Benson Latin American Collection

This essay’s objectives are to explore the possibilities of the legends of Prester John, Quetzalcóatl and Viracocha being ideologically connected, ostensibly serving the same imperial purpose in the conquest of non-European countries, and the failed experiment by the Spanish and Portuguese to extend this legend into Asia.  Furthermore, this essay will examine the consequences of these possibilities in terms of language and writing post-conquest history.  In that sense, the purpose of Prester John, much like the legends of Quetzalcóatl and Viracocha was to justify the occupation of these lands by Spanish and Portuguese for the benefit of the Christian world. 

Our theoretical sources are primarily drawn from the works of Walter Mignolo, Cornel West, and Guy Rozat Dupeyron.  Our historical sources include: Robert Silverberg, Bernardino Sahagún, Christopher Columbus, and Hernán Cortés.
Our methodology is to question the historical validity of indigenous myths written ex-post facto by the colonizer, in the language of the colonizer, and in the explicit interests of the colonizer.

Our main results have shown that whereas the Asian/African quest to aid Prester John could be seen as a way to rationalize entry into, and (sometimes) conquest of foreign lands (a pre-conquest justification), the New World challenge would require a new strategy, manifesting itself as a post-conquest justification of European domination and indigenous subjugation, through a manipulation of their histories, religions, and (possible) prophecies.  The experience common for both Aztec and Incas societies was an invasion of their world by the unknown, causing each society to actively seek out an explanation for this seemingly implausible experience.  This, we posit, was all too readily offered (or at least manipulated) by conquistadors, colonizers, and missionaries.

a obra completa del escritor dominicano Marcio Veloz Maggiolo está marcada por comentarios sociopolíticos, principalmente referentes a sus denuncias del trujillato y las intervenciones estadounidenses en Santo Domingo. En relación a lo anterior, novelas como El prófugo (1961), Ritos de cabaret (1991), Uña y carne (1999), y El hombre del acordeón (2003) y ensayos como Trujillo, Villa Francisca, y otros fantasmas (1996) explícitamente retratan un entorno en el cual la dictadura de Rafael Leonidas Trujillo afirma su autoridad mediante el uso de violencia. El hombre del acordeón, como ejemplo, muestra un pueblo dominicano fronterizo que fue víctima de la masacre de 1937 en la que Trujillo ordenó el genocidio de entre 20.000 y 35.000 trabajadores haitianos en la República Dominicana. El trujillato ha sido uno de los temas más destacados y estudiados de la literatura dominicana de los siglos XX y XXI y entre este tipo de producción antitrujillista destaca la de Veloz Maggiolo como han notado los estudios de Nina Bruni, Néstor Rodríguez, y Neil Larson, entre otros.1