Invasion and Transformation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Conquest of Mexico

by Rebecca P. Brienen (Editor), Margaret A. Jackson (Editor)

Overview

Invasion and Transformation examines the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and transformations in political, social, cultural, and religious life in Mexico during the Conquest and the ensuing colonial period. In particular, contributors consider the ways in which the Conquest itself was remembered, both in its immediate aftermath and in later centuries.

Was Moteuczoma really as weak as history portrayed him? As Susan D. Gillespie instead suggests in "Blaming Moteuczoma," the representation of Moteuczoma as a scapegoat for the Aztec defeat can be understood as a product of indigenous resistance and accommodation following the imposition of Spanish colonialism. Chapters address the various roles (real and imagined) of Moteuczoma, Cortés, and Malinche in the fall of the Aztecs; the representation of history in colonial art; and the complex cultural transformations that actually took place.

Including full-color reproductions of seventeenth-century paintings of the Conquest, Invasion and Transformation will appeal to scholars and students of Latin American history and anthropology, art history, colonial literature, and transatlantic studies. Contributors include Rebecca P. Brienen, Louise M. Burkhart, Ximena Chávez Balderas, Constance Cortez, Viviana Diáz Balsera, Martha Few, Susan D. Gillespie, Margaret A. Jackson, Diana Magaloni Kerpel, Matthew Restall, Michael Schreffler.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646421541
Publisher:	University Press of Colorado
Publication date:	11/02/2020
Edition description:	1
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Rebecca P. Brienen is Vennerberg Professor of Art and Head of the Department of Art, Graphic Design, and Art History at Oklahoma State University.
Margaret A. Jackson is an assistant professor of ancient American art history at the University of New Mexico and the President of the Association for Latin American art.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Part I Remembering the Legends: Moteuczoma, Cortés, and Malinche

1 Meeting the Enemy: Moteuczoma and Cortés, Herod and the Magi Louise M. Burkhart 11

2 Blaming Moteuczoma: Anthropomorphizing the Aztec Conquest Susan D. Gillespie 25

3 The Hero as Rhetor: Hernán Cortés's Second and Third Letters to Charles V Viviana Díaz Balsera 57

4 Now You See Her, Now You Don't: Memory and the Politics of Identity Construction in Representations of Malinche Constance Cortez 75

Part II The Transformation of History: Painting the Conquest of Mexico

5 Spanish Creation of the Conquest of Mexico Matthew Restall 93

6 The Conquest of Mexico and the Representation of Imperial Power in Baroque New Spain Michael J. Schreffler 103

7 Painting a New Era: Conquest, Prophecy, and the World to Come Diana Magaloni-Kerpel 125

Part III Effects of Invasion: Death and Conquest

8 Indian Autopsy and Epidemic Disease in Early Colonial Mexico Martha Few 153

9 Death During the Conquest Era Ximena Chávez Balderas 167

Part IV Conquest of Mexico Paintings, the Kislak Collection, Library of Congress

10 The Kislak Paintings and the Conquest of Mexico Rebecca P. Brienen Margaret A. Jackson 187

Works Cited 207

Index 225

Editorial Reviews

"Invasion and Transformation provides exciting readings of indigenous rationalizations of the history of the Spanish invasion and the colonizers' effort to assert their sense of superiority in their allegiance to Spanish imperial expansion. Together, these essays successfully force the reader to question conventional readings of both Spanish and indigenous conquest narratives."
—Cristián Roa de la Carrera, University of Illinois at Chicago

"[The contributors] combine art history, history, linguistic anthropology, literature and archaeology to consider how the Spanish conquest of Mexico has—and should—be remembered. . . . Here, they collectively continue paving the way for ever richer dialogues across disciplines about the interpretive possibilities still latent in the themes of conquest and col­onization."
—Journal of Latin American Studies
 

From the Publisher