Marc Simmons: Spanish suppressed Pueblos religion

Opinion

Monday, February 15, 2010

"Among the Pueblos of the Southwest, supernatural rain-bringers known as kachinas have long been at the heart of their religion. Masked dancers, impersonating various kachina figures, participated in ceremonies to ensure abundant crops and the people's well-being.

Spanish missionaries, however, viewed such rituals as devil worship and superstition. A major facet of their conversion program, therefore, looked toward wholesale destruction of the kachina cult.

During the first decades after the founding of New Mexico, the war against this particular Native practice, led by the clergy and backed by Spanish soldiers, met with considerable success.

By the 1650s, the offensive kachina dances were seldom seen, having gone secret, underground. Spaniards believed their campaign of suppression and destruction had worked.

Their elation, though, proved premature. In 1659, a new governor reached New Mexico, Bernardo López de Mendizábal. He quickly showed himself to be arrogant, self-serving and bitterly anti-clerical.

He claimed to have superior authority over the missionaries, which was not the case. When they refused to buckle to his demands, he attacked them at every opportunity.

In the matter of kachinas, or catzinas, as the Spaniards knew them, he found an issue he could readily exploit."

Get the Story:
Marc Simmons: Spanish governor backed kachina practices (The Santa Fe New Mexican 2/13)