The Evangelization of Indigenous People in Spanish America: Motolinía and Las Casas

The aims is to highlight two divergent conceptions regarding the evangelization of the original peoples of Spanish America. In this sense, a comparison is established between the thoughts of the spanish franciscan friar Motolinía with the thoughts of the spanish dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas on the topic. The source is the Historia de los indios de la Nueva España (conceived from 1536 to 1541) and the Carta ao Imperador Carlos V (1555) by Motolinía as also the Único mode de atraer a todos los pueblos a la verdadera religion by Las Casas (written between 1523 and 1437). As a theoretical-methodological reference, we use the notions of the russian philosopher of language Mikhail Bakhtin. According to this author, there is only an object of thought and research where there is text. Every text has an author and this author has an intention. There is an interrelationship between the text and the author's context. For the russian philosopher, the work is a statement, as its author is always responding to the works of his predecessors, basing himself on and agreeing with the works of the same current, criticizing and combating the works of opposing currents.