 45). The European gender ideologies created a dichotomous gulf between men and women.

In addition to European society, the misogynist attitudes also existed in indigenous cultures. In Broken Spears, the authors vilify the female Nahuatl translator as a traitor to the Aztec people. Both the translator and Eve brought about the downfall of their respective cultures by conspiring with new, unfamiliar, and foreign entities. In another instance, modern Mesoamerican societies refer to Viuda who often is attributed as a young and beautiful widow who tempts men. Viuda resembles the witches of Europe who also conspire with the devil. Like a European witch, Viuda "as a young and beautiful chola, or urbanized Indian" drive men to insanity (Nash 1993 243). The representation of the Nahuatl translator and Viuda could have resulted from the syncretism of the Nahuatl and Spanish cultures. In any case, both native cultures and Europeans feel that men should be wary of women.

However, not all women were considered treacherous. Good Christian women were considered honorable wives who ranked above the evil and promiscuous witches. Thus the church tried to preserve the sanctity of marriage. To the church, fidelity during marriage and virginity before marriage were key elements to Christianity and could not be compromised. Marriage would erase the sin of out-of-wedlock intercourse and would allow the continuation of the mission to collect souls. For their own legacies, however, the Spanish stressed the fidelity of a man's wife because it is not as important for a family's faith but essential for a family's legacy. An honorable and devoted wife prevented speculation over the legitimacy of heirs. Without a legitimate birth, an heir could never inherit his father's lands or title. For lay colonists, marriage was a method to preserve the existing class structure. However, the mixed-breeds were lost in the hierarchy.

The first generation of Spanish-Indian offspring (mestizos), who often were of legitimate birth or if illegitimate were frequently recognized by their fathers, generally found a cultural identity and social acceptance with one or the other of the parental groups. However, as the number of mestizos continued to increase, both absolutely and relative terms as the Indian population began its drastic decline, the social and legal status of the mestizo became increasingly marginal. (Helms 1975 172)

Because of the difference between the Indian and Spanish class, the between Spanish men and Indian women produced offspring that did not fit in the social structure of colonial America.

To the colonizing Spanish, indigenous women were mere objects, much like the gold they sought. Conquest "meant-for indigenous women trapped between the sword and the cross-their subsequent material, cultural, spiritual, and sexual oppression" (Stolcke 1994 274). The Spanish conquistadors thought it was their right as conquerors to be able to have sex with women from the indigenous populations. Similarly, the friars who were to tried to establish utopian communities for indigenous people often abused their subjects. The consequences, the mixed-race children, were a threat to the Spanish-dominated tributary structure.

Because of the mestizo's ambiguity in the class hierarchy and tributary rights and responsibilities, most Spanish would have found he violation of women disturbing. The play, Fuente Ovejuna, has an overlord who takes advantage of his local female subjects. In the play, his actions cause a revolt, yet those same acts were tolerated in America. Because the Spanish were able to overrun the weak Aztec warriors, all Spanish, including peasants, thought themselves as superior. They had shown that their men could not defend the land for their wives and children.

Later, in the Spanish Colonies, marriage became important to ensuring the continuation of the Spanish-American Empire. Only with stable family settlements could the crown govern America permanently. Initially, the colonization effort began with the conquistadors searching for gold, Christian converts, and land. Although it was easy for the soldiers to claim the land and gold and for the first missionaries to find converts, the crown needed to have a stable presence on the land to rule it. The twentieth-century anthropologist, Helms, noting the lack of eligible Peninsular Spanish women, mentions, "the crown was seriously concerned that the colony be stabilize by married settlers" (Helms 1975 172). Families would stabilize the Spanish settlements and keep them permanent. The Spanish crown then would have loyal subjects to govern its territory. Thus women are a stabilizing force and allow the continuation of mankind in the newly conquered colonies.

The cultural ideologies surrounding about gender allowed men to rank themselves in terms of masculinity and femininity. For the Spanish, women were inferior to men because they had to rely upon men for direction and management. Men had their own role to fill: to govern fairly and to provide protection for his constituents. The husbands who could not able to govern or protect their families and territory were considered more feminine. In Broken Spears, the Aztec men also had a duty to protect the city and their families. Because the Aztec men had failed to protect their city and because the mend had little facial hair, the Spanish characterized them as more feminine. Thus the powerful and masculine Spanish were able to invade the Aztecs. Not only were the men viewed as effeminate, the structure of Aztec society was also inferior because the Aztecs as a community and a social structure had been destroyed. The corporal imagery of the community which was present during the Renaissance makes the Aztec society look inferior and feminine.

In some cases, the men were not eager defenders of their homes and wives. During the conquest Tenochtitlan, the women were asking the men when it would be time to defend their city. Aztecs traditionally were warriors who were considered honorable if they were willing to die for their city. But as the Spanish were marching to Tenochititlan, the king was powerless to stop them. In the Aztec noble's eyes, the king was not worthy of the throne or of the command of the Aztec armies. In Fuente Ovejuna, there is a similar situation where the women of the city complain about the comportment of their overlord to their husbands. Laurencia exclaims, "You [men] let those wretched tyrants take me off, / And still did not avenge or rescue me. / I was not yet Frondoso's wife, so you / Ought not have felt that it was up to him, / My husband, to avenge me; it was your / Responsibility" (de Vega 1969 [1619] 71). For men, their duties as patriarchs include maintaining honor and good name of the house. To retain honor, the members of the house must know their place, rank, and role in the community.

Defying the strict stratification of Spanish society, the legalization of interracial marriages created several mixed breed classes which challenged the hierarchy that had formed during the conquest of Mesoamerica. Because the differing social status of husband and wife, the heirs would be challenged for their inheritance of land and title. Spanish did not want to give land to the cross-breeds because it threatened Spanish supremacy and the crown's control, and Indians may have felt that the heir's mother betrayed them.

The conquest of Mesoamerica saw the exploitation of indigenous women who, in the eyes of the Europeans, and were considered objects of conquest. The Spanish sought to keep their superiority over the inferior and feminine native populations which had been conquered. Thus laws were made and ideologies cast to keep the strata of the tributary society separate. In Mesoamerica, European ideas about gender justified an intense system of oppression.

Works Cited

de Vega, Lopa. 1969 [1619]. Fuente Ovejuna. New York: Barron's Education Series. Trans. William E. Colford.

Helms, Mary W. 1975. "Land and Society." Middle America: A Cultural History of Heartland and Frontiers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 168-175.

Kramer, Heinrich and James Sprenger. 1971 [c. 1486]. The Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of the Witches). Trans. Rev. Montague Summers. New York: Dover Publications.

Nash, June. 1972. "Devils, Witches, and Sudden Death." Natural History Magazine 81(3). Reprinted in Arther C. Lehmann and James C. Myers, eds. Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion. 3rd Ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1993. 242-247.

Stolcke, Verena. 1994. "Invaded Women: Gender, Race, and Class in the Formation of Colonial Society." Women, "Race," and Writing in the Early Modern Period. Ed. Margo Hendricks and Patricia Parker. London: Routledge, 272-286.