The significance of Leslie Marmon Silko’s poem “A Long Time Ago” lies within the story told by the mysterious witch. The witch predicts the coming of the Spanish and the death and destruction that would come from their arrival. She defined certain characteristics of the Spanish such as how they viewed the earth as “dead”, taking as much as possible from it without giving back, and how violence was a direct response to fear. The story that this witch told was viewed as a curse on the pueblos that could not be defied. Oral tradition was a way of preserving history in pueblo tribes and this story was passed down a warning to future generations.
The racial diversity of Spain as described by Martha…show more content… The system of castas was a socio-racial classification that impacted every aspect of Spanish colonial life, including honor, taxation and marriage. This division was shown clearly and visually in all artwork and readings throughout colonial time. The Castas system revolved around four major categories of race: Peninsular, a Spain-born Spaniard; Criollo, a person of Spanish descent born in the colonies; Indio, a person who is descendent of the Native Americas and Negro, a person of African descent, usually a slave. Variations and combinations of these four categories had specific rank attached to them with the highest being a Spaniard born in Spain and the lowest being those of African descent that were brought to the colonies as slaves. Each socio-racial “rank” came with their own set of privileges and restrictions, both legal and customary. During Spanish colonialism, a long list of different terms were used to identify types of people with specific racial or ethnic heritages. By the end, over a hundred possible variations of intermixed race…show more content… Interracial marriage was used to move up this system of status. Any attempt to “marry up” the social ladder proved to be a struggle due to preconceived social judgment. Marriage was used as a vector for “blood mending”, or cleansing of blood lines through marriage with the goal of becoming more “white”. The Spanish were a “white” race and being of pure Spanish decent signified high honor and rank within the castas system. At first Spanish soldiers were encouraged to marry Indio people as a vehicle to spread Spanish culture and Catholicism. Eventually, after many hybrid systems emerged, Spanish born and American born women were forbidden to marry outside of their casta, while men were highly discouraged. This change was made in order to keep bloodlines pure and create a white, elite, and loyal class of people with no ties to the original Mexican
