Colonial Monsters: Discourses of Hybridity

Early European colonists described their encounters with indigenous people in ways that portray them as animal-like in appearance and behavior. These descriptions of what Zakiyyah Iman Jackson calls the "human-animal distinction" (2) not only function to dehumanize indigenous groups, but were used to create categories of humanity that ultimately influenced the identities of colonized subjects. This thesis explores the impacts of animal-human hybrid discourse on the identities of mestizo Spanish-Native colonial subjects who were both colonized and colonizers. Juan de Tovar was a Jesuit priest who assisted the Spanish by assimilating native people through the teaching of religion. Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the son of a Spanish military general, gathered accounts of colonial expeditions and wrote his own versions of Inca history. A close reading of their major works-Origen de los Mexicanos and Comentarios Reales de los Incas-will unveil how Tovar and La Vega craft the "monstrous" native in order to highlight the humanity of their own "civilized" Indigenous groups to argue that their people are more prepared for Christian conversion and more willing to be assimilated. By blending Post-colonial and Critical Race theories, I argue that the writers weaponized the animal-human hybrid discourse against other native groups in order to advance their positions in colonial society by creating a space for mestizo elite.