Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers

¶ … Jesus came, the Corn Mothers went Away

The matter of colonialism is extremely divisive, and, because of the various controversies revolving around it, people cannot simply accept to ignore the topic. However, while some historians have preferred to address general factors regarding colonists and Native Americans, others have gone at presenting the world with disturbing information. Ramon A. Gutierrez's book, When Jesus came, the corn mothers went away: marriage, sexuality, and power in New Mexico, 1500-1846, has little resemblance to other books referring to the Native American society. While the Native Americans had initially been perceived as savages, the general public has gradually changed its perception over the years. People presently relate to the Pueblo society as being a rather well-mannered society, with its members behaving decently and being against any form of depravity.

Even though Gutierrez has intended to have people acquainted with a whole different concept of the Native American society, he did not actually manage to present his ideas in an unbiased approach. It is obvious that his conceptions have been mainly fueled by information gathered from the Spanish church and from Spanish state documents. All in all, the assumptions made all across the book are vague, and cannot actually be verified.

The concept of marriage is used by Gutierrez to provide information relating to the Pueblo society and its values. Apparently, marriages had been the core of the Native American society, before and after the Spanish conquest. However, the conquistadors had had a destructive influence on the Pueblo community, as divergences started to appear along with the Pueblos becoming familiar with European concepts.

Gutierrez does not attempt to highlight any of the two civilizations that have met on the American continent. His main conviction is that no society is perfect, and, that decadence is present in any community, regardless of its apparent flawlessness.

The writer has a tendency to have his readers abandon their preconceptions in order to become open to new concepts. He wants them to accept the fact that the Pueblo community had great faults and that a large number of people suffered as a result of those problems. Gutierrez does not necessarily support the Conquistadores, and, furthermore, he relates to them as having had a bad influence of the natives.

The Pueblo Indians considered women to play a special role in their community. Gender only influenced one's role in the Native American tribes, as it did not act against the members of the Pueblo community. The coming of the Spaniards had played a decisive role for the Pueblos, as they were forbidden from expressing their cultural values. The Spanish promoted concepts which brought disadvantages to men and women in the Pueblo society. The presence of Catholicism and Protestantism had a terrible effect on the Native Americans. People who presumably wanted to act according to the will of God only managed to deny several basic rights to the Pueblos.

When Jesus came, the corn mothers went away: marriage, sexuality, and power in New Mexico, 1500-1846 proves the passionate convictions of Gutierrez involving the overall situation that the Pueblos found themselves in along with the Spanish conquest. The Spanish basically dissolved the Pueblo society and replaced it with one that promoted European values. As a result of this event, the Pueblos lost most of their cultural identity, being forced to subject to the absurd laws presented by the Spaniards. Gutierrez does not present his readers with solid information relating to the Spanish interventions in the Pueblo society. The fact that part of the book is based on myths and journals raises problems and minimizes its credibility.

European influence has had a huge impact on the Pueblos, bringing them to the point where women had become victims of discrimination. They were limited and only allowed to perform insignificant activities while the Pueblo men held a much greater amount of power.

While Gutierrez's book brought new concepts relating to the Pueblos and to the effect that marriages have had on their society, most people today are unwilling to accept the information presented by the writer. The writing brings forward facts which come against the role of women in the Pueblo community and the role of women in general. Apparently, Gutierrez considers that the main job which Pueblo women had consequent to the Spanish conquest had been to bring sexual satisfaction to men.