"Good Indians", "Bad Indians", "Good Christians?": The Dark Side of the New World in Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés"

Abstract

Rather than distill the imperialist argument in which ultimate goals determine cultural understandings in a somewhat monolithic fashion, I want to explore the discursive flaws and moral contradictions of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo's writings. These contradictions stem from his post as a royal chronicler of the Indies, which pitted him forcefully against the diabolical Indians while exalting Spain's providential design, on the one hand, and Oviedo's own criticism, which led him to criticize the arrogance, greed and military incompetence of some Spanish conquistadors, on the other.