Blog #3: MONTE ALBAN FROM AN OUTSIDERS PERSPECTIVE

MONTE ALBAN FROM AN OUTSIDERS PERSPECTIVE

            Standing on top of the Monte Alban and looking out at the city and mountains felt completely surreal.  The fact that the entire mountain was cleared and temples were built without the use of machines makes Monte Alban even more amazing.  Although it is mostly just ruins left, you can still see the foundations of the massive sized temples and the stone carvings displayed throughout the entire mountain. 

            Just before walking down the 42 oversized steps of a temple, I was asked a question to think about; “Imagine what the Spanish would have thought if they saw the Monte Alban when they encountered Oaxaca.”  As I walked around the mountain some more, I tried to imagine being a Spanish warrior and the surprise I would have at such an unexpected settlement.  One of my thoughts of what the Spaniards would have felt is an initial intimidation by the whole scene on Monte Alban.  J. Chasteen explains in Born in Blood and Fire the reason for the Spanish superior mentality.  The Spaniards were more immune to their European diseases, brought advanced weapons, rode horses that were at the time foreign to Mexico, and created strategic plans to take advantage of the Zapotec’s.  Their plan was based on “Aztec prophecies that foretold the coming of Quetzalcoatl, a white-skinned deity,” (pg. 49).  The Spaniards allowed the indigenous people to believe they were immortal gods and took advantage of their fascination by attacking them at a fiesta, described in the book Victors and Vanquished. 

The structure of Monte Alban is physical evidence of their strength from creating the temples, their intelligence from learning how to survive, and their strong devotion to their city and people.  The Spanish came thinking they were all-powerful and mighty, so the possibility of competition would fuel the Spaniards with more desire to conquer and prove themselves.  It is similar to a middle school bully picking on the smart kid of the class.  The bully knows he is bigger and stronger, yet he sees strength in the other that he does not have himself.  From fear of being seen as the weaker one, he intimidates others so that their strength will not outshine his own.

 Chelsea Williams