Jose Cardenas Bunsen

"Las Casas contended that the Pope cannot donate what doesn't belong to him, what is not under his spiritual power."

Assistant professor of Spanish

Bartholomew de las Casas forever changed the early modern global discourse on human rights. Despite his lasting influence, his major writings remained unpublished for three centuries and, as a consequence, they are largely unknown today. Assistant Professor of Spanish Jose Cardenas Bunsen studies the writings of Las Casas in search of the source of his ideas and the impact they have had.

During the Spanish colonization of Latin America in the late 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish conquistadors conquered the local people and took their lands in the name of spreading the Christian faith. Las Casas was a lone Spanish voice speaking against the oppression.

Born in Spain in 1484, Las Casas lived his adult life in what is now the Caribbean and Mexico. He soon came to see the virtual enslavement of the native Indians as morally and legally indefensible and used his legal and religious training to argue against it.

"The Spanish crown was basing its rights on the claim that the Pope had donated the newly found lands to them," said Cardenas Bunsen. "Las Casas contended that the Pope cannot donate what doesn't belong to him, what is not under his spiritual power." Instead, Las Casas argued, under the tenets of natural law, not only did the Spanish have no right to the lands of the New World, they didn't even have the right to try to convert the people against their will.
 
Intrigued by Las Casas' advanced ideas, Cardenas Bunsen went looking for their basis.

"I was trying to trace the intellectual premises from where Las Casas' own ideas came from," he said. "My conclusion is that they came from canon law, from this international legal system of the church that was supposed to be universal, and especially from the legislation on the rights of infidels."

Needless to say, Las Casas was not popular with the Spanish crown, and upon his death in 1566, King Philip II tried to silence his writings. Despite the attempt to censor and even destroy his work, Las Casas' ideas circulated widely and can be found in the works of Latin American writers from the colonial period up to the modern day. For example, liberation theology is inspired by Las Casas.

"Las Casas is an enduring presence in the culture of Latin America," said Cardenas Bunsen.

Posted Sept. 22, 2008