Lewis Hanke

Bartolomé de Las Casas: Anthropologist

To call Bartolome de Las Casas an anthropologist may seem to some not only inaccurate but presumptuous as well. It is true that he was an anthropologist only incidentally, for he was primarily a man of action determined to influence the course of events in America. It was to protect the Indians from cruel and devastating wars of conquest against them, and to defend them from the charge that they were slaves according to Aristotle’s theory that certain classes of human beings are inherently slaves, that Las Casas became a student of Indian culture. Certainly he did not possess all the skills required of an anthropologist today. But his attempt to describe the cultures of the American Indians, in the course of his defense of the natives, resulted in his producing a most comprehensive picture of their civilization. His works constitute even today one of the indispensable sources on the native people encountered during the course of what Spaniards of that time believed to be the Eighth Wonder of the World — the discovery of America.

The Struggle for Justice in the Spanish Conquest of America

Spaniards differ among themselves in many ways and on many subjects. So it has always been and so it is today, as the presence in the Americas of hundreds of Spain’s best scientists, scholars, and creative artists who no longer care or dare to live in their homeland testifies. Most Spaniards, however, agree in one belief — that the discovery and colonization of the New World was their country’s greatest and most significant contribution to the world. Of course they by no means agree on what precisely that contribution was and there have been some Spaniards, during and after the conquest, who bitterly and publicly protested part or all of Spanish policy and action in America. For Spaniards have never hidden from the world their robust and penetrating criticism of Spain. The phrase “My country, right or wrong!” could never have been struck off by a Spaniard. One of those popular sayings which reveals some of the basic wisdom of Spanish character puts it this way: Si habla bien de Inglaterra, es ingles, Si habla mal de Alemania, es frances, Si habla mal de Espana, es espanol. If one speaks well of England, he is an Englishman, If one speaks ill of Germany, he is a Frenchman, If he speaks ill of Spain, he is a Spaniard.

Bartolome de las Casas: Political Theorist and Historian

Bartolome de Las Casas, who fought so stoutly for the Indians from his conversion in 1514 in Cuba until his death in 1566 in Spain, has usually been considered a noble humanitarian or a saintly fanatic, when harsher epithets have not been applied to him. Few of his friends or enemies have realized that under the fire and brimstone of his invective there existed a closely reasoned structure of political thought based upon the most fundamental concepts of medieval Europe.

The Contribution of Bishop Juan De Zumárraga to Mexican Culture

The Commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the death of Juan de Zumarraga signifies more than the pious recollection of the contributions to New World culture of this great Franciscan, great Spaniard and great American. For the study and contemplation of his works plunges us once again into the heat and conflict of the Spanish conquest of America, even though Columbus first landed over four hundred and fifty years ago. No one who attempts to study and to interpret this extraordinary event can ignore the life of Zumarraga, nor can he fail to confront the pressing problem which this energetic and able bishop confronted and attempted to solve—how could the Indians be saved?