Week 10 Ambivalent Conquests

Ambivalent Conquests

In order to answer that question we must first define ambivalent.  According to Webster’s dictionary ambivalent is defined as “having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about someone or something”.  In Clendinnen’s book, she offered several examples of this ambivalence among the natives, the Spanish, and the friars. 

Clendinnen clearly provided examples of knowledge the natives had regarding the presence of the Spanish.  On page 8, Clendinnen stated, “the Indians of the Yucatan also had other sources of information regarding the Spanish nature and intentions.”  It appears the natives often offered support if they believed the Spanish were merely transient offering them water and food but hostile if they believed the Spanish intended to settle in their region.  Clendinnen suggested that two factors played into Mayan response to the Spanish the first being “whenever the Spaniards made unequivocal their intention to settle” led the Maya to revolt and the latter being “when they appeared as transients” the Mayan allowed the Spanish to “wander blindly through the forests.”(35)

In chapter 2, Clendinnen also suggested the explorers were also ambivalent to conquer this territory because it was found to not be profitable in gold, silver, or stones, but perhaps in encomienda and slave trade.  Clendinnen stated, “there was neither gold nor silver nor precious stones in the peninsula”. (28) The conquerors knew they could not send back vast wealth to Spain but be granted encomienda and accrue the closest wealth for themselves as possible.  This appears to be ambivalence toward the region from the view of a conquistador, not winning the great prize of Mexico, but settling for a lesser treasure in the Mayan territory that did not offer great wealth.  Once Montejo took command over the Yucatan area and most of the native uprising had subsided, at least temporarily, Clendinnen stated, “The encomienda system did not disturb the internal organization of the native political structures”. (38) Again, this provides further insight as to how the natives themselves would have this feeling of ambivalence towards the Spaniards. These statements together begin to reveal how the natives were for the most part allowed to live as they wished as long as they provided labor and tribute to the Spanish and how being exploited by the Spanish would also create uncertainty among them as well.    

Clendinnen continued by saying there were continuous native uprising but also acculturation and assimilation by the Spanish and the natives.  This idea is at the heart of this book; the continued conflict and yet mixed feelings towards the native population and the natives towards the Spanish colonists.  Once the Franciscans arrived there would be initiatives to convert the natives to Christianity.  In fact, Clendinnen suggested that the Franciscans would first work “within the context of coercion”. (47) By this the friars, would insist that the natives and their children would attend catechism.  This is another example, as to how the natives were no longer permitted to teach their religion but be transformed into Catholicism.  Clendinnen pointed out that the natives pretended to be teaching the way the friars would have them, but secretly would hold meetings to impress upon native ideology.  Clendinnen stated, “they pretended to teach Christian doctrine, and to marry, baptize and divorce their followers with fine disregard to the friars’ monopoly over those functions”. (58) Again, this revealed another example of native ambivalence toward the friars and their religious ideology. 

The friars themselves showed ambivalence towards the Spanish conquistadors and the manner in which they treated the native population.  Fray Villalpando demonstrated this in a letter to the Crown in which “he named and listed the delinquencies of ten encomienderos” and described in great detail the hangings and killings of the indigenous. (55) The friars showed ambivalence toward the encomienderos and they displayed the same toward the friars, especially when we look at the accounts by Francisco Hernandez.

Hernandez “charged the friar with having flogged some Indians so savagely that they had died”. (60) As Clendinnen pointed out Hernandez “had shouted aloud what many of his fellows had muttered”. (62) These examples further demonstrate the reason Clendinnen chose to name the book Ambivalent Conquests, Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570.