Contrary to the belief held in the writings by Francisco López de Gómara that the Indians regarded the Spaniard as divine gods, the author of the article “Burying the White Gods: New Perspectives on the Conquest of Mexico”, Camilla Townsend provides a detailed and new perspective showing that the Indians never regarded the Spaniards as gods.
Here, Camilla Townsend’s argument on the assertion by that Francisco López de Gómara that Mexicans viewed the Spaniards as the Quetzalcoatl god who had returned home after travelling to be a wrong belief and without scientific evidence. Camilla Townsend endeavors to establish the true foundation of the origin of the thought that the Spaniards were gods and to dispel the wrong belief by arguing that that the Indians regarded the Spaniards as real people.
In the article, Camilla Townsend seeks to explain that the Indians were equally intelligent as the Spaniards, and that intelligence was not a factor that led them to belief that Spaniards were gods. In this article, it is evident that the Indians had a lot of concerns and wanted to know the background of the Spaniards, the real intentions they had, and how they were different from them.
According to Camilla Townsend, the argument that the Indians ever held the belief that the Spaniards were gods was because Francisco López de Gómara authored an article without conducting detailed research and lacked scientific facts to support the argument. In Camilla Townsend’s perspective, scientific facts showed that the gaps in technology, the different levels of technology, and the need to bridge the technological gap that existed between the Indians and the Spaniards explains the existence and the reason for the durability of the myth.
It is evident that the Spaniards had superior technology that enabled them to be victors of the land against the Aztec. The Spaniards migrated to Mexico from Europe with superior agricultural technology, which they had to perfect and use. In addition, the Spaniards migrated to Mexico with advanced tools such as armory, swords, spears, and advanced sea faring capabilities which enabled them to communicated and replenish their supplies from the mother country.
Because of the Spaniard’s advanced technology compared with the technology of the indigenous people, it was incumbent upon the Indians to accept the Spaniards and live with them harmoniously or to be at war and see their property and lives destroyed and ravaged to the ground. It is also clear that the Indians were intelligent contrary to the belief that the Indians lacked of intelligence.
Evidence shows the Aztecs were intelligent people based on observations made on the accuracy of their calendars, poetry, gold works, and pictoglyph books. Typically, the Spaniards brought diseases which later infected the local Indians who had generously welcomed the Spaniards to live with them. The Spaniards however, were not good people because of the destruction and pain they caused the local Indians.
Throughout the article, it is clear that technology was the tool that made the Spaniards superior to the Indians and not the fact that the Indians ever regarded the Spaniards as divine gods. The Spaniards had technological superiority that gave the victory over the Indians. Here, the Spaniards were better equipped technologically than the Indians, the basis for the sustained durable myth that the Spaniards were regarded as gods.