For many centuries, the Black Legend shaped the accounts of Spanish colonization written by most English and American chroniclers. This conviction was that Spaniards were uniquely deplorable colonizers—greedy and corrupt, cruel and treacherous, fanatical and tyrannical—an opinion that had first taken hold during the sixteenth century in an England envious of imperial Spain's new power and wealth. But late in the nineteenth century, American historians rejected this interpretation—indeed, they embraced its opposite—a strongly pro-Spanish view of the New World's Hispanic past that celebrated the valor of explorers, the dedication of missionaries, the achievements of government officials. That challenge to the Black Legend performed the invaluable service of reminding people in the United States that besides the familiar cast of colonizers among the English, French, and Dutch, the Spanish had also made crucial contributions to their heritage. But it was also a perspective that romanticized Spanish colonialism, all to readily overlooking the toll taken on Native Americans by colonization.

This emphasis on Spain's "frontiering genius" dominated histories of the American Southwest until the 1960s. But thereafter, a new generation of scholars, many of them Chicanos, pointed out that most inhabitants of the Spanish Southwest were "mestizos" or Mexicans of mixed Indian and Spanish ancestry. These historians sought to recover the story of colonization as it was experienced by native peoples as well as Spaniards and to recognize that whatever "triumphs" Spain achieved often came at a terrible cost to the Indians. Telling that more complicated story of how cultures cooperated and contended with one another on the borderlands of Spain's empire does not mean reviving the Black Legend. But it is a call for recounting the history of the early Southwest fully, from both sides, an effort that will yield a richer understanding of what was gained and what was lost on this historic American frontier.

1			Read this narrative of Cabeza de Vaca's journeys through the southern regions of what would become the United States. What were the motivations of these Spaniards in undertaking this journey? Did they all share the same motivations? How would you describe the relationships among this group of explorers? How would you characterize their treatment of the indigenous people they met on this journey? How did the indigenous people receive them? Based on this document, do you perceive these men as heroic? Alternatively, do the implications of the Black Legend seem appropriate in this case? Why might historians find this document troublesome as a source of evidence? How might an investigator overcome such problems? http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/one/cabeza.htm
2			Now read the second document. According to this author, what do historians hope to learn from records of native testimony? How might their findings alter our understanding of the Pueblo Revolt and other elements of the Spanish occupation of New Mexico? Why are these scholars particularly concerned with the language of the natives? What do they believe this language can tell us about the culture that grew out of the interactions between the Spanish and the natives? http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2002-11/pueblorevolt.html