Writing prompt
After watching “The Last Conquistador” write up a short response to the Onate documentary in which you engage with the ideas about the way we choose to remember our past. This paper is an informal response, meaning it does not have to be in a traditional essay format. It does, however, need to take a position: Does Onate represent the way we want to remember Spanish colonization or settlement of the present day borderlands. And, the paper needs to use the documentary as evidence. You can use outside sources, but, you need to acknowledge how your sources either add or challenge the documentary’s point of view.
In the introduction, students should introduce the reader (Dr. Wallace) to the documentary and summarize what the documentary covers (about 2-4 sentences…max). Next, students should take a position about whether Onate represents the way we want to remember Spanish colonization of New Mexico. After that, students should establish the historical players in the documentary. Who were the historical actors of northern New Mexico? What were their positions about Spanish colonization and were some of the events during Onate’s settlement period that shaped these relationships. Next, students should have a section or a paragraph that examines the present day players of this controversy. Hint: indigenous and people of Spanish descent are the main figures but what roles do artists, historians, journalists and historical societies play in this story, just to name a few? You should also drop some names associated with these positions. There are some strong personalities in the documentary. Use those individuals and their positions as evidence to back up your ideas. Finally, students should address the really important questions: Who gets to decide how we remember history or how we memorialize history? If Onate is not the way we want to remember this history, then what is the alternative? Also, how can we tell Onate’s story in a fair and honest way? Your paper should end with at least 5 sentences in which you briefly showcase the other side of your argument. If you took the position that Onate was a villain who unjustly treated indigenous groups, then your paper should say something like: Even though this paper showcased Onate in a negative light, Spanish settlement of northern New Mexico changed the cultural landscape and introduced the Catholic Church, which continues to influence our culture today. Moreover, Spanish settlement….
Remember, these papers do not need to be in essay format, but should be a coherent narrative, of about 1,000 words, that are polished and proofread before submitting. Your paper should do two things: one, place these documents (video) into context (history) and, two, analyze a theme and the questions above. You should lay out the different sides in the documentary and focus heavily on how we remember the past
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APA Format, 1094 words