"experienced at the hands of"

Question

Hola a todos,

Voy a hacer muchos preguntas hoy, porque estoy escribiendo un ensayo para mi clase de Literatura Española. Aqui es el primero, en ingles:

"Their reports and descriptions contributed to the cycle of abuse and exploitation suffered (or experienced) by the natives at the hands of the conquistadors."

Yo tengo:

"Sus relaciones y descripciones contribuyeron al ciclo de abuso y explotación que experimentaron los nativos..."

I know that sometimes (all the time, actually) I translate much too literally from english to spanish, so feel free to rearrange or make it sound more natural. Basically anything that connotes the responsibility of the conquistadors will suffice.

gracias en avance =)

I preffer not to answer to this ?...History told here is a little off when it comes to this issue. - marilo63, Sep 30, 2010

Well I guess that's your choice; It's a pretty vague statement. All I'm saying is that the reports sent back by Cortés, Colón, etc. got back to Europe and many used these writings to justify the continued exploitation of the natives... - lmkousa, Sep 30, 2010

Answer 1

Report: informes.

Sus informes y descripciones contribuyeron a la serie de abusos y explotaciones que sufrieron los nativos por parte de los conquistadores.

okay, thanks. I think i just used "relaciones" porque la lectura es "Cartas de Relación," but now that you mention it, informes is more what I'm looking for/closer to my true meaning. ¡Muchisimas gracias! - lmkousa, Sep 30, 2010

The titles of the books were very different before. It was the beginning of the printing press and a lot of reports at this moment were written in the form of letters that were copied at hand or printed in pamphlets. Popular titles were Cartas de …. o Not - maria01, Sep 30, 2010

Answer 2

I'd change "relaciones", which by itself sounds more like "relationships", with something like "informes" or "relatos", depending on the nature of the reports (written or not). The rest sounds good to me in Spanish.

thank you! - lmkousa, Sep 30, 2010