Luis N. Rivera-Pagán

Luis N. Rivera Pag n en su libro Historia de la conquista de Am rica: Evangelizaci n y violencia nos describe c mo este libro se concibi en medio de los intensos debates sobre el quinto centenario del "descubrimiento de Am rica". Esos debates estimularon y fertilizaron la investigaci n hist rica sobre los pueblos americanos. Tambi n propici la publicaci n de grandes textos relativos al descubrimiento y la conquista, algunos in ditos durante varios siglos. El libro se divide en tres partes. La primera --Descubrimiento, conquista y evangelizaci n-- relata los hechos desde una perspectiva cr tica, ante la cual se desvela el v nculo ntimo entre el descubrimiento y la conquista, como una toma de posesi n de tierras y personas, legitimada por conceptos, im genes y s mbolos religiosos. La segunda --Libertad y servidumbre en la conquista de Am rica-- analiza los elementos centrales de la gran porf a te rica de la conquista: la licitud de la abrogaci n de la autonom a de los pueblos abor genes y los sistemas de trabajo forzoso --esclavitud y encomienda-- que se les impuso, tanto a ellos como a las comunidades africanas que se importaban en gran n mero, como seres desprovistos de libertad pol tica y autonom a personal. La tercera --Hacia una cr tica teol gica de la conquista-- intenta desarrollar justamente lo que su t tulo sugiere: una evaluaci n no paneg rica de la conquista a la luz de los conceptos, im genes y s mbolos evang licos que ella misma enarbol como su paradigma de legitimidad. History of the conquest of AmericaLuis N. Rivera Pag n in his book, The Conquest of America: Evangelization and violence, describes how this book was conceived in the midst of the intense debates on the fifth centenary of the "discovery of America". These debates stimulated and fertilized historical research on the American peoples. It also encouraged the publication of the great texts relating to the discovery and conquest, some of which had remained unpublished for several centuries. The book is divided into three parts. The first - "Discovery, Conquest and Evangelization"- relates the facts from a critical perspective, revealing the intimate link between discovery and conquest, as a takeover of land and people, legitimized by religious concepts, images and symbols. The second - "Freedom and servitude in the conquest of America"- analyzes the central elements of the great theoretical challenge of the conquest: the lawfulness of the abrogation of the autonomy of the aboriginal peoples and the systems of forced labor -slavery and encomienda- imposed on them and on the African communities that were imported in great numbers, as beings devoid of political freedom and personal autonomy. The third - "Towards a theological critique of the conquest"- attempts to develop precisely what its title suggests: a non-panegyric evaluation of the conquest in the light of the evangelical concepts, images and symbols that the conquest itself raised as its paradigm of legitimacy.

These essays emerge from different crucial and complex conflicts: from the memory of a bishop, Bartolome de las Casas, urging the pope of his time to cleanse the church of complicity with violence, oppression, and slavery; from the lament and defiance of so many Middle Eastern women, victims of male domination and too many wars; from the voices bursting out from the colonial margins that dare to question and transgress the norms and laws imposed by colonizers and conquerors; from the emerging and diverse theological disruptions of traditional orthodoxies and rigid dogmatisms; from the denial of human rights to immigrant communities, living in the shadows of opulent societies; from the use of the sacred Hebrew Scriptures to displace and dispossess the indigenous peoples of Palestine. The essays belong to different intellectual genres and conceptual crossroads and are thus illustrative of the dialogic imagination that the Russian intellectual Mikhail Bakhtin considered basic to any serious intellectual enterprise. They are also the literary sediment of years of sharing lectures, dialogues, and debates in several academic institutions in the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, and Palestine.