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Daniel Mortimer

American Civilization

Section 8

January 26, 2010

Critical Analysis of When Jesus Came the Corn Mothers Went Away

There were many drastic changes that occurred in the Pueblo culture because of the Spanish invasion of the American Southwest. Only a few aspects that were impacted were mentioned in the book, such as marriage and religious traditions. Gutierrez took these simple aspects and focused on the changes that they went through over three hundred years of history. The author’s basic thesis statement is that the invasion of the Spanish caused a dramatic change in Pueblo marriage, religion, and political view by forcing Christianity and Catholicism into their homes and families.

There were not a lot of topics that were lightly covered within the book. Gutierrez mainly focused on traditions of religion, marriage, and politics among the Pueblo Indians and how they were eventually changed. That is one of the great strengths of this book. It gives us a strong look at how these basic traditions of the Pueblo Indians were before the Spanish invasion and after. It’s very interesting to see that Gutierrez would choose to focus on three aspects of life that have the most influence on each and every one of us today. He not only tells us that they had certain traditions for marriage, but he goes into detail about the arrangements that had to be made. He puts us through the entire process that a man and a woman would go through in order to be married, which starts on page 7. There is also a great amount of detail on the Spanish conquest and the influence that they had on Pueblo marriage, religion, and politics. Gutierrez sticks to his topic the whole time and does not vary from his main focus at all. The whole thing is mainly written as a chronological series of events that happened to this people as they dealt with the Spaniards. It is very organized and set up like a history book.

While Gutierrez goes into great details of the Pueblo...