Images of Historical Homelands in Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá’s Historia de la Nueva México
by Danita Dodson
Contested Homeland: Knowledge, Culture, and History of Santa Fe
National Endowment for Humanities Project at New Mexico History Museum, 2010
Length of Lesson: Three 90-minute class blocks
Grade Level: 12
Subject Area/Course: English--Western World Literature
Unit: Renaissance Journals of New World Travel and Discovery
World Literature Connections:
The thematic framework of the Western World Literature Course is Geography and Land in the Epics. Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá’s Historia de la Nueva México continues the tradition of epic masterpieces that we read in the course: Gilgamesh, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Aeneid.
Specific Approach:
The lesson is interdisciplinary, connecting literature to other humanities: art, drama, history, geography.
Introduction/Rationale/Overview:
Written in the Renaissance tradition of the revival of ancient classics, Historia de la Nueva México is an overlooked accomplishment in both the American and World literature traditions. As an epic, it is clearly derivative, modeled on Virgil’s Aeneid. However, it cannot be said that Historia is only an epic, for Villagrá elucidates the familiar framework of the travel journal by delineating Spanish journeys of Cabeza de Vaca and Coronado as he documents the expedition of Juan Oñate. Nevertheless, educated at the University of Salamanca in the classics, the author is clearly more literary than other travel writers.
Villagrá employs a certain heroic tension that is integral to the ancient epic tradition of placing one culture above another to promote a nationalist agenda. American literature was born of this Old World ideology, what Mary Louise Pratt refers to as a “contact zone” (“a place where cultures meet, clash, and grapple each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power”). We should not be afraid to teach texts that deal with this tension, for they teach us much about the historical reality that our nation, from the beginning, has been defined as much by conflict as by unity. Villagrá’s epic helps illustrate well the complexity of historical homelands, especially when they overlap with one another or are transformed by colonization, conquest, and resistance. A Renaissance writer who sees the general importance of the humanities, the author also emphasizes how the artistic products of a homeland tell a story, often spiritual, as he describes paintings, architecture, and religious relics of both cultures.
The year 2010 is an appropriate time to set Historia de la Nueva México in its rightful place in American and European letters, for it marks the 400th anniversary of both Santa Fe and Villagrá’s epic itself. Its placement in the canon has been articulated since the 19th century. In 1887 J.G. Shea argued it should find its rightful place in American literary studies. And in the 1933 preface to Gilberto Espinosa’s translation, F. W. Hodge acknowledged that Villagrá’s work “may claim the distinction of being the first published history of any American commonwealth” (17). American history has negated that proposition, predominantly because Villagrá’s work was written in Spanish. Thomas M. Pearce offered this rebuttal: “The English tradition, as it is carried on by the English language, has made few concessions to other elements in the literary history of this country” (“American Tradition and Our Histories of Literature,” American Literature, November 1942: 16). Most recently, Felipe de Ortego y Gasca has acclaimed that Villagrá’s epic is “contextually of extraordinary quality” and belongs in the chronology of American literature: “If the United States can claim the writings of colonial New England as the roots of American literature, it can equally claim the writings of colonial New Spain as roots of American literature also. . . . New Spain is as relevant to the American experience as New England. . . . Santa Fe had been a city since well before the arrival of John Smith at Jamestown and the Puritans at Plymouth” (Conference on American Literature, Texas A&M University, 2001).
Lesson Objectives: After the lesson, students will be able to:
identify the "epic" as a cross-cultural phenomenon in both the Old World and New World.
understand how historical and geographical information as well as various cultural aspects of European and Spanish culture relate to the production of Villagrá’s epic.
explain how elements of Pueblo culture are revealed in the epic.
compare and contrast the Hispanic and Pueblo traditions of religion, art, warfare, drama/dance, architecture, food as depicted by Villagrá.
relate the epic to the larger context of Renaissance literature and ancient literature that they have studied in the course.
describe how the concept of homelands figures into the epic.
contemplate how the idea of contested homelands is applicable to the area of the U.S. where they reside (East Tennessee, Appalachia).
Text for Selected Readings
Pérez de Villagrá, Gaspar. Historia de la Nueva México, 1610. A Critical and Annotated Spanish/English Edition. Trans. and Eds. Miguel Encinias, Alfred Rodríquez, and Joseph P. Sánchez. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. [This bilingual edition is great for teaching students who are familiar with both languages, allowing them to both read the original and its English translation. Since New Mexico is the only officially-bilingual state, this text also illustrates beautifully the power of dual language-learning.]
Additional Texts and Media
Carrillo, Charles M. Saints of the Pueblos. Albuquerque: LPD Press, 2008.
Fray Angélico Chávez History Library. New Mexico History Museum.
Lamadrid, Enrique R. “Rutas del Corazón: Pilgrimage and Cultural Commerce on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.” New Mexico Historical Review. 83.4. Fall 2008. 423-49.
New Mexico Humanities Council. Database. http://nmhum.org [Includes a link “Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps” that will be helpful in the Lesson Activity 1].
Paponetti, Giovanna. “Don Juan de Onate Visits Taos—1598.” Giovanni. http://www7. taosnet.com/ giovanna/don_juan_de_onate.htm.
Thomas, David H. The Native Americans: An Illustrated History. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1993.
Weigle, M., F. Levine, and L. Stiver, eds. Telling New Mexico: A New History. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2009.
Special Materials:
Each lesson will make use of teacher-made PowerPoint of scenes of New Mexico, as well as cultural objects purchased there. Specific materials are described respectively below.
Assessment:
Organize accurate notes in student notebook so they can be easily accessed and used in future.
Contribute to class discussions with evidence from the readings.
Write a comparison/contrast essay that places Villagrá’s epic within the larger framework of world literature, looking specifically at connections to the production of literature in the other cultures we have studied.
Take an objective and an essay exam on the selections from Villagrá that they read.
Procedures:
See each individual lesson below for specific procedures for the designated class period.
Lesson Activity 1
Del Océano Azul al Camino Real: “New World” Mapping of the Homeland
Introduction: Teacher Notes
Villagrá’s epic is the first of its kind, for it not only continues the ancient classic tradition but also bears marks of the travel journal of contemporary Renaissance culture. What is more remarkable is that it delineates many aspects of Spanish tradition that have become components of the Hispanic culture of Santa Fe and the rest of New Mexico and the Southwest, particularly the establishment of infrastructure, government, agriculture, and religion.
One of the fascinating tangible features in this regard is El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, founded by Villagrá’s hero, Juan Oñate. Still present as an active road today, this Royal Road has historically served as the vital communication and trade link between Mexico and Santa Fe. Not only did the Oñate period establish the trail, but also the explorer introduced the horse, Catholicism, agriculture and livestock. As Dr. Thomas Chavez has said so eloquently, “Trails are like veins in a body, the lifeblood of a culture . . . a blood vein that becomes part of our [nation’s] patrimony” (Lecture, “El Camino Read de Tierra Adentro, NEH Contested Homelands Workshop, 23 June 2010).
The lesson shows how Villagrá sets up the motif of the heroic journey of an adventurer sanctioned by God by utilizing not only the classical epic tradition but also the art and religion of Renaissance Spain, both of which are still very present in the Christianity of Santa Fe and the rest of New Mexico. A close view of the opening cantos helps students understand the Spaniards’ project of expanding their homeland by mapping what they referred to as “the New World.” According to Estevan Rael-Galvez, “A piece of land is like a book, leaving something behind for us to read” (NEH Contested Homelands Workshop, 21 June 2010). In Canto XII the expedition petitions Mompil, a Pueblo scout, to help them read the land by drawing a map for them.
Materials:
PowerPoint Notes about Villagrá and Oñate
Historical maps of New Mexico and El Camino Real (16th century, xii-xiii in Historia, also via the New Mexico Humanities Council and the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library databases)
PowerPoint picture slides of the landscape of New Mexico (the Rio Grande as it runs parallel to Highway 285, the Rio Grande Gorge, and the road to Taos, “looming rocks”)
Slides of photos taken on remnants of El Camino Real in Santa Fe (particularly Agua Fria Street)
Cultural objects: Hispanic culture in New Mexico (retablo painted by Cleo Romero on tinwork)
PowerPoint slides of San Geronimo Chapel in Taos Pueblo
Saints of the Pueblos book
Copy of painting of Juan Oñate (Giovanna Paponetti)
Assigned Readings from the Encinias, Rodríquez, and Sánchez edition (due on day of lesson):
Canto I (pages 3-6), Canto XII (pages 104-14), Canto XIV (pages 124-26)
Procedure:
Review the characteristics of the classical epic. Compare Villagrá’s opening of Canto I to Virgil’s Aeneid. Focusing upon selected reading from Canto I (pages 3-6), discuss why Villagrá uses Virgil as a model. Show Paponetti’s painting of Oñate the “hero” via the marked web-link.
Ask students to remember what they have learned thus far about Renaissance literature in general and the specific genre of travel journals of exploration (Colón, Cortés, Díaz, Smith).
After a general introduction to Villagrá and Oñate via PowerPoint notes, give students maps of New Spain and New Mexico, showing them the vastness and diversity of the landscape.
Direct students toward the opening lines of Canto XII (lines 1-36 and the poetic images of Saint Jerome (Gerónimo) employed by Villagrá. Explain that Saint Jerome is commonly portrayed in the art of the Renaissance. Show a retablo, discussing the term santero. Discuss how this type of Christian sacred art is still apparent in New Mexico today with various saints. San Geronimo is often portrayed as the Penitent in the Desert, holding a rock to beat his breast, as described by Villagrá. Show PowerPoint of San Geronimo Chapel in Taos Pueblo, where he is patron saint. Also show a picture of Saint Jerome featured in the Saints of the Pueblo book.
Explain how Villagrá uses Saint Jerome to set up the idea that the journey into tierra adentro was a sacred pilgrimage of service and self-sacrifice. He places himself in the party of eight explorer-soldiers who are sent to “find this road” (line 38).
Have students point to specific descriptions of the landscape in Canto XII : the “rough and widely-spreading plains” (83), “rocky slopes” (94), “dunes of high-piled sand” (95), “a star sunk low and at / The foot of the horizon” (123-4), “lofty slopes” (210), “there did peep / O’er gilded balcony its beauteous light (210-11), “that place was almost all rock” (339). Also point them to Canto XIV’s description of the New Mexican landscape and the discovery of the Rio Grande: “rough and craggy lands” (line 43), “deserts, wild and perilous” (45), “wide and spacious soil” (46), “ravines” (55), “harsh forests” (56), “high and rugged peaks, / Over whose summits we did drive” (58-9), “cliffs and ragged looming rocks” (65), “the roaring River / Of the North” (104-5).
Show students PowerPoint pictures of landscape of New Mexico, which visually captures the physicality described by Villagrá: rocky land on the road to Taos, the Rio Grande as it runs parallel to Highway 285, the Rio Grande Gorge, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the arroyos.
Discuss how the detailed description in Canto XII of the one-on-one competition between the Spaniard and the Pueblo Indian is not only borrowed from the Aeneid but also is representative of the ideas of the “contact zone” and the “contested homeland.”
Discuss Villagrá’s emphasis upon how maps of New Spain were drawn in part by reliance upon Pueblo Indians’ knowledge of the landscape. Look specifically at the passage from Canto XII where Mompil uses an arrow to draw a map of the Southwest, particularly New Mexico and its villages (lines 424-69). Have them again recall the maps shown at the beginning of class.
Remind students that Oñate established El Camino Real as alluded to in the text. Show them a map of it and also a few PowerPoint slides of Agua Fria Street, which is part of the original road.
How is the idea of the “road” given special significance? The American literary motif of the Open Road (Kerouac, Twain) actually begins with Villagrá, who uses the word “road” often. How does the geographical reality of El Camino Real, built by Oñate, serve as a symbol, spiritually and even economically (Manifest Destiny)? Oñate himself says, “[T]here is none that does not know / That the eternal, powerful God / Is the true, certain road” (Canto XIII, ll. 317-19).
Lesson Activity 2
Spanish Images of the Pueblo
Introduction: Teacher Notes
Oñate and his exploration party travelled across New Mexico in 1598, interacting with various Pueblo peoples along the Rio Grande. As Villagrá’s epic reveals, the Spaniards immediately began emblazoning Old World ideas upon the New, constructing churches and governmental bases. In several cantos Villagrá discusses the importance of San Juan as the first capital, giving us a sneak preview of the kind of capital that Santa Fe soon will become. Furthermore, though his view of Spanish is ethnocentric and his analysis of the Pueblo is discriminatory, he does manage to represent the First Americans in an impressive historical description of the way they were living when the Spaniards first met them. Such description provides a window for viewing the remarkable continuum of Pueblo life today, for the descendents of the original New Mexicans have preserved traditional culture to an unusually high degree. Surprisingly, in the early cantos, Villagrá describes Santo Domingo and San Juan accurately enough that the long-established culture is recognizably authentic.
Thus, his epic shows us much about not only the mindset of the Spanish conquest into the “New World” but also about the indigenous, eternal culture encountered there. Though the history of conquest must never deny the struggles of “the contact zone,” Villagrá’s epic first posits the 400-year-old amalgamation of Hispanic and Native American culture, represented best by the Zia symbol on the New Mexico flag, a Pueblo image of the sun that looks similar to a cross. As is illustrated by the Converging Streams: Art of the Hispanic and Native American Southwest exhibit at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art in Santa Fe, when Oñate and his fellow colonists settled in New Mexico, “they ushered in a period of complex cultural interchange that continues to the present day.”
The juxtaposition in Villagrá’s epic occurs almost as a type of yin-yang dance, opposite yet similar, simultaneously comparison and contrast. Both the Old World and the New World peoples who met in that contact zone in 1598 prayed for such things as rain, as Villagrá shows in Canto XVI. Both played games as forms of celebration. Both erected holy sanctuaries like the kiva and the cathedral. Both included humor in dramatic performances such as the Pueblo Koshare and the Morisma Spanish drama.
Though the various Pueblos have their own languages and cultural traditions, there are some general commonalities, many of which were recognized early by the Spaniards. As Villagrá’s descriptions show, the Pueblo have a reverence and gratitude for nature, particularly when it rains. The kachinas are strong spirits that control nature, and the Pueblo not only pray to them for help in daily life but also give thanks to them for families, homes, crops, and health. Believed to possess the masked dancers who impersonate them in rituals, these benevolent spirits are revered as bringers of rain and social good. Though Villagrá did not understand and appreciate everything he saw in these rituals, he nonetheless documented them as a crucial part of the Pueblo heritage and custom. In addition, Villagrá delineates observations about village infrastructure and economy.
As Dr. Estevan Rael-Galvez told participants of the NEH Contested Homelands Workshop, “People come with the land, and when the land was inherited so was a history of a nation” (Santa Fe, 21 June 2010). In some ways Villagrá senses this when he describes the Pueblo Indians that he and Oñate encounter. The Cantos that students read to prepare for this lesson show us that there are complex layers in any homeland and that with each layer there is a perspective that differs from another.
Materials:
PowerPoint photos of a Pueblo village (Taos), including adobe architecture
PowerPoint of old Christian churches in New Mexico (such as Mission of San Miguel in Santa Fe)
Kachina doll
Lithographs of kachinas (purchased at Palace of Governors’ Book and Print Shop)
Pottery figurine of Sacred Clown/Koshare (made by artist from Jemez Pueblo)
Lamadrid article: “Rutas del Corazón”
Zia image
Santo Domingo jewelry
Cross from San Miguel Gift Shop (wooden with milagros)
Pueblo Music (Pueblo Songs of the Southwest
Assigned reading selection: Canto XV (pages 139-42, 146 [line 307]- 147), Canto XVI (pages 148-55)
Procedures:
Discuss with students these opening questions: Do you notice any common images, themes, structure in the assigned reading? Review the concepts discussed in yesterday’s lesson.
Explain to them that today's lesson will focus upon Villagrá’s juxtaposition of Old World images of the homelands of the Renaissance Spanish explorer-hero and the New World Pueblo Indian.
Point to a key line in Canto XV that illustrates at least a minimal willingness of the Spaniards to observe and note the differences of the peoples they encounter: to “spy upon the land” (41).
Discuss with students how Villagrá, much like Homer with the Cyclops in the Odyssey, contrasts the Spanish tradition of cultivation of the land with that of the Pueblo. He notes that they were “untaught / To cultivate the earth or break it up, / And in acquiring farms and keeping them / Completely unaccustomed, too” (58-60). Explain to students that there was actually much exchange of crops, agricultural practices, and foods among the Hispanic and Pueblo. At the end of Canto XV, Villagrá notes this: “To cultivate the earth and work the same, / They harvest beans, corn, and squashes, / Melons . . . and grapes in quantity through the desert. / And after we have dealt with them / They harvest the red wheat and garden stuff” (345-50).
Discuss the juxtaposition of religious images from both Hispanic and Pueblo cultures in Canto XV: “And seeing the Commissary, who bore / A wooden cross in his right hand, / All kissed the same with great respect” (130-32), “[W]e then saw / A mighty store which they had there / Of haughty demons pictured . . . Which clearly showed to us they were their gods” (135-39). How is Canto XV vivid in its description of Pueblo paintings of “geographical” gods (kachinas)?
Show cultural objects / art from contemporary New Mexico that bear evidence of a continuation of both Spanish and Pueblo spiritual ideas and practices: crosses, retablos, kachinas, zia.
Lead students specifically to recognize both cultures prayer rituals for rain / water in Canto XVI (lines 28-61). What is the importance of water to the San Juan people and the Spanish Christians? Compare religious rituals of Canto XVI.
Have students point to lines from Canto XV that describe the infrastructure and architecture of New Mexico: “squared plazas” (309), “houses / Rose up in stories, three, five, six, and seven, / With many windows, corridors, / Most pleasing to the sight from far” (310-13).
Walk students through a general Power Point slide show about Pueblo culture of New Mexico, especially noting the abode architecture of places like Taos that fit Villagrá’s description.
Discuss the following question: What is the role of Christian architecture and the focus upon its construction? Look to lines 168-9 in Canto XVI, where Villagrá describes the building of the first church of New Mexico, dedicated on September 8, 1599 in San Juan. Show PowerPoint pictures of old churches in Santa Fe, Taos, and Acoma.
Discuss with students the role of drama in both the Spanish and Pueblo traditions, explaining that certain rituals described by Villagrá are still practiced today. Note his astute account in Canto XVI of Morisma (lines 100-12) and Koshare (189-98) celebrations. Show quotes and pictures from Lamadrid’s article for its discussion of the dramas of Reconquest, and, if possible, present a picture of Morisma mask from a database. Show Jemez-made figurine of koshare.
Discuss briefly how Canto XVI describes San Juan Pueblo, which still exists today, known as Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo to its inhabitants. Connect to the 1680 rebellion and its importance as the birthplace of Po’pay. Also share information about modern-day Santo Domingo Pueblo learned from panel discussion with artists Tina Montoya and Allan Lavato, both who studied traditional arts with their ancestors. Show jewelry—Santo Domingo is the only Pueblo known for its jewelry making, particularly heishe and turquoise.
Wrap-up: How is geography (the contested land) central to the epic, much as it is in Virgil? Consider how fascinating it is that Villagrá documents ancient pueblos who are still in existence today (Santo Domingo, San Juan, and Acoma).
Lesson 3:
The Battle of Acoma: Literary Portrayal of the Contested Homeland
Introduction/ Teacher Notes:
In December 1598, Don Juan de Oñate’s expedition into northern New Mexico laid siege to the pueblo at Acoma, a formidable, towering mesa. According to all accounts, the battle was brutal, ending in a massacre. Records confirm the ferocity of the conflict and its outcome, but nowhere more in detail than in Villagrá’s Historia de la Nueva México. His own role in the expedition was as Captain, and his epic places him at the battle of Acoma as a participant observer.
As a proud warrior culture who had inhabited their homeland since the 12th century, the Acomans challenged the Spanish right to rule over them. Though Villagrá describes him as a trouble-maker and “brutal beast,” the character Zutacapán is nonetheless evidently a resister of colonial authority, reminiscent of the Po’pay, who will become, a few decades later, an important revolutionary. Using threats, coercion, and persuasion, Acoman warriors urged other pueblos to join them in their defiance, but the others were too cautious, having witnessed Spanish military power at Pecos, Moho and Arenal. The juxtaposition of warrior personalities in this epic helps the student of both literature and history to understand the ultimate Pueblo rebellion in 1680.
In spite of the massacre, today the Acoma Pueblo survives. Meaning People of the White Rock, the pueblo is situated hundreds of feet above the surrounding land. Termed Sky City, this contested homeland offers a breath-taking view of the countryside, other mesas and the distant mountains.
Materials:
Picture and/or Figurine of Pueblo War Dance
Acoma pottery
Slide show of Acoma via PowerPoint
Painting of Jonathan Warm Day’s The Last Supper (in Thomas’s An Illustrated History of the Native American, p. 142)
Handout: selected passages from Hopi narrative of Spanish conquest
Assigned Reading: Canto XXI (page 193), Canto XXII (199-201), Canto XXVIII (244-51), Canto XXIX (252-56)
Procedures:
Discuss with students the opening question: Do you notice any common images, themes, structure in the assigned poems? Review the concepts discussed in the previous lesson.
Explain to them that today's lesson will focus upon the comparative images of Pueblo Indians and Spaniards in relation to the Acoma battle, which occurs in a contested homeland.
Walk students through a general Power Point slide show of modern-day Acoma, exhibiting photographic images of the natural landscape that inspired the majority of Villagrá’s cantos.
Note that Zutacapán represents the voice of resistance who fears losing this lovely homeland. Read aloud his speech on page 193). Discuss his plot to ambush of the Army Master Juan Zalvidar. Have students take turns reading aloud, dramatically, the speeches between these warrior personalities in a scene from Canto XXII: Zalvidar (lines 60-91), a soldier in Juan Zalvidar’s party (99-106), and the Acoman Zutacapán (123-28). Discuss their portrayals.
How is geography (the contested land) central to the epic, much as it is in Virgil? Consider how fascinating it is that Villagrá documents in picturesque description an ancient pueblo that looks little changed today. The description of the rocky ascent of Acoma would ready any contemporary traveler to climb it today. Have students point to lines that correspond to images in the PowerPoint. Examples include the following from Canto XXVIII: “To climb by escalade unto the top / Of that immense and rocky cliff” (43-44), “those huge and lofty walls” (283), “slope did show nearly a hundred fathoms / Of standing rock, a fearful fall” (287-88), “there were two rocks raised aloft, / By more than three hundred feet” (304-5).
Review the conventions of the classical epic hero. Then have students point to lines in today’s reading that underscore this idea of heroism. An example is the following in Canto XXVIII: “They risk their persons and do place themselves / In danger of ruin or tarnishing” (5-6). Note how Vicente de Zalvidar, Oñate’s nephew and Sergeant Major, is described as a valiant warrior who seeks to avenge his brother’s death after he was ambushed on an attempted ascent of Acoma. Compare to images of revenge in Homer and Virgil. See lines 57-91 in Canto XXVIII. Explain that, as in the classic epics, heroic revenge involves conquering overwhelming obstacles, often geographic; thus, Acoma is not only a symbol of heroic conquest but also a literal place.
Analyze the detailed descriptions of the massacre. Discuss how and why the Spanish soldiers are depicted as heroic rather than brutal slaughterers? How is violence (genocide) poeticized? How can genocide be represented in an art form that so aesthetically beautiful?
Show Jonathan Warm Day’s The Last Supper to help highlight the Pueblo perspective of the Spanish arrival to their village.
Point students to selected passages of a Hopi narrative of the Spanish conquest.
Discuss with them the similar history of contested homelands in their own East Tennessee community, where the late-arriving Scotch-Irish pushed the earliest Melungeon settlers from their homelands along the lush Clinch River valley to Newman’s Ridge, which was harder to farm. Also, point them to the accounts of War Creek, where U.S. soldiers fought battles against the Cherokee, who had used the land for hunting purposes since the 14th century.