The Song of the Hummingbird - Essay Example

The Song of the Hummingbird Think off living in a society that greatly exercised ritual dances, as well as humansacrifice, and then, one day, this society is no longer present as another culture opted to conquer them. This confirms that legendary saying that “the victors write the history.” Such individuals, who a group came, conquered and changed their way of life, are referred to as the Aztecs. In the Song of the Hummingbird by Graciela Limon, it was revealed how a culture such as Mexican can rapidly diminish when strong people such as like the Spanish come along even if they have an awfully limited comprehension concerning them. Some critics argue that the Mexicans were slaughtered as the Darwinian rule of natural selection pertains to every mankind (Restall 78). This idea was noticeable when the Spanish army men marched with horses, armor and slightly superior technology in Mexico. However, through this book, anyone can see that the Mexicans were eager to exploit peace with regards to the Spaniards till they began to be hostile against the Mexicans. Limon (56) also showed that the Spanish army did not even attempt to comprehend the Mexican tradition, but they considered human sacrifice as a performance that applies to the devil. Numerous people concur with Graciela Limon that individuals required to understand and treat each other much better as it was very clear that if they did not do so, then it led to severe issues between mankind similar to the way it turned out for the Mexicans and the Spaniards (Restall 78). Limon (12) made use many characters to portray ways how the Spaniards rewrote the history of the Mexican people, as well as their downfall. It was hard for Father Benito to comprehend Huitzitzilin as she put her faith in idols, whereas he put his faith in Jesus Limon (62). He attempted to compare them, but that was regarded as a sin in Christianity by the Spaniards. Each time Huitzitzilin attempted to engage Father Benito with the talk of her gods, Father Benito endeavored to immediately change his subject, which was the duty granted to him by the Spaniards (Limon 62). He, or the Spaniards, in general, regarded both ritual dances, as well as human sacrifices, as practices relating to Satan. In 1519, a small group Spaniard soldiers led by Hernan Cortes docked on the Mexican Vera Cruz coastline. By mid-August 1521, the capital city of the Mexican empire (Tenochtitlan) had fallen to the hands of the Spaniards (Fuente 51). This dramatic milestone signified the start of one the globes most famous holocausts. However, this comprehensive destroying of an entire civilization was not conducted through military conquest alone. In 1524, at the invitation by Hernan Cortes for 12 Franciscan monks guided by Fray Toribio arrived in Vera Cruz and journeyed bare footed up to Mexico City (Fuente 51). By this time, Hernan Cortes and his other men, had conquered almost the entire of Mexico, but was being affected becoming more and more weak with Cortes’ chase of a rogue army personnel in the north of the nation; only 200 Spaniards gathered together in Mexico city fighting against each other with other Mexican masses keenly waiting for a chance to defeat these new settlers (Fuente 52).Therefore, in the midst of these overpowering odds, on 1st January, 1525, in Texcuco, the 12 monks started a campaign to burn down each and every aspect of the Mexican religion from existence. Every temple was brought down and above each temple a church was built for Christians to worship (Fuente 52). Mexicans totally lost their religion to the Spaniards. As a mere consolation, by wiping out the heart and soul of the religious civilization of the Mexican culture, the Spanish church leaders declared ownership of all Mexican people and as such turned into the mask of the Mexican citizens against the carnages done by the Spanish in the name of monetary gain (Fuente 52). This only shows that apart from destroy their past religion, the Spaniards also forced the Mexicans into Christianity. Through a number of signs, the Spaniards considered themselves as gods. Even Huitzitilin saw this when she told father Benito that people should as Mentezuma were basically worshiping the Spaniard (Limon 102). This shows also that the Mexicans were deprived of their dignity by the Spaniards. In Limon’s novel, Paloma was a clear picture of how some Mexicans were affected psychologically by the Spaniard invasion. During the Spanish invasion, Paloma was captured at a very young age, which made her grow up hating Mexican women because of the influence the Spaniards had on her (Limon 102). In my opinion, the entire rewriting of the Mexican was due to the Spaniard lack of understanding of the Mexicans or their culture. This is a situation that can be compared to that of a child who thinks that their parent is being harsh to them by disciplining them whenever they do something wrong and yet they were simply showing their love in another way (Fuente 141). Spain here can be considered as the child while Mexico is the parent. Spaniards needed to look beyond the Mexican rudeness in order to understand who they were similar to the way a child should look beyond the harshness of his or her parent to understand that the discipline is an act of love (Fuente 141). The Mexicans were peacefully living their lives before the Spaniards invaded and even after the invasion, they still endorsed them, but the Spaniards took this for granted and totally conquered the land. The Spaniards could have dealt with the issue properly so that it could not have led to widespread issues as it did. The best step would have been to accept the peace being offered by the Mexicans when they approached the land (Fuente 142). The next step would be to study the Mexican way of life and how to well relate to them in their day to day lives (Fuente 142). The final step that Spain should have undertaken was trying to understand the Mexican religion instead of completely wiping it out. The Spaniards though that they were doing God’s will but in real sense they were acting out of their own benefit. In conclusion, people should consider themselves a like in the sense that people need to understand them in order to relate with the properly. The Spaniards were in all ways possible wrong to treat the Mexicans the way they did, and could have handled the matter in a better way. I will end by Limon’s note that “in order for the world to have civilization, people should try to understand one another.” Works Cited Fuente, Patricia D. The Cronicle of the Anonymous Conquistador in The Conquistadors: First-person Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 2008. Print. Limón, Graciela. Song of the Hummingbird. New York: Arte Publico Press, 1996 . Web. Restall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print. Read More