When Jesus Came the Corn Mothers Went Away - Essay

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When Jesus Came The Corn Mothers Went Away Essay

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¶ … Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away In the book When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away, Ramon A. Guttierez's thesis appears to be that there are various points-of-view, specifically in terms of the Spanish colonialization of New Mexico. The thesis also has a wider application in terms of the invasion of the United States by Europeans in general. In this, by focusing on a single group of natives and invaders, the author's thesis is that there are many viewpoints inherent in the colonializing process. Men, women, cultures and professions interact in ways unprecedented before the pioneering Europeans came to America. This is the stated point of the book: to provide a global view of several viewpoints, with emphasis on that of the Pueblo Indians in response to their Spanish invaders.

With this in mind, one strength of the book is its focus on various points-of-view, but specifically on the point-of-view of those who have been generally ignored in history. It provides a point-of-view that has been increasingly legitimated in today's society;...

The author provides an in-depth look at this point-of-view by means of meticulous historical detail.
This is another strength of the book. Even in the introduction, the author provides historical and pre-historical detail of the Pueblo Indians' settlement in America. He goes as far back as climate change during prehistorically times, creating the savannahs that much of the United States is know for today. The changing animal populations created a change in human habitation and development. Migration created the Pueblo settlements in New Mexico, where the Spanish Conquistadores invaded them. In addition, the author also provides meticulous detail about these settlements before and during the invasions. In the body chapters of the book, the changes are described meticulously in parts, each of which focus on a different century -- the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

A weakness of the book, however, is that its author seems unable or unwilling, even in the last decade of the 20th century, to…

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A weakness of the book, however, is that its author seems unable or unwilling, even in the last decade of the 20th century, to acknowledge the efforts that have been made to rectify colonial wrongs. The author holds that there has been very little effort to provide a viewpoint that originates from the victims of invasion. He claims that authors focus on the conquests, strength, and spiritual purity of the European invaders while describing natives as little more than idol worshiping savages. Surely, by 1991, many authors have brought into their work a more understanding point-of-view. It also appears that the author focuses his claim of legitimacy on this fact; his book is claimed to be one of the first to provide a wider point-of-view, which includes the natives as more than savages. Perhaps an inherent weakness here is also the fact that it does not apply so strongly to a culture that has developed for 20 years since the time of publication. Currently, there is a definite trend towards rectifying history and considering all points-of-view.

Another weakness is the author's use of language. Despite his claim of including a universal view of the events that took place in New Mexico, the author has written a decidedly academic work. This means that the language is somewhat less accessible to the general public than it is to the academic community. Perhaps it would have been a more important work if the author had used a less academic tone.

In general, I liked the book. It certainly has merits in terms of providing a much more thorough history of the Pueblo Indians than had been the case before. I do like that the author focused his attention on a marginalized section of society, attempting to show a point-of-view that must have been completely alien to the Europeans at the time. From today's point-of-view, I admit that the author is not completely wrong in assuming that, even now, there remains a sense of prejudice against what we perceive as "the other." Maybe if more books like this appear, we can begin to acknowledge our common humanity before starting to focus on our differences.

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