Bartolomé de las Casas: biography of this Spanish friar and chronicler

Protector of the Amerindians, de las Casas was one of the most important social reformers.

The discovery of America in 1492 marked the beginning of a new era for humanity as a whole.

For this reason, the accounts of those who experienced this event firsthand are invaluable. Bartolomé de las Casas was one of the most important chroniclers, as we will be able to see in this biography of one of the main figures of the conquest of America.

Brief biography of Bartolomé de las Casas

Bartolomé de las Casas was born in Seville, around the year 1474 or 1484, since this information differs according to the different historians who have compiled information about his life. His family was of French origin. The knight Bartolomé de Casaux settled in this area after helping King Ferdinand III of Castile to reconquer these territories. He later changed his surname, Casaux, to the Spanish version, Las Casas.

This gentleman would give birth to the lineage of Bartolomé de las Casas himself, born two centuries later. For several generations, the members of this family had relevance and relationship with the nobility and even different kings. It is believed that he received his education at the Colegio de San Miguel, where he experienced an approach to the religious world.

After completing the first academic stages, he moved to the University of Salamanca, where he studied state and canon law.. Precisely in the convent of San Esteban, located in the same city as this university, there was a relative of Bartolomé de las Casas, who acted as a liaison to introduce him to Christopher Columbus himself, who was staying there.

In fact, Admiral Columbus had a long-standing relationship with his family, as he had also lived in Seville. So much so, that in the first expedition, that of 1492, which would finally connect the whole world, one of the crew members was Juan de la Peña, who was the brother of Bartolomé's father. From this voyage, Columbus and other members of the expedition returned with seven people from the Indies, and different specimens of animals.

Christopher Columbus toured the peninsula to show his findings to the Catholic Monarchs. During his stop in Seville, Bartolomé de las Casas himself was able to see him and observe first-hand the people coming from America.

Relationship with the Amerindians

Pedro de las Casas, father of Bartolomé, and his two brothers, joined the crew of Columbus' second voyage. Upon their return, the ships returned with no less than six hundred Indians, who were being treated as virtual slaves. So much so that they assigned one of them to Bartolomé de las Casas, so that he could be their servant.

But Bartolomé preferred to take advantage of this opportunity to study the characteristics of this person and his culture. He tried to make comparisons between the religion he professed and Christianity itself, and he even tried to find out if there was any connection between his language and Latin.. What he did, therefore, was a full-fledged humanist study, in which he tried to find out what were the similarities and differences between the two human groups.

The fact that Columbus' expedition returned with the group of Indians had consequences at the highest level. The Queen of Castile, Isabella the Catholic, considered the inhabitants of the newly discovered lands to be subjects with the same rights and duties as others, and therefore it was strictly forbidden for them to be turned into slaves, under penalty of death for those who did so.

There are discrepancies as to whether Bartolomé de las Casas traveled to America in the second expedition of Columbus, in 1493, or in the third, in 1498. Others even venture that it must have been later, around 1502. In any case, once he had completed his university studies, he became a doctrinero and joined one of the voyages to the New World.

Although he was traveling in the expedition of Antonio Torres, with Francisco de Bobadilla on board, a series of circumstances caused him to coincide in Hispaniola with the fourth expedition of Columbus.. A hurricane had sunk several ships, and it is believed that Bartolomé de las Casas was one of those in charge of caring for the wounded and sick due to the epidemic that was later unleashed as a result of the poor sanitary conditions.

During the following years, a series of battles were generated against groups of Indians, followed by other truces. De las Casas was rewarded with an encomienda for his services in some of these battles. He remained in America until 1506, when he returned to Spain and then to Rome to officially become a priest of the Church.

Return to America

In the year 1508, Bartolomé de las Casas returned to Hispaniola and soon after, the Order of the Dominicans arrived in the Americas.which would be key for the relations with the Indians in the future. From the beginning, these religious were very interested in providing dignified treatment to the inhabitants of America. This issue caused great divergences with some leaders, who were not in favor of fulfilling these requirements. requirements.

The discussion reached such a level that some even asked King Ferdinand the Catholic to expel the religious order of the Dominicans, so that they would not interfere in their affairs. The king listened to the representatives of both positions, and from these hearings were born the so-called Laws of the Indies, a code of conduct for the good treatment of the Indians. This document is the foundation of the Human Rights we know today, so its importance cannot be underestimated.

Bartolomé de las Casas participated in the conquest of several areas of the island of Cuba.The system used consisted of sending an Indian emissary to prepare the ground for the arrival of the Spaniards. All these towns were Christianized and added to the empire's domains. The main work of Bartholomew during that time was precisely the baptism of the Indians and the transmission of the word of the Christian God.

Disappointment with the conquerors

However, after a series of events, such as the massacre of Caonao, in which the men of Pánfilo de Narváez unjustifiably killed a group of Indians, Bartolomé de las Casas was very disappointed with these acts and threatened to transmit to the king what was happening in America.

For his services in various campaigns in Cuba, de las Casas received new encomiendas in the area of Cienfuegos. Although he treated the Indians in a proper manner, according to the law, and taught them the gospel, as his work dictated, he also used them to get gold from the nearby mines.

But something happened that changed his perspective, and that was the arrival of another group of Dominican friars, who let Bartolomé de las Casas know how much they admired his reputation, for the good treatment he gave to the aborigines. This made him realize that, although he had received these compliments, he had not behaved fairly, and that the system they had devised for him had not been fair.and that the system they had worked out needed to be changed.

It was in an Easter mass where he made an important sermon, denouncing the acts of the encomenderos. This generated a great controversy. He was criticized for attacking a group of which he himself was a member.. It was then that he wanted to renounce all his encomiendas, no matter how much they tried to persuade him not to do so, because it meant renouncing all the riches that were to come.

Protector of the natives and last years

Bartolomé de las Casas returned to Spain and had an audience with Cardinal Cisneros, to let him know his observations. The cardinal commissioned him a plan for colonization and named him universal protector of the Amerindians.. In 1516, he returned once again to America. From this point on, a series of struggles ensued between those in favor of enforcing the laws for the projection of the Indians and those who were not in favor of it.

After many years of hard work, preaching Christianity and the good treatment of the Indians, in 1540, Bartolomé de las Casas returned to Spain and met with the emperor, Charles I. In this audience, he was able to transfer to him all the problems he had witnessed after his years of service in America. This audience ended up triggering the New Laws, which freed all the Indians from the encomenderos.

Bartolomé de las Casas was named bishop of Chiapas.. He returned to America in 1544, but many received him with displeasure, as they did not agree with the laws he had managed to promulgate. In 1547 he returned to Spain, resigned his bishopric. He wrote some of his best known works, such as the Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias.

He spent his last years in Madrid before his death in 1566. Bartolomé de las Casas, known as the Apostle of the Indians, rests in Valladolid, as requested in his last wishes.