The author Graciela Limón wrote a compelling novel called “Song of the Humming Bird”, which discusses the struggles that indigenous people endured during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The author tells the history about the horror that the Aztec people witness and experienced, through the memories of a woman who witnessed the atrocities perpetuated by the white Spaniards. She also describes the encounters of two different worlds colliding, and that history having two distinct interpretations of events that happened during the Spanish conquest. I will be discussing how important it is to be mindful of someone else’s life experiences and how important they are to that person. I will also discuss about the violence that occurred during the conquest …show more content…
of Mexico, and the impact it had on the indigenous people and their futures. I enjoyed reading the novel from beginning to end, it made me hopeful in the sense that people from different races can change and acknowledge someone from a different race and have compassion towards them. As well as understanding that we are all humans and value the same things when the unknown is brought to light such as ones’ religion, customs, and traditions. I have seen truth within the book when it exhibited the actions that Huitzitzilin confessed to father Benito. Which was when someone experiences trauma, suffrage, and despair an individual will commit to horrendous acts in order to stay alive in a world full of disorder and chaos. The lesson I valued most within the novel was to have empathy and respect towards other races, and put aside our differences to bond and create unity throughout the nation. The book offers many life lessons that can impact students on many levels, regarding our previous accentors struggles and hardships they endured as well as being part classified as a minority in the U.S. “Song of the Hummingbird” demonstrates, the profound impact that different sets of principles, beliefs, and religion can have on a society of people that were classified as inferior.
These individuals were forced to assimilate into other beliefs and religion, and cast aside their own cultural beliefs that made these people different from the white race. Limón stated, “‘Senora,’ Benito spoke slowly, ‘you must forget the past beliefs and practices of your people; they are gone, never to return. More especially, those ways belonged to the devil; they were filled with sin.” (Limón, 23). This quote demonstrates how father Benito was insensitive towards another individual who didn’t share his beliefs or traditions, which caused him to act disrespectful and defend his dominance of this faith and race. I myself have experienced being chastised for my beliefs regarding religion. An incident had occurred with a very religious aunt of mine during thanksgiving, which led to a heated argument about my religious beliefs. Which were based on my atheistic views about any higher power that would be considered supernatural. I was told I would live an unhappy life and would not be under Gods protection if I continued to have “satanic” views. I chose to not associate myself with any type of religious beliefs, and in return my own family member attacked me for not believing in Catholicism as she did, or the rest of my family for that …show more content…
matter. During my life’s journey I have seen how important sharing my past experiences have been like in “Song of the Hummingbird” is true.
The lesson that applies to both my life and the novel would be how significant it is to understand the past experiences of other people, and acknowledge their hardships to be able to connect as well as having a deeper bond with them. Limón states, “Suddenly, the monk wished he had been born sixty years sooner so that he could have seen the city as it was during the days of the Indian woman’s people…A thought was taking shape in his mind as he fixed his eyes on one of the straps. Slowly, an idea crept forward into his consciousness, and he finally understood that something deep within him was beginning to share Huitzitzilin’s melancholy for what was irrevocably gone.” (Limon, 82). This quote is very significant in the sense that it provides an impact on father Benito’s major character development at the end of the novel. Thus, through the course of discussing the history Huitzitzilin’s experienced, he is realizing how vivid and significant her memories are in the eyes of an India women who witnessed the world with a different perspective. Ergo, putting myself in the shoes of others has allowed me to view and have different perspectives on the way I view life. It has allowed me to become a better person in the sense that I will not demean another person because he or she don’t share the same life experiences as I have. As well as not sharing the
same beliefs or racial backgrounds that label us to act hostile against one other, I have trampled over that level of oppressiveness. In doing so, I have tried to make every interaction I have with someone meaningful and pleasant. A lesson I enjoyed that was portrayed in “Song of the Hummingbird”, was the importance of altering one’s own beliefs or religion. Limón stated, “As he stood by Huitzitzilin’s side, the monk was touched by her spirit. He wondered if he returned to the cloister garden, to its shadows, would he be able to see her strolling with the people she had loved. The thought moved him to prayer, not one for a soul in purgatory, but for one in paradise: her paradise.” (Limón, 214). I liked this quote in the sense that father Benito had question the existence of spirits in our physical world when Huitzitzilin talked about the spirits she walked with in the cloister garden. Nonetheless, father Benito wished to see Huitzitzilin’s spirt walk among the cloister garden, meaning he changed his perception of the existence of spirits. Father Benito also thought about another existence in the afterlife after discussing it with Huitzitzilin, insisting our spirits did not enter a paradise as she mentioned, but were not to be located nor “discern”. (Limón, 176). However, he was influenced by cultural beliefs that the indigenous people had while the Spaniards did not practice in those beliefs. I have witnessed my own mother change her own beliefs about certain topics that she considered taboo, due to her Mexican conservative roots. She has accepted the notion of gay marriage after many conversations between my sister and I. I was amazed at how her beliefs on same sex marriage had changed and how it brought our family much closer.
Starting with the first chapter, Deverell examines the racial and ethnic violence that took place in the wake of American defeat. In no more than thirty years or so, ethnic relations had appeased and the Mexican people were outnumbered quickly (as well as economically marginalized and politically disenfranchised), as the second chapter discloses. The author examines a variety of topics to further his case but the most compelling and captivating sections of the book come into the third, fourth and fifth chapters. The third chapter focuses its attention
In this section his initial thoughts show through. “But losers matter, especially in the history of early America.” Many different regions of early America are examined in their years of early conquest when native populations started their descent. The biggest theme throughout the section is the effect that conquistadors and explorers had on the native population in their search for gold and glory. The information that is given is not typical of what is learned of early America, but tries to really focus on the most important figures of the time and there voyages. For example, when talking about the Plains nations and there explorers, Coronado and De Soto a tattooed woman woman is brought up who had been captured by both explorers at different times and different places, but little is known about her. “Of the tattooed woman who witnessed the two greatest expeditions of conquest in North America, and became captive to both, nothing more is known.” This point captures the main idea of the theme and what many know of this time. Horwitz aims to point out the important facts, not just the well known
“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
... A few photos of Tenochtitlan and warriors headdresses, clubs and obsidian blades would increase the pleasure 10 fold. Also in places the author tends to divert to other Ameriindian cultures and use their ritual practices as examples. These comparisons can bring the ritual practices of a 500 year extant culture into modern day belief.
In Graciela Limon’s novel, Song of the Hummingbird, Huitzitzilin tells her story as Father Benito listens. She tells Father Benito the native view of what has happened- she tells him things that he has never heard of from his people. Huitzitzilin and Father Benito are products of two different cultures: Aztecs and Spaniards, respectively. Limon portrayed that the Spaniards didn’t
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
Juliana Barr’s book, Peace Came in the Form of a Women: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. Dr. Barr, professor of history at Duke University-specializes in women’s role in American history. Peace Came in the Form of A Women, is an examination on the role of gender and kinship in the Texas territory during the colonial period. An important part of her book is Spanish settlers and slavery in their relationship with Natives in the region. Even though her book clearly places political, economic, and military power in the hands of Natives in the Texas borderland, her book details Spanish attempts to wrestle that power away from indigenous people through forced captivity of native women. For example, Dr, Barr wrote, “In varying diplomatic strategies, women were sometimes pawns, sometimes agents.” To put it another way, women were an important part of Apache, Wichita, and Comanche culture and Spanish settlers attempted to exploit
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...
Rosales, F. Arturo. Lecture 2/14 Film The US-Mexican War Prelude. Weber, David J. - "The 'Path of the World'" Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans.
The lesson I appreciated the most is that one should not give up on something they believe in, just
However, what words are being told in the Codex Mensoza 1964, Lám (Brumfiel 1991: 224) and more importantly what influential role did the Spanish heritage have in the artifacts? These credentials were offered as a form of recognition of Aztec women’s productive activities in Mexico. Nevertheless, Bromfiel paints a different picture of the Aztec women. In these sketches, Brumfiel draws our attention to the background in which the women are performing their “productive activities.” At first glance, these images portray Aztec women.
The corrido has been identified as having distinctive characteristics that make up its theme and plot. First, the corrido has a “context of hostile relations between Anglos and Mexicans along the border and the establishment of a scenic structure, geographical locale, and opposing social forces” (Mendoza 146). The corrido’s hero “is a hard-working, peace-loving Mexican, who, when goaded by Anglos, outrages into violence, causing him to defend his rights and those of others of his community against the rinches, the Rangers” (Saldívar). This hero “is quickly introduced in legendary proportions and defiant stature” and many people must die before the hero reaches his triumphant, but tragic, demise (Mendoza 146).
Life in Mexico was, before the Revolution, defined by the figure of the patron that held all of power in a certain area. Juan Preciado, who was born in an urban city outside of Comala, “came to Comala because [he] had been told that [his] father, a man named Pedro Paramo lived there” (1). He initially was unaware of the general dislike that his father was subjected to in that area of Mexico. Pedro was regarded as “[l]iving bile” (1) by the people that still inhabited Comala, a classification that Juan did not expect. This reveals that it was not known by those outside of the patron’s dominion of the cruel abuse that they levied upon their people. Pedro Paramo held...
Furthermore, a broader lesson of these works of literature would be to just get out there and live. Step off the stage, step out of the tower, and hide the mirror. Perhaps take a chance once in a while. Do not just go through the motions of life, and live it to the fullest extent. One can lead a more happy, fearless life if he or she can really go out and experience it.
Think about the hummingbirds, also known as Flying Jewels. The book “Joyas Voladoras”, by Brian Doyle, talks about hummingbirds, Blue whale's, heart chambers and emotions, that relate back to us. The author says that hummingbirds are beautiful and fragile, while Blue whales are the biggest animales. The author also says that some creatures have 1, 2, 3, 4, or even elivane chambered hearts, but Unicellular bacteria have no hearts. In the last paragraph he talks about emotions and are hearts. The author has a message that he is trying to give through his essay. The message is that we look at the small things in life, but we have less knowledge about the big ones.