Movie Boycott -Stereotyping Native People

[Craig Berry]

On Sat, 22 Jan 2000 HJVsqzIMIS at aol.com wrote:

>     Friends in the Native American Community shared this with me.
[snip]
> Once there, they encounter an ignorant group of savages who quickly=20
> pronounce them ``Gods,=92=92 and an enticing, voluptuous native woman who=20
> quickly takes on the role of faithful sidekick. Then, of course, there=92s t=
> he=20
> fanatical native ``priest=92=92 who lusts for personal power and calls for h=
> uman=20
> sacrifice. Portraying native people in this fashion is like passing off Al=20
> Jolson and Amos & Andy as black culture.

I'm sorry, but it's hard to characterize the movie as distorted history
(any more than most entertainments based on history) based on the above
alone.  It is fairly clear that the possibility of Cortez being in some
sense Quetzalcoatl or at least his avatar or emissary did indeed
contribute to the Nahua paralysis in effectively dealing with the
Spaniards.  A native woman, Malinche, did in fact become Cortez's
"sidekick" in short order, and played a crucial role in the conquest.  And
native priests did in fact practice human sacrifice, and it's relatively
clear that at least in late Tenochtitlan mass sacrifice was used for
political terror as well as for religious purposes.

So, precisely what are your objections?

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   |   Craig Berry - cberry at cinenet.net
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