[Gocamino] Slavery in the Americas

[Donald Schell]

dear friends,

My impression is that the 16th and 17th Century in Spain was an 
amazing, creative, and also often terrible time.  Though the New World 
has a number of city's bearing the name 'Santiago,' my impression is 
that it was also a time of decline for the Camino.

Did the great 16th Century spiritual writers walk the Camino or 
encourage others to do so?  I know that Teresa of Avila and Juan de la 
Cruz walked all over Spain establishing and ordering their new 
religious communities (and fleeing the Inquisition), but I don't know 
of any connection between their own spiritual practice and writings and 
the Camino.  I think Ignatius Loyola included pilgrimage as one of the 
formation stages for novices in his community (seems obviously 
influenced by the Camino tradition, but he didn't see it need be  to 
Santiago).

The dark and hard dimensions of that time included Ferdinand and 
Isabela's decision to consolidate their new Catholic kingdom by forced 
conversion (and eventually expulsion) of Jews and Moors, Spain turning 
its back on the Christian humanism of Erasmus (who had been very 
influential there during his lifetime) and denouncing anyone interested 
in individual religious experience as 'Erasmian' or 'Lutheran,' the 
moral and economic challenges of suddenly becoming the largest (and 
maybe richest) empire in the history of the world, religious wars that 
flared up and eventually engulfed Europe (making travel to Santiago 
impossible for Protestants and extremely difficult for Catholics).  
Teresa and Juan are fascinating figures because both of them continued 
to believe in and practice a much more inclusive Catholicism, knowing 
(it appears) welcoming converted Jews and Moors into their religious 
orders.  Teresa's father was Jewish and the family's title and ancestry 
had been purchased by her grandfather when he fled Toledo.  Juan seems 
to have been a Morano.  Scholars debate whether either of them knew 
this about themselves, but there's at least some indication that both 
did.

On top of all this, there is the vexing questions of African slavery 
and the subjugation and frequently, yes, enslavement, of indigenous 
peoples in the Americas.  Philip II, a ruler who, like some today, 
believed he had a direct divine mandate,  considered the huge amount of 
stolen gold coming in from the Americas as God's gift to Spain to make 
a larger and more powerful navy than anyone had ever seen, specifically 
to invade England and overthrow Elizabeth I's Protestant reign.

Spain and Portugal led Europe's incursion into the Arab slave trade in 
Africa.  England followed as an obvious step in their effort to compete 
with their Catholic neighbors to the south and become a world power.
	http://www.lascasas.org/manissues.htm gives a fascinating history of 
Bartolome de las Casas and his heroic (and ultimately unsucsessful 
effort) to undo the introduction of slavery to the Americas and prevent 
its expansion there.  We are indebted to him for his effort to record 
the abuses of Spanish colonial armies and mercantile ventures.  I've 
heard that some scholars accuse las Casas of presenting any and every 
allegation of Spanish abuse and killing of indios he may find as fact 
in order to strengthen his case.  Nonetheless, he is regarded by many 
as the first advocate for what we now think of as 'human rights,' and 
his legal, rhetorical, and writing efforts did get Spain to outlaw 
slavery (on the law books, though less in practice).  Mexico's 1829 
constitution abolishing slavery was probably the first such national 
constitutional effort and almost certainly led to the Southern inspired 
Mexican-American war in 1848-1849.  Las Casas' earlier effort seems to 
have been the first statutory abolition of slavery, from a perspective 
of Christian theology and ethics, a major piece of unfinished business 
from the early Church.

Has anyone found real history of the Camino in this period?  Knowing 
that a good number of newly titled nobility went to the New World 
partly because the papers declaring their 'old Christian' status had 
been purchased recently enough that people in other towns might 
remember (Teresa of Avila's brother became such a conquistadore), I 
wonder if suddenly going on pilgrimage to Santiago (and maybe quietly 
returning to another town) was a way others got out of town when 
gossip, suspicion and in the Inquisition were closing in.  All these 
themes and references echo through Cervantes' Don Quixote, and so far 
as I remember, there is no mention in it of Camino, pilgrim, pilgrimage 
or Santiago.  Anyone know better? (correction would be welcome).  By 
the time Cervantes is writing, the damage is almost complete.  The 
flood of stolen gold squandered on the armada is beginning to dry up.  
Empire and military occupation of colonies have redefined the country.  
The Inquisition has a stranglehold on the universities and the 
Renaissance has moved on to other parts of Europe, though arguably it 
began in Spain from rich encounter of Catholic, Jewish, and Moorish 
intellectual traditions.

Certainly it's a pilgrim's partisan perspective, but it does rather 
feel that turning from the Camino/pilgrim tradition in the 16th century 
eventually destroyed Spain's power and ossified its culture AND (maybe 
a big stretch, but interesting to think about) that the steady renewal 
of the pilgrimage with its first beginnings right after the Spanish 
Civil War, by re-Europeanizing Spain and renewing local and 
international interest in the amazing history before 1492 has 
contributed profoundly to the renewal of Spain, Spanish culture, and 
helped Spain reclaim its legitimate place among the great nations of 
Europe.

love,
donald

donaldschell at saintgregorys.org
www.saintgregorys.org