Alina Maria Dumitru

About identities and the red color

When Worlds Collide its a film that introduces the problem of identity. Its not only about worlds
colliding, its about identities colliding. Its about the consequences of that collision. And its not
a story about us, Europeans and them, the natives. Its about us, the all of us. Even after centuries
and despite the distance, we can still feel the consequences of the European expansionism and of
the discovery of the New World because, since then, we are aware of the Other and we are aware
that we are not alone. And also, they are aware of us. But what about them, the natives and the
Europeans at the end of the 15th century? They were put in the front of each other even if they
wanted to or not. They became aware of each other and their own otherness. Until then, they
were aware of their own gods and their own world and, respectively, of their own God and their
own world. Otherwise, maybe the things would be different and in this moment this event would
not be about collision anymore. Because collision is not about a peaceful homogenization. Here
comes the difference which is something that contributes to the will of affirmation of identity as
better and superior than the others. And thats what they both were claiming in their own way.
But there were differences between the way Europeans perceived native people from America
and the way native people perceived the Europeans. From the start they were gods for native
people, with not-for-cooking bowls on their heads. But they were not superior because of their
race. Its only by chance that Europeans were more technologically and genetically evolved. As
Jared Diamond puts it in Guns, Germs and Steel because of the geographical conditions,
Europeans technology and immunity was that much developed in comparison to the Native
Americans so they conquered.
They conquered wearing the gonfalon in the color and elements of their identity (like values and
beliefs). The mediums in which their identities were made known in the world were through
physical power (technology) and with the persuasion of the moral identity in the name of God
(also made partially with war). And maybe the most decisive way in which they conquered
natives was through sweeping off a huge part of the population through diseases which also put
in contrast the genetically superiority of the Europeans. The title of the documentary is, then,
suggestive using the term collide. But collision has a negative nuance. On the one hand, for the
natives the negative nuance is accurate because people died, a part of the natives cultural

Alina Maria Dumitru

identity was lost, the beliefs and traditions were not very well preserved. On the other hand,
regarding the Europeans, the consequences were on their side. But this is not a bad or good thing,
this is the way things are supposed to be because our decisions made us who we ar. The keyword is acceptance and the important thing is to make the best of it. The question is whether the
Europeans really did the best of it or not. Or maybe if the Spaniards did the best of it or no. In
terms of their goals, the answer might be yes. They exploited manual labour, precious metal
mines, vegetables and so on, as well as the cochineal. The cochineal and its exploitation by the
Europeans in that time maybe is not so well know as it is the exploitation of gold. Anyway, by
1570s business with cochineal was one of the most dynamic enterprises in Europe1.
Not only the Spaniards took advantages from it but also Italians, Venetians and a big part of
Europe. In that time, Charles Quint, being a ruler of a huge empire, was in need of money but in
the same time it was too risky to raise too many taxes and in this context he became interested in
cochineal and in this way to boost the Spanish textile industry. But as we find out from A Perfect
Red, Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire, by Amy Butler Greenfield, not
the Spaniards are those who took advantage from this insect but merchants from Europe, Italians
and other European artistic centers2. Cochineal was appreciated among other goods like gold.
The conquistadors made no effort to develop the cochineal trade, not even in the cultivation of
cochineal3 maybe because the Spaniards had to learn from the Indians and as Greenfield
suggests, being in a subordinate position was something avoidable for the conquistadors 4. The
Seville merchants, being in the business of dyes trading accepted cochineal and in this way the
cochineal made its way to the Italians who were in search for a beautiful red dye. 5 In this way

1 Amy Butler Greenfield, A Perfect Red, Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of
Desire, HarperCollins e-books, 2009, p. 76.
2 Ibidem, pp. 51-52.
3 Ibidem, p. 57.
4 Ibidem, p. 66.
5 Ibidem, p. 72.

Alina Maria Dumitru

Cosimo de Medici became the sponsor of a well-known Italian dyer in that period 6. The
cochineal red from the New World became well-known even in Antwerp because cochineal, in
other words, was the closest thing Europe had ever seen to a perfect red 7 and the market for red
dye remained important even if the fashion changed8.
This is an example of how a good imported from the New World became of great importance in
the trades. But only the insects were exported from there, not the way the natives used the dye
and its symbolic role. The traditional usage maybe partially got lost with the time, along with
many natives who knew the secrets of their immaterial cultural heritage that cannot be easily
understood and exported. The symbolical usage of cochineal and its importance in rituals and
other forms of manifestation was not exported and its traditional significance was diminished
while the importance of cochineal merchandising and the material exploiting among Europeans
increased. This is the way in which the most powerful showed its superiority by exploiting only
the goods but not preserving something which is not theirs and difficult to understand. If the
Spaniards were reticent about learning the way cochineal was cultivated, the reticence when it
came to traditions they did not understand was even bigger if not threatening.

Bibliography
Diamond, Jared, Guns, Germs and Steel, W. W. Norton & Company New York London, USA,
1999.
Amy Butler Greenfield, A Perfect Red, Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of
Desire, HarperCollins e-books, 2009

6 Ibidem, p. 73.
7 Ibidem, p. 76.
8 Ibidem, p. 79.