El Indio essays

El Indio essays Throughout time, history has always had its conquests. We are told the stories in ways that makes us see them as good accomplishments. Therefore giving the label to the ones being conquered as savages and uncivilized people, and the conquistadors as the civilized society. Having this in mind we tend to see the so-called civilized as the good and the uncivilized as the bad. But we are never told how the conquests come about. What the conquistadors do to accomplish their conquest. How they kill and destroy in order to exploit these uncivilized societies, therefore penetrating and dramatically changing their lives. An author by the name of Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes tells the other side of the conquest in his novel called El Indio. There we are taken on a journey of how people are tragically caught in the tail wind of a civilization both alien and hostile to them. There we learn how these people (The Indians) are exploited by the whites, how their culture is destroyed, and how th ey, in the end were able to resist the oppression. These three points are important because they are the structure that holds up the story so the reader can gain a considerable amount of knowledge about what occurred during this clash of cultures. Lopez y Fuentes opening line, Terror swept through the village when the three strange men appeared (13) represents the beginning of all the exploitation and discrimination the Indians would be facing thereafter. Throughout the book the reader witnesses many instances of exploitation and discrimination against them. Early in the novel after the white mens arrival, the Indians are forced to leave their village and seek refuge in the nearby hills fearing the white man. After a while they come into an agreement and come back to the village but would have to deal with the authority of the whites from that moment on. Lopez y Fue...