The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative (review)

In The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative, Rolena Adorno offers an in depth appraisal of colonial writings to explain the pervasiveness of these texts in contemporary Latin American literary culture. She explores the manner in which colonial historians and polemicists left an intellectual legacy of issues pertaining to colonial legislation, just war, territoriality, and Amerindian rights. Adorno explains: "This study poses two main questions: What did the writers of the sixteenth century have to say on the subject of the polemics of Spanish territorial possession of the Indies? Does it matter today?" (3). In twelve chapters that include a comprehensive overview of the field, a lucid discussion of her critical approach, and critical issues underpinning her reading of sixteenth-century chronicles, Adorno makes the case for the intellectual significance of the crónicas. Essential to the rethinking of the early history and culture of the Spanish Americas is how Guaman Poma de Ayala, Bartolomé de las Casas, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, and El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega participated in an intellectual dialog that provided a central strand of contention that has resurfaced across time and space, particularly during the nineteenth century as the idea of the nation was defined and later recovered in twentieth-century historical fiction.

Adorno argues that the colonial intellectual legacy embraced through generations of intellectuals is part of a process of cultural self definition coterminous with the emergence of a critical attitude towards colonialism. She begins by clearing the field of commonly held misunderstandings of the polemics fueled by the protagonists and authors on whom she focuses. Chapter 3, "Bartolomé de las Casas: Polemicist and Author," is an obligatory reading for anyone interested in this sixteenth-century advocate of Amerindians rights. Adorno highlights the centuries of misreading and misinterpretations that have prevailed in the historical assessments of Las Casas. Revisiting colonial writings as a form of political and social practice, Adorno ably validates him as the central intellectual figure of the most important debates that define the sixteenth century's European contact with indigenous societies of the Americas. She reminds us of how Las Casas initiated a polemic that is central today in discussions of human rights, equality, and in the critique of the many forms of neocolonialism prevalent across the hemisphere. Most impressive in this book is Adorno's provocative reading of primary and secondary sources about this crucial figure, which support her arguments of how Las Casas has been represented in history and fiction. As shown in this chapter and the rest of the book, we cannot read sixteenth-century texts in isolation since they reflect the intellectual milieu of their times and the persistence of the debates in which they participated; this dialog is precisely what lies at the center of Adorno's project.

The challenges, successes and shortfalls of these historians are well represented in chapter four, "Councilors Warring at the Royal Court," which deals with the infamous debate on the humanity of the Amerindian populations and the justification of war and Spanish domination. If we take into account Anthony Padgen's critical positions on Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda's views or, those by George Mariscal, this chapter could be considered the most polemical part of this book. Adorno argues for a different perspective on Sepúlveda's views on indigenous societies by explaining how, while supporting the policies of empire, he presented a humanist perspective on the nature of Amerindian populations that was very similar to those of Las Casas, an imperialist viewpoint that was not as evil as it has been depicted. Adorno revisits Sepúlveda's positions in his Democrates Secundus (or Tratado de las justas guerras) to elucidate the arguments that form the basis of early discussions on the justification of military power, sovereignty and individual rights. At the core of these lie Sepúlveda's definition of natural slavery and the understanding of what it meant to be human, "the constellation of virtues...