Strike Fear in the Land: Pedro de Alvarado and the Conquest of Guatemala, 1520–1541

Abstract

Historians of the early colonial period, once considered a moribund field, have opened new spheres of inquiry into the Spanish conquest of Latin America and the Caribbean. Reanalyzing early chroniclers' works, employing previously unexplored sources, and rethinking colonization processes have resulted in important contributions to conquest literature. Strike Fear in the Land much resembles the New Conquest History. The authors present a thorough and timely reassessment of the Alvarado clan—headed by Pedro de Alvarado, his brother Jorge de Alvarado, and notable cousins and kin such as Pedro de Portocarrero—and their pivotal role in Spain's conquest of Guatemala and Central America more broadly. The book illuminates negotiations between Spaniards and Indigenous groups and the Spaniards' brutal tactics employed to “pacify” Indigenous peoples resisting invasion. As highly respected scholars, W. George Lovell, Christopher H. Lutz, and Wendy Kramer craft a narrative built on archival research and work in special collections, buttressed by an exhaustive review of secondary sources. Their truly important contribution promotes understanding of mechanisms and processes laying the substrata for inequitable racial and class structures plaguing modern Guatemala.Divided into four chapters with useful appendixes, Strike Fear in the Land strongly succeeds in presenting genuinely accessible cutting-edge scholarship. The book easily elucidates questions of gender, race, and class without theoretical abstruseness; an overly theoretical approach would likely have hindered the authors' goal to illuminate conquest history in clear prose. The book successfully challenges established notions like Pedro de Alvarado's allegedly single-handed leadership of the Spanish conquest. Indeed, the authors convincingly argue that Jorge de Alvarado played a greater role than once assumed and that fluency in Indigenous languages, namely Nahuatl—a certain lingua franca throughout the region—proved essential to negotiations with Indigenous leaders (pp. 70, 72–75).All chapters present notable contributions; however, chapter 4 engages with the second book of minutes of Santiago de Guatemala's municipal council (the Libro segundo del cabildo), an invaluable sixteenth-century source long thought lost but recently located in New York's Hispanic Society of America. The chapter reveals the precarious Spanish hold on power plus the internecine discord existing among Spanish elites (pp. 80–84). Typically, supplemental materials contain specialized data and speak to expert readers, but Strike Fear in the Land instead aims to engage a broader audience and renders the appendixes approachable. This accessibility uniquely combines with original scholarship, especially in the case of appendix D, an engrossing narrative of the resistance movements led by the Kaqchikel nobles Ahpozotzil Cahí Ymox and Ahpoxahil Belehé Qat. The reverential terms ahpozotzil, “principal leader,” and ahpoxahil, “second-in-command,” refer to the leaders of the Kaqchikel polity of Iximché (p. 4n7). Initially Cahí Ymox and Belehé Qat allied with the Spanish, but in 1524 they staged an insurrection and then negotiated peace; however, discontent with the harshness of Spanish rule and brutal labor requirements led to a second Kaqchikel insurrection in 1533 (pp. 149–51). Strike Fear in the Land delves deep into the reasons why Indigenous leaders like Cahí Ymox and Belehé Qat disappear from conquest histories written by non-Indigenous people. In the process, Lovell, Lutz, and Kramer present a richer and more complex discussion of reasons for onetime allies like the Kaqchikel resisting Spanish domination.Despite its impressive scholarship, Strike Fear in the Land contains some weaknesses. Published originally as Atemorizar la tierra: Pedro de Alvarado y la conquista de Guatemala, 1520–1541 (2016), Strike Fear in the Land fails to indicate updated or abridged portions; however, the authors seemingly addressed criticisms of the earlier volume and included further Indigenous voices. A more serious flaw of the book is its exclusion of Africans, except for mentioning Africans as slaves and a prohibition against Black and Spanish men loitering near waterways, both of which appear in appendix A (pp. 103–4). Notably, Strike Fear in the Land presents a narrative focused on Indigenous peoples and Spaniards. While the book offers important correctives on Indigenous experiences of conquest history, its exclusion of Africans works against the goal of challenging established histories. While information on African participation in the conquest of Guatemala is scant, at least one African combatant appears in the Lienzo de Quauhquechollan, an invaluable Indigenous chronicle of the region's conquest. Yet, to its credit, Strike Fear in the Land highlights numerous areas of potential inquiry, one of which centers on the participation of Africans in the conquest.Overall, the book illustrates the importance of reevaluating histories once thought settled. Written in accessible and engaging prose, Strike Fear in the Land is essential reading for specialists, undergraduate and graduate students, and those interested in better understanding the complexities of Spanish colonization.