The Mexican Conquistador

Natural resources such as minerals and precious metals are commodities, sold by those who own land in which they are mined or extracted. Gold a precious metal that has held high monetary value for centuries and has been the means of attaining great wealth and forming great empires. Water, a natural resource has a very different value, that of sustaining life. It is a commodity like other natural resources, to the landowner, in which it is sourced. Water sources are managed by individuals and by the state (government). In urban civilizations, water sources are pumped through a network of pipes into citizen’s homes. Citizens are then required to pay a premium for distribution and usage of the water. Water obtained and distributed by the

Once the conquistador’s acquired the necessary information they commandeered the region and its inhabitants as property of the crown. Indigenous natives were then forced to serve as slave laborers, search, pan, and mine the gold. Gold financed the rise of great cities, churches and Emperial expeditions. (Thomas, 2005, 137) The Spanish conquistadors seized, stole, pillaged, and murdered in pursuit of gold. (Thomas, 2011, 240) In the filming of Columbus, gold is the essence that brings tragedy and conflict. First, Columbus offers gold to the natives as bribery in agreement to accept Christianity as their religion and the Spanish crown as ruler of the land. The natives accept the gold, perhaps not understanding what they had agreed, for which Hatuey speaks to the natives and warns them not to turn on their traditions. The conquistadors forcibly make the natives and their lands the property of the crown and the natives must pay taxes in the form of gold, thus proliferating the natives further as slave

The Water authority had confronted the citizens on two occasions, the first, Daniel and his colleagues are digging a trench for the water to travel to their, well and homes, this time they were able to drive the authority away by approaching and vandalizing their vehicle. The police accompanied the water authority to the well, taking claim of the water well and breaking off the padlock and replace with another padlock. The indigenous women come running and pleading for the right to their well, crying out to the authorities that clean water is essential for the children. Water is required for life and is a basic human right to have access to clean drinkable water. This was the start of the social demonstrations leading to the historical Cochabamba ‘water war’ which led to the dissolution of privatization of water and deeming it to be a legalized matter pertaining to basic human rights. This movement opened the pathway for legal reform and challenged government policies pertaining to human rights of Bolivia’s indigenous citizens. (Baer,