Graduate Student Journal Gutierrez’s book, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away, portrays the 16th century religious and sexual repression of the New Mexico Pueblo by the Spanish. It is written in a style that reaches beyond the academic. He paints a picture of the 300 years of Pueblo history under Spanish rule using the “rules of marriage” as a mural revealing the subtle cultural changes over time. His book explores the legacy of colonization by reviewing the connection between female shame and male honor within the context of the colonial marriage contract. I find similarities in his descriptions of gender inequality and my own Turkish culture. Out of a deep appreciation for the clarity in When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away I use it as a lens to consider gender inequality over time. Further, I extend the book’s depiction of the discriminatory experience of the Pueblo to a global perspective, especially relative to my personal experiences. Through his mural, I was able to understand my family’s willingness to interpret my marriage as taboo, and their consequent sense of an obligation to use patriarchy to protect the family’s honor. Gutierrez wrote an historical account of 350 years of Pueblo life under Spanish rule, an account that certainly did not include anything about 20th century Turkish culture. And yet, to me the analogous mores are crystal clear. He shows how the 18th century church supported patriarchy and a Spanish supremacy class hierarchy upon the Pueblo. As Gutierrez showed, marriage was completely under the control of the church, “…. matrimony was totally under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church. The Church determined who were and were not appropriate partners, specified the juridical form of marriage, and defined the ritual gestures that constituted the sacrament”. (Gutierrez, 243) He also makes the point that ethnic, racial, and national borders are also sexual borders; borders which constrain love to culturally approved populations. Gutierrez clearly documented how some Spanish colonizers followed the “rules of marriage,” acquiring great wealth and prestige, sometimes after waiting many years for a proper Spanish woman. Similarly, to the lives Gutierrez described as being controlled by
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