Diego De Landa: The Conquistador Priest
When Ideas are in Control
Written by Bryan Zampella
In their time, the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors were revered, as national heroes. Of course, there are more complicated perspectives about the American conquests to consider. Modern day morals do not exactly align with 16th century ethics. Particularly, many people today are highly critical of the forced religious conversion of the Mayans from their spiritual costumbre or “customs” to Catholicism. However, even the most educated of the old world, many of whom were of the clergy, in the 1500’s, still had an incredibly limited amount of information about reality. This article attempts to view the Mayan conversions through the eyes of Diego de Landa, who was the conquistador priest tasked with converting the Mayans to Catholicism. While reading this article, it is important to concede that forming optimal ideas have a higher probability, when there is access to a greater amount of information, and neither the conquistadors nor the Mayans had access to a large trove of diverse data.
The year was 1549, when a Spanish Franciscan Priest by the name of Diego de Landa arrived in the Yucatan, the ancestral homeland of the Mayans. We know this area today as the Mayan Rivera between Cancun and Tulum. It is important to note, that Diego de Landa does not have google, television, or cameras to gain foresight of the Mayan culture. He has most likely gathered much of his information, through word of mouth, from conquistadors. Most of his knowledge will be acquired from actual observations and interactions, with the Mayan inhabitants themselves.
Let’s begin our imaginative journey and put ourselves in Diego de Landa’s boots, as he enters the Mayan city of Chichen Itza. In 2007, Chichen Itza was voted as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. In modern times, the impressive Mayan city is a 2-hour bus ride from the many beach resorts, of the Yucatan peninsula. But for Diego de Landa, it would have taken days, struggling through an inhospitable jungle to reach the city. Upon entering Chichen Itza, Landa would see numerous statues honoring serpent gods. According to his Catholic beliefs, the Mayan reverence of the serpent would undoubtedly invoke ideas of Satanic worship. In the Old Testament, Christians believed that Satan came in the form of a serpent to tempt Adam and Eve. Diego de Landa would have been shocked, to see what he would have interpreted, as an entire society, that is idolizing the devil. In addition, to the stone serpents that adorn Chichen, Itza, there are also monuments in veneration of Venus. According to the Mayan religion, Venus was the god of war, but curiously in Christian cultures, Venus is known as the morning star, which is also synonymous with Satan.
“How you have fallen from heaven, O Morning Star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you once laid low the nations!” — Isaiah 14:12
Continuing with our pretend session of viewing the world through Diego de Landa’s limited religious perspective, it would be safe to assume, that we would be mortified with all of the seemingly satanic imagery present throughout the Mayan culture. Remember we are still a 16th century priest for the next few minutes.
As we would walk around the city, we would encounter hundreds, if not thousands of human skulls, many of which had come from the human sacrifice rituals of the Mayans. The Mayans would use intact skulls to decorate exterior walls. Many of the cut-out grooves are still present today. After being bombarded with Satanic imagery, Landa might feel a thirst come over him, and he may be interested to see, the unique source of drinking water that quenches the native’s thirsts. He would be shown the Mayan’s cenotes, which are underground caverns, that contain naturally filtered fresh water. Today, they are fun places to swim. Upon viewing the cenotes, Landa might think to himself, that this would be a great place to conduct baptisms. However, he would soon learn that many of the cenotes were being used to sacrifice men, woman and children, to the Mayan God, Chaac. In fact, some of the cenotes were not fit to drink from, because rotting human remains were present in them.
In the absence of new ideas people become prisoners to limited ideas. To combat suboptimal ideas, better ideas must be available. In the case of Diego de Landa, the people of his time would have limited access to ideas. For some perspective, Sir Francis Bacon would only discover a version of the scientific method in 1620, so Landa would not be privy, to much in the way of science. The lack of science available to Landa cannot be overlooked. With the lack of science came an incredibly limited perspective, that we would have difficulty conceptualizing in modernity. However, we must conceptualize the limited access to information, to understand the zeitgeist of Diego de Landa. Science, in its purest form allows for dissent, which is numerous ideas vying for optimality.
In the 1500’s there was religion, and dissent towards religion could result in being ostracized, tortured or even being put to death. Much like the Mayans were chained to their religion, the conquistadors and Padre Landa were bound to theirs. Not only were alternative ideas unavailable, but even if there had been sprouts of new ideas, the watering of those ideas, could lead to one’s death.
As the Mayans were suffering with smallpox, the flu and other diseases brought by the conquistadors, Landa having no idea about microbiology, would have undoubtedly believed that his god was punishing “these devil worshipers” with plagues described in his bible. Perhaps, he even thought that by converting the Mayans to Catholicism, that he may save them from god’s wraith.
Both the Spanish and Mayans were working with limited ideas, but it’s all they had access to. The Mayans conquered for their gods just as the Spanish conquered for theirs. What many do not consider is that Landa was as radical in his belief of Catholicism as many of the Mayans were radical about the appeasement of their gods through torturous sacrifice. Landa did not believe in the type of liberal Catholicism taught today. His version of Catholicism was forged and protected by violent action. Landa grew up in a world, where only a few years before the American conquests, the Christians, had through warfare vanquished a Muslim caliphate from Spain.
Today, many people are critical of the American conquests, which is not the problem. The problem is that we can see the world through numerous lenses, but all too often choose to limit ourselves, which could augment resentful perspectives. In modernity, we possess an almost omniscient techno enabled cache of knowledge. Our current abilities to retrieve information would have been looked at, as a magical power by both Diego de Landa and the Mayans. It is important to utilize modern technology, so that we may control our ideas through the constant discovery of better ones, and not be controlled by old ideas.
