Clendinnen, Inga. Ambivalent Conquests. Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570.

Cambridge/ New York/ Port Chester/ Melbourne/Sydney: Cambridge University Press,

1987.
Journal by Jaime Vargas Luna

Clendinnen’s book is a very stimulating work on the complexities of the colonization of

the Mayan in the Yucatan peninsula throughout the 16th century. The author explores

the transformation of the Land of the Turkey and the Deer, as the inhabitants of the

Yucatan peninsula called their land before the arrival of the Spaniards, into Yucatan, the

name Spaniards gave to the land because of a confusion of tongues. And she goes into

this transformation by examining the relationship among the three main collective

actors: the conquistadors (and later on settlers), the missionaries (“spiritual conquerors”)

and the Mayan inhabitants of the peninsula, using as the turning point of her narrative

the discoveries of idolatries and the trials that followed in 1562.

The book is divided in two parts: Spaniards, and Indians. In the first part, Clendinnen

studies the Spaniard actors through Spanish records to show the internal conflicts

between civilian lords and religious missionaries, specifically Franciscans in regard of

who and how would rule the region and the Indians, showing how in a first moment

Franciscans were the defenders of the Indians of the abuses of the lords, but with the

discovery of idolatries, the Franciscans became the abusers and the lords the denouncers

and, indirectly, assumed their role as defenders of the Indians. This part shows the

tensions between Spaniards in regard of power and authority, as well as the processes of

negotiation between local and central power and with the meanings of conquest itself. In

the second part, the author tries to discover what the Mayan meant with their actions in

regard of the idolatries, and trough that in regard of Christianization and the Spanish

conquest. In order to do that, she compares Mayan and Spanish records, reading the

latter “against the grain”. By doing that, she tries to show that Mayan appropriation of

Christian elements was complex: on the one hand they could incorporate the Christian

religion while rejecting Spaniards conquerors; and on the other hand, they could
incorporate Christian forms to keep practicing their old Mayan-meaningful rituals. In

the overlap of these processes Clendinnen finds the ambivalences of the Yucatan’s

conquest. Each of the collective actors sought and found their own way to live and rule

in the Yucatan peninsula, adapting themselves to the other actors in a climate of

permanent tension but still of “normal” coexistence. However, the events of 1562 made

evident these profound cultural confusions and tensions about power.

Even though Clendinnen’s book is more about the relationship between Spaniards and

Indians, the most powerful insight for me lies on the way she explores the tension

between civilian Spaniards and missionaries, because my previous knowledge on the

issue was very poor and because she clearly shows the tension about power and how, at

least in regions that are not very well controlled by the central government, these

tensions can result in the acquiring of power either way, depending on specific actors, as

friar Landa in this case.