Vicente Soto
Professor Skuban
Latin Am Hist Film
14 March 2018
Coloniality in Latin America Throughout the films La otra conquista, The Mission, Camila and Embrace of the Serpent, depicts Latin American society during and after colonialism. The impact that colonialism left on Latin America, continued to prosper once colonialism had ended, known to many as “coloniality”. The objective of these films were to show the legacy that colonialism had left behind. There are many forms of colonialism throughout these films, ranging from the first encounter in La otra conquista, to already knowing the colonizers in Embrace of the Serpent. In this essay, it will discuss and explain the types of coloniality that were still prevalent throughout Latin America.…show more content… The Spanish’s’ main goal was trying to get the Aztec people to subdue to their demands, both in a spiritual and physical conquest. During the colonizing of the Aztecs, the Spanish were trying to impose the religion that they had brought over which was Christianity and tried to get the Aztecs to stop worshipping to their Goddess. One particular scene that shows Spanish colonialism is when the Aztecs are sacrificing a young woman to the Goddess by taking out her heart, then they were caught in the act by the Spanish and Father Friar Diego. Following that scene, Topiltzin is laying in front of the Goddess statue, when it is thrown over and is destroyed and then replaced with the statue of the Virgin Mary. This specific scene displays the Spanish superiority over the Aztecs, both in the physical world and as well in the spiritual world. In Bartolome de Las Casas writings, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, he writes to the King of the atrocities that are occurring to the people of the New World. Las Casa states, “They are innocent…show more content… Colonialism in Latin America was always there, but over time the type of colonial mindset changed. There were many forms of what coloniality left, ranging from La otra conquista, where the Spanish main goal to convert the Aztecs to Christianity, The Mission in which the Guarani were depicted as giving into the faith without a fight, Camila which is a dictator/patriarchal society and lastly, Embrace of the Serpent, where Westerners, specifically the United States, tried pushing their own agenda in Latin America. In conclusion, the legacy that colonialism had left in Latin America continued to thrive and prosper far after the very first