I love irony.
Diversity can enrich any culture. The important thing to remember, however, is that all parties involved must be willing to accept the others - not just stomp them out and claim to conquer. In this case, the Indians were seemingly willing and hospitable while the Europeans were not so accepting. The nice guys do finish last, sometimes.
It seemed to me that Cabeza de Vaca truly cared for and appreciated the Indians, although he would rather not have lived the way they did. At least he appreciated them enough that he didn't approve of their being sold as slaves, anyway. Maybe it took him however many months living among them, being supported by them, for him to adopt this view.
Why was Cabeza de Vaca exiled? Why did his life finish in such disgrace? What did he do wrong? Was it because he befriended and fought for the Native Americans' rights? Or was he just punished for being one of the few survivors of the initial expedition that he set out on? Was he a "good guy"?
Nice comic :). I think it complements our conversation about the problem with languages of "tolerance" that we talked about in class.
ReplyDelete