Copyright by Emiro Filadelfo Martínez-Osorio 2009
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Copyright by Emiro Filadelfo Martínez-Osorio 2009 The Dissertation Committee for Emiro Filadelfo Martínez-Osorio Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Poetics of Demonization: The Writings of Juan de Castellanos In the Light of Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana Committee: Cory A. Reed, Co-Supervisor James Nicolopulos, Co-Supervisor Naomi Lindstrom Jorge Canizares-Esguerra Susan Deans-Smith The Poetics of Demonization: The Writings of Juan de Castellanos In the Light of Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana by Emiro Filadelfo Martínez-Osorio, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2009 Dedication In memory of Emiro Ascanio Martínez Montes To Heather and Amelia Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to all the members of my committee for their enthusiasm for colonial literature and for their insightful suggestions on how to broaden my approach to the writings of Juan de Castellanos. To Rebecca Castellanos, Jorge García, Medar Serrata, María Alejandra Zambrano, Scott Spinks, Francisco Plata, and Alana Greene, for their unwavering support and friendship. To my friends Luis Rafael Zarama and Tim Lytle for accompanying me in every step of the way. To my family in Colombia, Hortensia, Martin, Gilberto, Pedro, Francesca, Isabella, and Emiro for inspiring me to pursue my dreams. To Mary, Sam, Maggie, Steve, Wayne, Diana, and Megan for welcoming into their families with open arms. To my wife Heather N. White, for her love, dedication, and sense of humor. We have embarked upon so many journeys during the past ten years, and I can’t wait to embark in many more journeys with you. To Amelia Rosa Martínez-White for filling my life with love and laughter. v The poetics of Demonization: The Writings of Juan de Castellanos In the Light of Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana Publication No._____________ Emiro Filadelfo Martínez-Osorio, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 Supervisors: Cory A. Reed, James Nicolopulos In this dissertation I offer an analysis of the ideological significance of Juan de Castellanos’ writings in light of the epic model provided by Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana. My main goal is to demonstrate that, unlike Ercilla, Castellanos embraced and manipulated the resources at the disposal of epic poets not only to praise the deeds and defend the rights of the first wave of colonists, but also to challenge the policies of Hapsburg monarchs concerning the administration of the recently established Viceroyalties in the New World. Hence, this dissertation aims to foreground the complexities and ambiguities of a text that bears evidence of an internal ideological fissure that significantly shaped Spain’s political and territorial expansion and contributed to the emergence of a new type of literature. If epic, as has been persuasively argued by Elizabeth B. Davis “was invaluable to the ruling circles of the imperial monarchy, who used it to forge a sense of unity and to script cultural identities during the period of expansion and conquest” (10), then the heroic poems written by Castellanos on behalf of the conquistadors and encomenderos represent the boldest attempt to turn the most vi prestigious vehicle of Spanish imperial propaganda, epic poetry, into a tool for the expression of colonial political concerns, a project which included but was not limited to the deployment of aggressive practices of poetic imitation, the expression of a new sense of selfhood, and the demarcation of a new sense of patriotism. Nevertheless, from its inception Castellanos’ project was also plagued by many contradictions, most of which are the result of his nostalgia for the values and practices commonly associated with the warrior nobility of the feudal era, and by the constraints imposed by simultaneously having to point to and erase the trace of Ercilla’s text. vii Table of Contents List of Illustrations...................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1: LITERARY FORM, IDEOLOGY, AND THE WRITINGS OF JUAN DE CASTELLANOS......................................................................................1 CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................38 CHATER 2: RECONSIDERING JUAN DE CASTELLANOS ‘IMITATION’ OF ALONSO DE ERCILLA’S LA ARAUCANA.............................................39 THE MAIN TRENDS IN JUAN DE CASTELLANOS’ WRITING...........46 THE AUTHOR / PROTAGONIST / NARRATOR AS A PRIVILEDGED EYE WITNESS OF THE CONQUEST AND EARLY COLONIZATION OF THE NEW WORLD............................................................................47 THE DEFENSE OF THE OLD CONQUISTADORS (BAQUIANOS) ......52 THE CRITICISM OF JUDGES AND ADMINISTRATORS .....................60 TRUTH AS THE NEW AESTETIC CATEGORY......................................64 THE REPRESENTATION OF INDIGENOUS CULTURES .....................71 CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................75 CHAPTER 3: PIRACY AND THE EPIC IN THE DISCURSO DEL CAPITAN FRANCISCO DRAQUE ..............................................................................80 THE POEM...................................................................................................87 THE FIRST CANTO ....................................................................................88 THE SECOND CANTO.............................................................................102 THE THIRD CANTO.................................................................................112 THE FOURTH AND THE FIFTH CANTO ..............................................139 THE DISCURSO DEL CAPITAN FRANCISCO DRAQUE AND LOPE DE VEGA’S LA DRAGONTEA.............................................................145 FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE DEMONIZATION OF THE ENGLISH ENEMIES ..........................................................................................147 CONCLUSIONS.........................................................................................149 CHAPTER 4: EPIC AND THE DEMONIZATION OF AMERINDIANS ........153 THE STORY OF CAPTAIN JUAN DE SALAS AND IBERIAN TALES OF CAPTIVITY. .....................................................................................161 viii THE TROPE OF COLONIZATION AS SPIRITUAL GARDENING......171 THE USE OF THE CROSS AS A WEAPON AGAINST THE DEVIL ...180 THE TROPE OF CANNIBALISM ............................................................185 CONCLUSIONS.........................................................................................196 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................198 Bibliography ........................................................................................................203 Vita .....................................................................................................................209 ix List of Illustrations Frontispiece to Juan de Castellanos’ Primera parte de las Elegías de varones ilustres de las Indias (1598)...................................................................160 x Si tomamos en cuenta la multifacética realidad social neogranadina, lo que suprime Castellanos es quizás tan importante como lo que escribe. - Luís Fernando Restrepo CHAPTER 1: LITERARY FORM, IDEOLOGY, AND THE WRITINGS OF JUAN DE CASTELLANOS The Spanish impetus for imperial expansion during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries served as the catalyst for the creation of numerous works that stand out today as some of the best examples of Colonial and Golden Age Spanish literature.1 In recent years scholars like Cory A. Reed, James Nicolopulos, and John Beverly have explored the imperial or anti-imperial significance of works as thematically and aesthetically diverse as Miguel de Cervantes’ Numancia, Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana (1569, 1578, 1589) and Luis de Góngora y Argote’s “Soledades,” respectively. The juxtaposition of Reed’s, Nicolopulos’ and Beverly’s analyses illustrates the almost 1 Throughout this dissertation I use the terms ‘empire’ and ‘colony’ tentatively. Several critics have reminded us that the universal Christian monarchy ambitioned by Spain was not an ‘empire’ in the strict sense of the term. As Anthony Padgen points out “there never was, of course, a ‘Spanish Empire.’ Although contemporaries sometimes referred to the territories over which first the Habsburgs and then the Bourbons ruled as an empire, and although in many respects the administration of those territories was an imperial one, they were always in theory and generally in legal practice, a confederation of principalities held together in the person of a single king… The Americas, as the criollos, the American-born Spaniards, were later forcibly to remind their king, were never colonies, but kingdoms, and- and in this case they were unique- an integral part of the crown of Castile.” See Spanish Imperialism and the political imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1990. See also Rolena Adorno’s “Reconsidering Colonial Discourse for Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Spanish America.” Latin American Research Review 28.3 (1993): 135-145; and the articles about colonial discourse edited by Walter Mignolo and Rolena Adorno in Dispositio XIV 36-38 (1989). 1 unavoidable interest of Spanish writers in the theme of imperialism and