“The Two Shores” by Carlos Fuentes is a novella discussing Hernán Cortés’s conquest of Latin America. This novella is narrated by Jerónimo de Aguilar who shares his story from the grave. Aguilar presents these multiple personalities to go in sync with the title “The Two Shores.” This paper explores the ability of Fuentes to write a story of the blending of two cultures, hence the title. Fuentes creates a theme of “dual identity” through the character, Jerónimo de Aguilar by introducing a two-faced nature: siding with both the indigenous and the Spaniards. Jerónimo de Aguilar has experienced both cultures, Aztecs and the Spaniards, which creates his position throughout the story. Aguilar had set sail with men to conquer the Aztecs. When they …show more content…
arrived they had shipwrecked leaving Aguilar a lone survivor. He was taken in as a slave by the Aztecs and eventually was integrated into their society. When Cortés arrived, Aguilar went back to the Spaniard society, but was left in question. Aguilar suffered from mixed loyalties and now tells his story in the past tense from the grave. Furthermore, the title of the novella, “The Two Shores” is represented by this such occurrence. The different shores portray Spain and Latin America.The ocean in between the shores represents the joining of the two different societies to create modern day Mexico. In a sense, Aguilar exemplifies the merge of the two countries. Aguilar betrays Spain as he continues to praise his adopted indigenous culture even after he is taken back by Cortés. The narrator begins by elaborating on the impressive size of the Aztec empire compared to Spain: “I saw the burnt water of the lake where stood this Great Tenochtitlán, two times the size of Córdoba” (Fuentes 3). Aguilar proves his devoted love for Latin America when he praises how great the land is. He explains that the land is so great that not even the Bible mentions it: “No one among us had ever seen a city more splendid than Moctezuma’s capital, neither in the Old World nor in the New...things never seen by us, things not mentioned in the Bible” (Fuentes 14). Following Aguilar’s admiration for the land he shows his love for the King of this land: “Moctezuma patted my hand and offered me a ring as green as a parrot. I gave it back and told him that my love for his people was reward enough” (Fuentes 18). As Aguilar continues to show his adoration of his “past” land, he even criticizes Spain. This criticism explores how Spain ruined the new land by hurting his “brothers”: “A bouquet of plagues bestowed upon me by my own Indian brothers in exchange for the evils we Spaniards visited on them” (Fuentes 3-4). Aguilar is also famously known for betraying Cortés to save the indigenous people: “‘There is no danger,’ I said to Cortés, knowing there was danger” (Fuentes 28). Aguilar demonstrates his glorification and preserving of the indigenous lands for the one side of his “faces.” The other identity of Aguilar is his Spanish roots, which although he discriminates sometimes, at other points he associate himself with the.
Aguilar introduces himself noting his heritage: “But you will ask me, Jerónimo de Aguilar, born in Ecija…” (Fuentes 45). The constant reminder of where Aguilar is from is reminded to us when he uses certain pronouns. Aguilar continuously uses “our” and “we” to describe his stance: “We were all witnesses to the way our commander took the lion’s share and promised us soldiers rewards at the end of the war” (Fuentes 8). As he claims his territory of his men, Aguilar also discusses Spain’s great army: “...in which fewer than six hundred valiant Spaniards subdued an empire nine times larger than Spain in territory and three times larger in population” (Fuentes 6). After discussing this, Aguilar even defends the Spaniards for their deeds: “Is there any justice, I ask myself, in all this? Did we do nothing more than give the gold of the Aztecs a better destiny by pulling it out of its sterile occupation and spreading it around…” (Fuentes 8). Aguilar shows this alter ego of adoring the Spanish side of his heritage. Moreover, this proves his “dual identity” by defending both sides of cultures that Aguilar has been able to
experience. Throughout “The Two Shores” we understand Aguilar’s inner struggle with dual identity. Aguilar begins with his deception as a translator: “...and I reveal myself before posterity as a falsifier, a traitor to my commanding Cortés” (Fuentes 10). This gives Aguilar a basis of an overall feeling: “I translated, I betrayed, I invented” (Fuentes 10). Aguilar blames his betrayal on his language. After eight years of living with the Aztecs, Aguilar unfortunately loses his native language: “I mean to say that I speak Spanish. It’s time to confess that I had to relearn it, because after eight years among the Indians I almost lost it” (Fuentes 34). In the end, Aguilar is able to face his battle by affirming his dual identity: “Did I rediscover myself when I returned to the company and language of the Spaniards” (Fuentes 34)? This affirmation concludes the purpose of the two identities as a unifying experience. The sense of “dual identity” is a unification: “...the Spanish language appears as a master language, a universal standard against which a diverse set of non-coeval languages and their derived cultures can meet and coexist” (Ribas 146). The purpose of the two identities shows the birth of a new culture, Mexican. Although people claim the betrayal is a horrible deed, in this novella, no one can clearly blame Aguilar. Aguilar is the reason that Spanish is one of the dominant languages of the world today. From a historical standpoint, Aguilar initiated cultural diffusion by mixing the two worlds. Blame may be placed on Aguilar for his slow down of the conquest, but in the end he was saving lives and creating a new culture.
Portilla starts out by giving a thorough background of the culture and religious beliefs. The reader can draw many theories on how this carried over to the Aztecs way of thinking and fighting. In addition to the religion and culture, Portilla shows the technology advantages the Spanish had over the Aztecs. He also goes on to describe the poor leadership of Motecuhzoma. Motecuhzoma will be portrayed as a coward. Portilla also writes about the strategy that worked rather well for the Spanish as they made alliances with the Tlaxcalatecas and other cities. He finally talks about plague that wiped out much of the Aztecs. This may have been the greatest factor in the fall of the Aztecs Empire. All of these factors combined effectively show how the Spaniards prevailed over this great Aztec Empire of the 15th and early 16th century.
“The Conquest of New Spain” is the first hand account of Bernal Diaz (translated by J.M. Cohen) who writes about his personal accounts of the conquest of Mexico by himself and other conquistadors beginning in 1517. Unlike other authors who wrote about their first hand accounts, Diaz offers a more positive outlook of the conquest and the conquistadors motives as they moved through mainland Mexico. The beginning chapters go into detail about the expeditions of some Spanish conquistadors such as Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, Juan de Grijalva and Hernando Cotes. This book, though, focuses mainly on Diaz’s travels with Hernando Cortes. Bernal Diaz’s uses the idea of the “Just War Theory” as his argument for why the conquests were justifiable
Author’s Techniques: Rudolfo Anaya uses many Spanish terms in this book. The reason for this is to show the culture of the characters in the novel. Also he uses imagery to explain the beauty of the llano the Spanish America. By using both these techniques in his writing, Anaya bring s the true culture of
The downfall of the Aztec Empire was a major building block of the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. Spain’s empire would stretch all the way into North America from the Southwest United States all the way up the Pacific Coast. The unfortunate side effect of this was the elimination of many nations of indigenous people. The three major themes shown in this conquest really give deeper look into the anatomy of this important historical event. Without context on the extent of native assistance given to Cortez in his fight with the Aztecs, a reader would be grossly uniformed. The Spanish conquest was closer to a civil war than an actual conquest. Until reading detailed personal accounts of the fighting it is difficult to judge the deadly effectiveness of the Spaniards technological superiority. Without it is difficult to imagine 500 conquistadors holding thousands of native warriors at bay. Once the greed of Cortez and greed in general of the Europeans one understands that if it wasn’t Cortez if would have just been a different man at a different time. Unfortunately fame and prosperity seem to always win over cares about fellow human beings
She discusses about a historical text that “has a few points in common with baseball cards” (318), in which it was published by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. The manuscript contains a mixture of Quechua and Spanish, and is addressed to King Philip III of Spain. Guaman Poma’s letter is split into two parts: the first of which is called Nueva coronica, “New Chronicle,” and serves as “the main writing apparatus through which the Spanish presented their American conquests to themselves” (319). This first half of the text introduces one distinctive phenomenon of the contact zone: the autoethnographic text, in which it involves collaborations with people from different social and intellectual backgrounds “to create self-representations intended to intervene in metropolitan modes of understanding” (320). “New Chronicle” rewrites the Christian history and the Spanish conquest to paint a new picture of the world, where the Andean people lie in the center, not the Europeans. At the end of the first half, Guaman Poma argues that there should have been a peaceful encounter between the Spanish and the Inca, thereby forming a potential for benefiting both parties, not just one. Finishing explaining Guaman Poma’s letter, Pratt quickly connects his letter to the contact zone, making an argument that the art of the contact zone illustrates a picture of the oppressors, the Europeans, from the oppressed, the Andeans’,
Torres used specific words to convey the emotions of how the boys felt concerning their heritage; the boys felt as if they were outside of the loop. Therefore, they did not know what they belonged to or where they fit in. Their physical traits did not match up with the culture that they were trying to identify with –the Hispanic heritage. Yet, they wanted to find a way to belong. Furthermore, the theme also contributed to the identity aspect of the characters. Through their diction, readers, like myself, were able to draw important subject matters. In addition to word choice and themes, Torres applied various amounts of literary devices to drive his messages home, consequently enabling readers to understand the point of the passage, without giving up more information than needed. Close reading this particular passage gave me a better appreciation for what authors write, how they interpret their emotions, and how they execute their
Bowden’s idea of why this happened focused mainly on the old misunderstood traditions of the tribes living in Mexico. He shows how the friars, churches and icons took the blunt of the revolts force. Bowden points out the religious differences and similarities be...
Author Mariano Azuela's novel of the Mexican revolution, The Underdogs, conveys a fictional representation of the revolution and the effects it had on the Mexican men and women who lived during that time. The revolutionary rebels were composed of different men grouped together to form small militias against the Federalists, in turn sending them on journeys to various towns, for long periods of time. Intense fighting claimed the lives of many, leaving women and children behind to fend for themselves. Towns were devastated forcing their entire populations to seek refuge elsewhere. The revolution destroyed families across Mexico, leaving mothers grieving for their abducted daughters, wives for their absent husbands, and soldiers for their murdered friends. The novel's accurate depiction also establishes some of the reasons why many joined the revolution, revealing that often, those who joined were escaping their lives to fight for an unknown cause.
of the native tongue is lost , certain holidays may not be celebrated the same , and American born generations feel that they might have lost their identity , making it hard to fit in either cultures . Was is significant about this book is the fact it’s like telling a story to someone about something that happened when they were kid . Anyone can relate because we all have stories from when we were kids . Alvarez presents this method of writing by making it so that it doesn’t feel like it’s a story about Latin Americans , when
Rostas, S. (1991). The concheros of mexico: A search for ethnic identity. Edinburgh University Press, 9(2), 3-17.
Cortes’ attitude and that of his men present a stark contrast to Polo’s account, whi...
Luis Valdez's Los Vendidos. "Los Vendidos," which translates from the literal Spanish to "The Sold Ones" or a more appropriate translation of the title is "The Sell Outs. " This is a satirical play written by Luis Valdez and performed by "El Teatro Campesino," which translates into "The Farmworkers’ Theater." El Teatro Campesino, founded by Luis Valdez in 1965, was a group of California farmworkers who put together "Actos," or "Skits." These "Actos" were made mainly to entertain "striking farmworkers, support them in their marches, and attract public attention to their strikes and organization" (http://www.pbs.org/chicano/bios/lvaldez.html).
Julia Alvarez was an example of how a Latina writer identified herself in a new culture outside of her comfort zone. She, as a Dominican Diaspora, had to reinvent herself as she migrated into a new scenario. Her assimilation into the United States culture allowed her to understand and relate to the reader’s needs and points of interests. After all the effort, Alvarez kept in mind that she could not comfort to all the reality that she lived in, so she re-reinvented herself all over again to process her thoughts and beliefs into her life. She put her perspective on her writing so that the new wave of readers, even if they did not understand, could relate in some way and appreciate the differences. The sole purpose of her writings was for everyone to change their perspective from “walk to the other side of the street in order to avoid sharing the same sidewalk” to “I do not know them, but I do not avoid them because I do not know them”. She instilled in her reader’s mind how ordinary events were viewed differently through other cultures’ eyes. Her story Snow was a great example of how she portrayed her technique.
In life it is necessary to have fantasy, because without it, life would be dull and meaningless. Life would be so different without dreams, since they are what motivate humans to keep on moving forward in order to achieve their goals. This is what Jorge Luis Borges is trying to explain to the reader in the book Ficciones which is very confusing, but also very deep in meaning. These stories demonstrate a theme of reality vs. fiction which is fascinating because in many of the readings fantasy is required at some point to accomplish a purpose or goal. Each unique story hides a meaning in the text which is a lesson to be learned. The confusion that is caused is similar to a labyrinth in which the reader gets lost. The message is hidden within the story so; it causes confusion to the reader. Events in the story suggest that the story is fiction, because most of the stories have existent scenery. The timing in some stories is from an event or tragedy that has occurred around that date. The reader realizes later on in the stories that unrealistic events began to occur which are impossible to take place in real life. This is when our minds become entangled with facts from our world and others form the impossible.
Though perhaps not as accomplished as his fine novels, the early short stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez accurately embody the atmosphere of the 20th century. His Kafkaesqe visions deftly blur the line between the real and the unreal, the physical and the imaginary. The psychological and philosophical torment of his characters reverberates throughout the work of many other modern authors, and these stories serve as an auspicious beginning to a remarkable career in world literature.