The true utopias that were destroyed
Danilo Anton

When on April 22, 1500, Alvares Cabral and his expedition arrived to America, to the territory that would later be called Brazil, a first contact was established between Europeans with the South American Tupi peoples of the Atlantic coast. The chronicler of this expedition, Pero Vaz de Caminha left a vivid account of his experiences in a letter to the king of Portugal Manoel I, He told the monarch the unusual characteristics of the newly contacted peoples. In those lands lived naked and unashamed women and men, healthy people, acting spontaneously in front of the Portuguese captains. 
Caminha's attention was drawn to the fact that although these peoples did not have any of the European crops and animals they were "... stronger and better fed than we are with all the wheat and vegetables we eat ...". And then: "they are very well cared for and very clean and in this they make me remember the birds and the wild animals, to which the air gives them better plumage and skin than the domesticated ones. Their bodies are so clean and fleshy and so beautiful that they could not be asked for more. ".
In addition to being clean and healthy, these people were generally described as very friendly and hospitable.
Alberico Vespucci, the well-known Florentine geographer, in his letters, admired the freedom and innocence of American societies. He pointed out that Indian societies did not know private property or money, and that they shared everything in common. They lived in complete social and moral freedom, and their communities functioned harmoniously without kings, religions, temples, palaces or idols.
Hemmings points out that the enthusiasm with which American societies, who lived prosperously without kings or churches, were described, sounded subversive. 
In 1500, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera said that among Native Americans: "The land belongs to everyone, like the sun and water. "Mine and yours" which are the seeds of all evils, do not exist for these people. They live in a golden age, and do not surround their properties with ditches, walls or hedges. They live in open gardens, without laws or books, without judges, and naturally seek goodness, considering it odious to those who corrupt themselves by practicing evil. "
Magalhaes de Gandavo offers us the following description: "In each house they live together in harmony without dissension between them. They are so friendly to each other that what belongs to one belongs to everyone. When someone has something to eat, no matter how little, all their neighbors share it. "
The accounts of the new societies began to circulate throughout Europe. A paradisiacal world had been discovered, where nature had not been overwhelmed, where there were no kings, no slavery, no poverty, no plagues, no money, where all women and men were free and equal.
The logic of the Native Americans was rigorous. Jean de Léry says that an old man asked him: "Why, you Frenchmen and Portuguese, come from so far to seek wood to warm up? Do not they have enough wood in their country? " 
Léry replied that the wood was not used to burn but to make dyes, just as they did. The old man went on: "I imagine they need a lot of money ..." The Frenchman replied that a lot of it was really needed, and that a merchant could buy many boats full, and that there were also countless other goods. The old man thought, and reflected: "this very rich man, of whom you tell me ..will not die? "..."Yes, he dies like the rest of the people." "And when he dies ... what about the things he leaves?" ... "It's for his children or relatives ..." Lery replied. The old man thought it over and then he said: "Now I see you Frenchmen are crazy. They cross the sea and suffer great inconveniences, as they tell us, they work very hard to accumulate wealth for your children and their relatives ... is not the land that nourishes them, is not enough to feed them too ?. We have fathers, mothers, and children whom we love. But we are sure that after our death the land that nourished us will also feed them. So we do not need to worry. "
Early chroniclers also noted the healthy lives of American populations. References abound about the longevity of Americans. According to Vespucci, they reached 150 years, Pigafetta, member of the expedition of Magallanes, indicated that they could live from 125 to 140 years. Jean de Léry himself attributed to the Tupinambá of Guanabara a life expectancy of 100 to 120 years. Years later the Jesuit Fernao Cardim affirmed that the population of Piratininga (Sao Paulo) was full of old people of more than 100 years.
References to the longevity, health, well-being, prosperity and quality of life of Native American peoples followed. The stories and chronicles that told these stories began to arrive in Europe in the first decade of the sixteenth century and would continue for many years. It was not by chance that at that moment they began to imagine the first social utopias that over time would have to transform European social and political thought of the next centuries. The ideal societies that began to be designed from the sixteenth century onwards were in reality the result of the deep impression received by Europeans upon the knowledge of these very different societies, These intelectual processes unleashed because the Europeans realized that there were other ways of relating to nature and to their fellow humans, that money and hoarding were not really necessary and that people could live in freedom, without chains, without kings or churches.
From "Amerrique, the Orphans of Paradise", Danilo Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones.