Aguirre, the wrath of God (wk 7a and 8a)

Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a movie of a famous director called Werner Herzog. This movie shows how was the trip for the Spaniards to Latin-America, and the search of the legendary city of gold El Dorado. In this film there are famous people like Lope de Aguirre, Pizarro, and others.

Werner Herzog was born on Munich, on the 5th of September of 1942. He studied history, literature and theater, but he gave up his studies later and began to make movies.

Aguirre Wrath of God is a very famous movie of Herzog. It’s a representation of a real story. It’s the story of the priest, he was one of the Spaniards who came to Latin America, and he wrote a diary of all the things that happened, so based on that text is how the movie was planned.

It starts when the famous general, Francisco Pizarro organized two groups, in one of them was Aguirre, the crazy man how shot his general, and began to rule that group, they were searching for the city of El Dorado. They thought that if they found it they would become very rich, because there it was all the gold, and richness. In the trip they found two Pre-Columbians, (this is shown in the movie when they were in a ship, and they saw a canoe, in that canoe there were two Pre-Columbians, a woman and a man, they had necklaces of gold) when they saw that, Aguirre asked them where they found that, and they showed them where, so they began to go in that direction.

Aguirre wanted to conquer that territory, but they were few Spaniards and it was impossible, to do so. The trip was very difficult also because of the weather and all the mosquitos and sickness that were in the Amazonas. At the end, all of them die because of all these problems, but at least Aguirre dies fighting for the thing he wants.

All the people think that for the Spaniards the conquest of America was easy because they had weapons, ships, a lot of men, but this movie shows that it was difficult for them too to conquer Latin America.

From Protected Shelters to Towns (wk6a)

After the XVI Century the Spaniards took control of Colombia, and they began to change everything: the religions, the language, the homes, all the things that composed Colombia.

Colombia is a new thing, all was radically changed by the Spaniards: “el pueblo debia tener una iglesia, plaza, y calles bajo la administración de un cacique y su población no debía superar los 300 vecinos” Colombia imágines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 76). If the Pre-Columbians didn’t obey the rules that the Spaniards imposed, then they became outcasts.

In the New World made by the Spaniards, the Pre-Columbians couldn’t talk in their own languages and also, they couldn’t have their own religions. Although they did all of these things in their homes when the Spaniards couldn’t see: “estas decisiones hicieron que distintas comunidades quedaran sujétas a un solo dominio centrado en la ciudad con su oicota su cabildo y su iglesia, tres simbolos del poder español en America” Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 78).

The Spaniards began to re- distribute the territories without thinking who was the owner of those lands and if that benefited them or not: “el espacio de la ciudad se convirtió en una trampa que enjaulaba diversos modos de vivir y de ser, diversidad que solo podria ser o parecer ser a la manera del regimen español” Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 80).The land they distributed was selected, so they took the land that was better, and to the Pre-columbians the rest.

When the Spanirds came, they lost a lot of money, so when the came they took the gold, the emeralds, and slaves to “pay themselves for their efforts”.
“La conquista no era pues solo predicar, enseñar la lengua y la buenas costumbres, sino que ella fue ante todo robar y expoliar la presencia comunitaria para hacer rentable la presencia de los españoles en America” Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 84).
When Colombia was all converted into Spanish colony, the Pre-Columbians had to work very hard, they where not slaves but they had to work like if they were, they worked from 12 to 14 hours a day, and it was a hard work.


So, Colombia has changed a lot, thanks to the Spaniards, all that changed were hard to accept for the Pre-Columbians. Is like being a complete different person, with different ideals, cultures, food, etc.

The change of languages (wk 5a)

The Spanish conquest of latin-america change the language of each Pre-columbian group to the Castillian (Spanish). The language is a very important thing for a country, it represents it, if that changes is like changing the entire nation, like converting it in another country!

When the lenguage change in Colombia it changed the culture too. At first when the native knew that the Spaniards didn’t understand anything they said, they began to translate their intentions and their knowledge. They did this by codes and signs. “Había aquí un ejercicio de transcripción y reducción del mundo Americano al mundo ibérico”. Colombia imágenes de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, Pg 56).

In XVI Century the use of the Castillian wasn’t standard, but in 1550 it was necessary to live. With this change in language, a lot of things change: like the religious centers, the politics, the relationship between the people and nature, and the economy.

One of the problems of why the language was changed was because each Pre-Columbian group had their own language and they couldn’t get together because they didn’t understand the other groups. When the Spaniards changed the languege, the groups began to talk with them between each other.

When the Spaniards came to Colombia they started a lot of fights for the power, and a lot of social confrontations. The American land was divided. “La ciudad no se circunscribia a un espacio factible de ser controlado por las autoridades residentes en ella sino que cubria un amplio numero de territorios haciendo que ellos se identificaran con lo que llegaría a ser una Provincia o Gobernación". Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, Pg 62). And they began to create more laws and began to pay more attention to the health and cleanliness. They also came to America with black people who became slaves. “Ser indio, suponía estar adscrito a un resguardo o comunidad, ser mestizo suponía vivir al margen de la comunidad indígena mientras que ser forastero era ser un desconocido, un migrante, alguien cuya residencia se desconocía” Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 64). The country became a pyramid in which the land owners, the dealers and the miners were in the top, in the low part were the trade of prostitution, criminality, and the household jobs. So the country “es un centro de relaciones inter-etnicas, en donde pobres y ricos se mezclan en un Mercado de ofertas y demandas laborales”. Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 65).

To end this week's essay, I whant you to think for a second and ask to your self: How would be Colombia if the language wasn’t Spanish, if each group had their own language? Would it be better or worse?