Jammie Garcia LBS 375 March 24, 2011 The Violation of Native Californians by Spaniards When the Spaniards came and missionized the Native Californians, they made a lot of changes to their society and culture that affected them in many ways. The impact they had on the Native Californians was more evident in women. Before missionization, natives had their own sexual practices. However, the Spaniards came along and forced their own ideas on them and burdened them with sexual abuse. This brought about changes in Native Californians that even the Spaniards did not anticipate According to the text in Chapter One of Intimate Frontiers: Sex, Gender and Culture in Old California by Albert L. Hurtado, Native Californians lived in peaceful prosperity before the Spanish came. They had well-established rules for _, marriage and rulership. These rules not only provided partnership between two individuals, but also “provided kinship links that maintained prosperity and limited warfare...” (page 2) Therefore, marriage was an extremely important aspect of Native Californian life. Even though marriage was so important, either partner had the right to divorce if a spouse had committed an act of infidelity. This meant that men and women were on more equal standards than in the daily lives of the Spanish. In many cases, there were even female Chiefs of tribes. Sex wassomething normal for Natives, rather than being something to be hidden and ashamed of. There was no need for prostitution in Native Californian life, probably due to the fact that their current sex lives satisfied their desires. This, among other things, would soon change with the Spanish arrival One of the main problems was that the Spaniards did not understand the Native culture. One example is of the berdache, individuals who were biologically male, but that natives believed belonged to a separate gender that mixed male and female. Spanish soldiers arrested a berdache native, thinking that he was trying to pass himself off as a woman. They did not know, however, of the native berdache tradition, and the native also did not know what he was doing wrong Confusion probably accounted for a large part of the lack of success of the Spanish trying to Christianize the natives. Along with all their Spanish traditions and Catholicism, ‘they also brought sinful lust.” (page 5) Perhaps it was due to the fact that men would come to California and be without someone to fulfill their sexual desires. Nevertheless, Spanish soldiers often turned to rape. During the period of missionization, the rapes of Native women by Spanish men were a great problem that even Father Junipero Serra recognized, but could do nothing about. In many cases, priests observed that natives feared the Spanish. The natives told the priests that they were afraid because Spanish men would come in and rape their women “as they had already done so many times in the past.” (page 13) Most of the time, this was an injustice that went unpunished,since nobody was really out there to protect the rights of the natives, other than themselves. Even Father Serra himself made statements that appeared to blame native women for being victimized. He said that some were men of really poor character and that it would be a miracle if they did not consider taking advantage of a native woman when they had the chance. This seemed to imply that these men were this way and somehow it was up to women to prevent men from seeking out forbidden sexual acts. Not all native women were so reluctant to give in to Spanish men. Some native women unsuccessfully tried to use sex as a way of earning a marriage with a Spanish man. They thought that the men become attached to them as a result of sex and take them as brides. Unfortunately for them, this was not the case, despite the fact that the church encouraged martiages between Spaniards and natives, offering them a two year salary and rations for five years. This showed that Spanish men were more interested in lust than in starting productive family lives with native women. This intrusion into Native Californian life by the Spanish had a large impact on the natives. The natives put up resistance by running away, simply refusing to change, and sometimes even violently attacking the missions. In one case, natives were so fed up with the repeated rapes of their women, that a large group of them raided the mission in San Diego. During the raid, three Spaniards were killed, including Father Jayme, who had advocated for the natives before, even freeing a native man who had been imprisoned for speaking out against Spanish soldiers who had raped a native woman. Unfortunately for FatherJayme, he met his demise in which the native attackers “beat his face beyond recognition.” (page 14) Evidently, the natives were displeased with the actions of the Spaniards and reacted with violence. Violence, however, was not the only way that the natives responded Prostitution was introduced to them by the Spaniards, and natives saw this as an opportunity to “recover lost bride prices.” (page 16) It was even observed that many Chumash men had resorted to pimping out their women, including their own wives. Such a thing had rarely occurred before in Native Californian society. Now, seeing their female productivity threatened, maybe they thought that prostituting them was a good way of making them productive again. This was something brought on as a result of Spanish presence and forbidden sexual acts that they forced upon the natives, mainly rape. It is clear to assume that native women who were sexually abused during those times experienced some of the psychological effects that we can see today in women who are raped, such as fear of men or of sex, depression, and isolation. But far worse than that, Spanish women were exposed to sexually transmitted diseases, mainly syphilis, which killed a large number of natives. Since they had not been exposed to such diseases before, their immune systems could not handle the disease. Crowded mission life made this so much more dangerous because syphilis would weaken their defense systems, and frequent epidemics took their toll on natives. Sexual promiscuity among the natives made this problem even worse, and thousands of natives would die from these diseases. Missionaries could not prevent thespread of diseases. Instead, they simply recruited natives from further into the central regions to replace those that had died from syphilis and other foreign diseases. Native Californians had their lives interrupted by Spanish missionization. Whereas they had previously lived peaceful and prosperous lives, the Spanish came and began to change the way they lived. Rape was a major problem in the missionization process. The natives reacted to this in many ways that would change them forever.