The Unheard Voice of Law in Bartolomé de Las Casas's “Brevísima relación de la destruición de las Indias.”

Abstract

Few authors of colonial Spanish American history are as well known as Bartolomé de Las Casas. Among his many works, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias stands out as the most widely read and discussed, from its publication in the mid-sixteenth century up until our own times. David Thomas Orique joins the long list of commentators on this controversial treatise with a detailed study in which he proposes a legal reading. Indeed, Orique's central thesis is that the Brevísima relación is a text written for legal purposes and situated within an important tradition of legal literature in the Iberian world. Consequently, Orique takes a critical distance from certain interpretations of the Brevísima relación that see the work either as a historical and reliable denunciation of colonial violence or as a false and malicious criticism of the Spanish empire that would lay the groundwork for the creation of the so-called Black Legend.Orique's analytic strategy consists, to begin with, in reconstructing the context in which the text was produced. Following Las Casas's biography, the author describes the Spanish cultural and intellectual worlds of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries: the pedagogy in universities, the primary circulating texts, the most important theological and juridical traditions, and the political problems that framed the debates of the era, particularly those surrounding the colonization of the Americas. The author develops these subjects in chapters 2 through 5.After Orique describes the context, chapters 6 and 7 make an exact analysis of the Brevísima relación to explain Las Casas's treatise or, put in Quentin Skinner's terms, what the author is doing in his writing. To this end, Orique describes the work's forensic structure and rhetoric, the legal vocabulary utilized, the insertion of testimonies and probanzas in the account, and how the text was addressed to royal authorities. In this way, Orique shows that the Brevísima relación is eminently a legal text, linked to the legal genres of relaciones, denuncias, and peticiones, that aimed to transform how the colonization of the Americas was being carried out in favor of the continent's Indigenous inhabitants.Orique's central argument is not entirely original, as he himself notes. Since the middle of the last century, various studies on Bartolomé de Las Casas have recognized the importance of the legal dimension of his thought, to such an extent that he has been described as a jurist, a canonist, a public advocate, and a public prosecutor. Taking up this perspective, Orique makes a deeper and more detailed analysis of the weight that traditions of civil and canon law exerted on Las Casas's writings, especially on his Brevísima relación. Orique's meticulous review of this famous treatise provides Las Casas studies with solid arguments for understanding the Brevísima relación as a legal document.However, in my opinion, the main contribution made by The Unheard Voice of Law in Bartolomé de Las Casas's “Brevísima relación de la destruición de las Indias” is found in the chapters that reconstruct the context of the production of Las Casas's work. Through reading numerous treatises of the time as well as a broad historiographical review, Orique presents an overview of the Hispanic American thought of early modernity, of the discussions that defined the field of politics, and of the multiple political traditions and languages used within the Spanish monarchy. This is an excellent synthesis, set out in clear and entertaining prose, that works very well as an introductory text for students and nonspecialist historians who seek to study sixteenth-century Spanish American intellectual history. It will also, of course, serve those interested in Bartolomé de Las Casas, a key figure in the history of the Americas, Spain, and the world.