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Bad Indians Chapter Summary

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The period of missionization was known to the Spaniards as a time to mold the Indigenous people into the spitting image of what they wanted; cultivating the Indigenous people into civilized, Christian practicing beings. However, through the eyes of the Indigenous people this period was considered to be the end of the world – an end to the world they came to know so well. Settler colonialism introduced a cruel and brutal world upon the Indigenous people, especially for Indigenous women who were targeted by the priests to fulfill their needs of lust, during the period of missionization. In the book, Bad Indians, author Deborah Miranda finds a captivating way of presenting the brave story of Vicenta Gutierrez, who fell victim to the priest on the mission and spoke up about her traumatic event, through the literary genre of a letter. Using the letter as her literary device, Miranda vividly illustrates the sexual violence brought upon Indian women and how the priests used rape to establish power on the missions had a dehumanizing effect on these women.
This chapter of the book, provides a personal interpretation of the culture of rape that circulated the missions. While awed by Vicenta’s actions to speak up, Miranda …show more content…

In this chapter, Miranda not only wrote the context in the form of a letter, she also included a picture of a letter. This picture included the description of Vicenta running home and sharing with others what had happened to her in the church. Writing this chapter, did not limit Miranda in the context she would include – a lighthearted, joking opening, the statistics of women raped at the time, the evolution of the study of rape today, a description of how the priest chose who he slept with, and personal touches of her experience with rape. The use of this literary genre, gave Miranda credibility due to her inclusion of facts and personal

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