REBEL VOICES

Selection One

PROJECTIONS: (1492) ROME, THE VATICAN

MUSIC: ORGAN, CEREMONIAL

GALEANO

In the dim light of the Vatican, fragrant with oriental perfumes, the pope dictates a new bull. 

                  He raises a hand and traces a frontier across the unknown sea. God’s agent concedes in perpetuity all that is being discovered to Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. He entrusts them to send expert, God-fearing men to instruct the natives in the Catholic faith. 

                  In Andalusia, Columbus is preparing a voyage to the regions where precious stones await in the craniums of dragons, and gold grows in bunches on the vines.

PROJECTIONS: OCEAN. SHIPS.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

We steered west-southwest, and at two hours after midnight, land appeared! The men hauled down all the sails, and we went ashore in the armed launch. 

GALEANO

He falls on his knees and kisses the earth. He steps forward, staggering, because for more than a month he has hardly slept. He raises the flag. 

PROJECTIONS: THE WEST INDIES

SOUND: NATIVE DRUMS AND WIND INSTRUMENTS

COLUMBUS

I called to the others and said they should be witnesses that, in the presence of all, I would take possession of said island for the king and for the queen.

GALEANO

From today, everything belongs to those remote monarchs: the coral sea, the beaches, the rocks all green with moss - and these laurel-skinned people who don’t yet know about clothes, sin, or money. Soon the word runs through the islands: Come and see the men who arrived from the sky! 

PROJECTION: BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS

LAS CASAS

Of all the infinite universe of humanity, the people of Hispanolia are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness, and the most obedient to the Spanish Christians whom they serve. They possess alert, intelligent minds, open to doctrine, very apt to receive our holy Catholic faith. They are not arrogant, embittered, or greedy, and have no desire to possess worldly goods.

COLUMBUS

Cotton grows here on this island, and also the gold that they wear hung in their noses. I asked them, Do you know the kingdom of the Great Khan? Where does the gold you have in your noses and ears come from?

                    

                  GALEANO

The naked men stare at him with open mouths. 

                    

                  COLUMBUS

Temples? Palaces? Gold? 

                    

                  GALEANO

Columbus curses and throws to the ground his credentials. The naked men watch the anger of the intruder with red hair and coarse skin. 

                    

                  LAS CASAS

These Christians have an ultimate aim; to acquire gold. Their insatiable greed is the cause of their villainies. The lands are so rich and the native peoples so meek that our Spaniards have no more consideration for them than beasts.

                    

                  COLUMBUS

By signs, I was able to understand that there was a king who had very much gold. So I will go to the southwest to seek gold and precious stones. I bestirred myself to see where a fort could be made, although I do not believe this to be necessary as the natives can be held captive and made to do whatever one might wish. 

                    

                  LAS CASAS 

Into this land of meek outcasts came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like wild, ravening beasts - terrorizing, torturing, and killing the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, and to such a degree that this island of Hispaniola, having a population that I estimated to be more than three millions, now has a population of barely two hundred persons. 