The Making of Latin America Blog

Hi Seth! I really enjoyed your post. I like your point about the film industry romanticizing pirates. Prior to some high school history classes and our discussion this week, how I viewed pirates was primarily from these fictional accounts. Back then, I though characters like Captain Hook from Peter Pan epitomized what pirates were like, when that's not actually the case. You mentioned Spanish treasure ships, which made me think of all the treasure ships that sank in the Caribbean. It would be awesome to go exploring to find some of these ships. I really liked your post!

This week, I enjoyed our talks about pirates. I found how people became pirates to be interesting, especially the fact that some volunteered after their ship was raided. This got me wondering what happened to the rest of the crew after a ship was attacked. After a little digging, I found a few interesting points. First, apparently the fate of the crew depended partly on the nature of the pirates that attacked them, but especially on whether or not there was an actual fight. If the crew of the merchant vessel gave in without a fight and let the pirates take what they wanted, the pirates would typically just leave and let the ship keep on sailing. If there was any sort of fight, however, things changed. Obviously some of the crew would most likely die in the fight, but the ones that survived didn't have the best options. Some opted to join the pirates, but those that didn't were either killed on the spot, killed later, or sold into slavery. This makes me wonder whether those that...

Hi Amanda! I totally agree that it's ridiculous to only blame the woman for an illegitimate child. It takes two to make a child, so the fact only one, the woman, receives the blame and the man gets off free is crazy. I found your point about the lack of control to be very interesting. It makes me think that maybe the woman was blamed because the man in control over her wanted to cover up for his mistakes.

 This week I found our reading on Catalina de Erauso to be very interesting. It really demonstrated to me how willing people were in that time to defend the honor of their name. On page 49, Erauso gets called a lier. In response, they immediately draw their dagger and a fight breaks out. This is only one of many occasions when Erauso's dagger or sword is drawn in response to an insult. Obviously, insulting one's name was intolerable, because it resulted in so many fights. Fighting to defend one's name, though must have been common practice, because on page 25, Erauso accepts and invitation to help Juan de Silva in a duel. This duel was most likely because insults had been thrown, and they had decided to duel to try to preserve their honor. In this instance, Erauso's brother is killed by Erauso, which is a sad turn of events. I can't say I would enjoy living in a society where any argument could break out into a full-blown sword fight just over the honor attached to ...

  Hi Victoria! I liked your point about using a club from a horse. Trying to swing a heavy club and stay mounted on a horse would take some serious skills! It definitely would not be the optimal way to win a fight. I totally agree that the Inca weapons were just as lethal for combat with other natives. It probably wouldn't take a very hard hit to injure or kill someone who had no metal protection like the Spanish, which the natives did not have.

 This week, I really enjoyed reading the Royal Commentaries of Inca Garcilaso. My favorite part occurred during the account of Atahualpa's trial, where a native, to inhibit Felipillo from being able to alter what he said, only gave one word answers to the questions asked, and nodded or shook his head to correspond with the meaning. I found this interesting, as this native was able to circumvent the power of the translator. In accounts like this, we see the power resting in the hands of interpreters. If they desire, they can change the meanings of what people say or make up things on the spot. Felipillo is a great example of this. The account describes Felipillo, in order to have Atahualpa killed, fabricating the rumor that Atahualpa was trying to muster military support. This means Felipillo had a clear goal, and that was to have Atahualpa killed. One of the reasons Atahualpa will eventually be killed is due to Felipillo's important position. Because he is the translator, he ov...

  Hi Seth! I totally agree on the new perspective on history. This is the most in depth I've ever studied this history, and there are many details that are completely new and interesting. I think it's interesting that you pointed out the difficulty the Spanish had in the conquest. It makes sense that they would, as they were vastly outnumbered, but I also had the assumption it was quick and easy for them because of their military superiority. It was kind of shocking to me to read in The Fifth Sun about the chaos that really occurred. When Narvaez arrived to replace Cortes, and Cortes frantically left the city to capture him, leaving some men that would soon be attacked, it struck me at how bad the invasion was going at that point. It had never really occurred to me that the militarily superior Spanish would have had such troubles, as that was never mentioned in past history classes.