From Conquest to Reconciliation

     Since losing all my books in San Antonio airport, I’ve had to pick some from the little library we have here in the house. First I read Paulo Coelho’s book The Witch of Portobello. I remember liking his other book, The Alchemist so much I read it straight through, so I was excited to read another one of his books. It was pretty good, but I’m not sure if I completely agreed with the message of the book which seemed to be, “Be yourself and do what you think you need to do, no matter what the consequences are.” Yes, I agree you should be yourself. Yes, I agree you should fight for the things you want. But to deny the implications of your actions, all for the sake of self-fulfillment, goes a little too far for me. 

That mode of thinking is evident in the second book I’m into now called The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie. It’s really interesting so far, and has given me a lot of insight into the history of Peru. It’s also a historical fiction so it’s like reading a novel instead of a history book.

 So far, the Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, have discovered a small kingdom on the outskirts of the Incan empire, called Tumbez, returned to Spain in order to seek more funding and to claim sole authority over the future conquest of Peru.  

While Pizarro was gone, the Incan emperor Huyan Capac died of small pox brought by the Spaniards, although not from Pizarro and his crew, but from Hernan Cortez and his men who had recently overtaken the Aztec empire in Mexico.

His sudden death led to a bloody civil war between two of his sons Atahualpa and Huascar. Eventually Atahualpa Inca prevailed and was poised to take the throne, just as Pizarro returned from Spain.

 They rendezvoused in the city of Cajamarca and Atahualpa was immediately impressed by the Spanish horses and he decided that he and his army would either kill or take the roughly 150 Spaniards prisoner, and then breed the horses for his kingdom’s own use. 

Sadly, for Atahualpa, he had no fear of the underdog, and thousands of his troops (including most of his imperial forces) were quickly defeated by the Spanish cavalry in a bloody massacre, and Atahualpa was taken prisoner.

Captured Atahualpa, noticing the Spaniards obsession with Incan gold, then drew a line, well above his head, on the wall of a large room, saying that he’d have it filled up to the line with gold for the Spaniards. He hoped that in turn he’d receive his life and the marauding Spaniards would return to the unknown land they came from, and leave him to rule his newly inherited kingdom.

Needless to say, things didn’t quite turn out they way Atahualpa wanted. Just as Pizarro’s men melted and distributed the last of his temple treasures into gold ingots, Pizarro’s reinforcements arrived. As soon as Atahualpa realized that the Spaniards had no intention of ever leaving his land, he is quoted as saying “I shall die,” and then wept openly at his misfortune.

And he was right.

Soon after, one fateful evening, a friar held a small breviary, or prayer book, up to Atahualpa, who had been chained to a wooden stake and would soon be burned alive.

The friar asked Atahualpa Inca if he repented for his barbarian sins, and would accept the Christian God into his heart. Atahualpa, not understanding the friar, but clearly understanding his predicament, began to sob, begging Pizarro to take his two young sons and care for them as his own.

Once the friar assured him that his children would be cared for, Atahualpa agreed to convert to the Christian faith.

So instead of being burned at the stake, he was strangulated.

As the sun set over the Incan empire, Atahualpa Inca’s citizens wept, throwing themselves at the feet of their deceased god-king.

I know. Sometimes, our past is hard to swallow. Were the Incans these purely good-natured, peaceful, loving people? No, they were pretty harsh themselves. Their empire was built through blood, sweat and tears. Does it justify the way the Spanish treated them? Not at all. It’s hard to say what should have happened. Pizarro was born, poor, in a very rough area of Spain, and was determined to make something of himself. No matter the cost. No matter the amount of carnage he loosed upon the world.

And he did make something of himself. He became ridiculously rich. And in his mind, he even gained his wealth in an honorable way. To him, he was helping enlarge the Christian empire.

My problem is the attitude that an individual knows what’s best for his or herself, without taking into consideration what effects their desires may have in the larger scheme of things.

“I’m going to get what I want. That’s all there is to it.”

Doesn’t sound very Christian at all, does it?

I know that I’m only one person. And I know that over the next two years, I’ll only have added a small contribution to betterment of Chimbote, and Cambio Puente. But after reading about the violent conquests in the name of Spain and in the name of Jesus Christ, in some way, I feel like I’m here to repair some of the damage done by my forefathers. To seek some kind of reconciliation for the actions of past “missionaries” done in the name of my religion.

How am I going to do that?

First, I’m going to get in the habit of thinking out what it really means to be a Christian. How can Christ’s message, his beatitudes, impact the way I live my life. I figure that’s a good start. After that…hopefully, the next step will fall into place.