Ben Tondera- Conquistadora the Explorer

I was surfing Collegehumor today and I saw this video. Now the video’s intent is to be funny and mock the show Dora the Explorer, but it showcases the themes of the stereotypes that we discussed during the opening days of class, and also the themes of chapter 2 in terms of the first contacts with Native Americans.

Considering the video consists of the ‘Conquistadora’ and her two companions whipping, giving the natives smallpox, and then the natives believing that she is in fact a god. It definitely plays to these stereotypes of natives, and also gives into the narrative of collapse that was discusses in Jared Diamond’s ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel’, all while sticking to the classic Dora the Explorer narrative with a little Spanish twist of subjugation.

Again, the video was mostly made for humorous purposes and not really intended to be offensive, but it definitely comes off as such. We know this didn’t actually happen, but lots of people don’t, and the people who made this video obviously never had this intention, but the point was still made, especially in the finale of the video when swiffer the fox was replaced with scalper, who hence his name wanted to scalp people.

2 Responses to “Ben Tondera- Conquistadora the Explorer”


  1. 1 David Kabak October 17, 2010 at 8:33 pm

    I agree about some of the false native stereotypes that this video shows, but I think most of the humor intended from the video was focused more on how the Spanish conquistadors themselves and European attitudes towards natives in the early contact period (and beyond) generally seem ridiculous from our cultural perspective today. As for it appearing offensive to some, I’m reminded of a Horace Walpole quote that puts it in perspective (for myself anyway): “The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.” After thinking about this video, I believe the intent was not to offend native Americans, but rather to use the process of reductio ad absurdum through stereotyped caricatures to mock the unfounded conquistador beliefs about native “savagery” and inherent inferiority as well as to disprove the lofty justifications that the Spanish conquistadors contrived to legitimize their brutal efforts to “civilize” natives. In doing so I think the video exposes the basic ignorance and intolerance of the more violent Spaniards in the Americas in a clever and humorous way in a way that encourages us to reflect on the assumed validity of our own prejudices.

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