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Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue adventure and riches in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda (the right to the labor of certain subjects). For a short time, he served as alcalde (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, which he partly funded. His enmity with the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, resulted in the recall of the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortés ignored.

Arriving on the continent, Cortés executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous people against others. He also used a native woman, Doña Marina, as an interpreter. She later gave birth to his first son. When the governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortés wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of being punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec Empire, Cortés was awarded the title of marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. In 1541 Cortés returned to Spain, where he died six years later of natural causes.

Name
Cortés himself used the form "Hernando" or "Fernando" for his first name, as seen in the contemporary archive documents, his signature and the title of an early portrait. William Hickling Prescott's Conquest of Mexico (1843) also refers to him as Hernando Cortés. At some point writers began using the shortened form of "Hernán" more generally.

Physical appearance
In addition to the illustration by the German artist Christoph Weiditz in his Trachtenbuch, there are three known portraits of Hernán Cortés which were likely made during his lifetime, though only copies of them have survived. All of these portraits show Cortés in the later years of his life. The account of the conquest of the Aztec Empire written by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, gives a detailed description of Hernán Cortés's physical appearance: "He was of good stature and body, well proportioned and stocky, the color of his face was somewhat grey, not very cheerful, and a longer face would have suited him more. His eyes seemed at times loving and at times grave and serious. His beard was black and sparse, as was his hair, which at the time he sported in the same way as his beard. He had a high chest, a well shaped back and was lean with little belly."

Early life
Cortés was born in 1485 in the town of Medellín, then a village in the Kingdom of Castile, now a municipality of the modern-day province of Badajoz in Extremadura, Spain. His father, Martín Cortés de Monroy, born in 1449 to Rodrigo or Ruy Fernández de Monroy and his wife María Cortés, was an infantry captain of distinguished ancestry but slender means. Hernán's mother was Catalína Pizarro Altamirano.

Through his mother, Hernán was second cousin once removed of Francisco Pizarro, who later conquered the Inca Empire of modern-day Peru, and not to be confused with another Francisco Pizarro, who joined Cortés to conquer the Aztecs. (His maternal grandmother, Leonor Sánchez Pizarro Altamirano, was first cousin of Pizarro's father Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodriguez.) Through his father, Hernán was related to Nicolás de Ovando, the third governor of Hispaniola. His paternal great-grandfather was Rodrigo de Monroy y Almaraz, 5th Lord of Monroy.

According to his biographer and chaplain, Francisco López de Gómara, Cortés was pale and sickly as a child. At the age of 14, he was sent to study Latin under an uncle in Salamanca. Later historians have misconstrued this personal tutoring as time enrolled at the University of Salamanca.

After two years, Cortés returned home to Medellín, much to the irritation of his parents, who had hoped to see him equipped for a profitable legal career. However, those two years in Salamanca, plus his long period of training and experience as a notary, first in Valladolid and later in Hispaniola, gave him knowledge of the legal codes of Castile that he applied to help justify his unauthorized conquest of Mexico.

At this point in his life, Cortés was described by Gómara as ruthless, haughty, and mischievous. The 16-year-old youth had returned home to feel constrained life in his small provincial town. By this time, news of the exciting discoveries of Christopher Columbus in the New World was streaming back to Spain.

Early career in the New World
Plans were made for Cortés to sail to the Americas with a family acquaintance and distant relative, Nicolás de Ovando, the newly appointed Governor of Hispaniola. (This island is now divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Cortés suffered an injury and was prevented from traveling. He spent the next year wandering the country, probably spending most of his time in Spain's southern ports of Cadiz, Palos, Sanlucar, and Seville. He finally left for Hispaniola in 1504 and became a colonist.

Arrival
Cortés reached Hispaniola in a ship commanded by Alonso Quintero, who tried to deceive his superiors and reach the New World before them in order to secure personal advantages. Quintero's mutinous conduct may have served as a model for Cortés in his subsequent career.

Upon his arrival in 1504 in Santo Domingo, the capital of Hispaniola, the 18-year-old Cortés registered as a citizen; this entitled him to a building plot and land to farm. Soon afterward, Governor Nicolás de Ovando granted him an encomienda and appointed him as a notary of the town of Azua de Compostela. His next five years seemed to help establish him in the colony; in 1506, Cortés took part in the conquests of Hispaniola and Cuba. The expedition leader awarded him a large estate of land and Taíno slaves for his efforts.

Cuba (1511–1519)
In 1511, Cortés accompanied Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, an aide of the Governor of Hispaniola, in his expedition to conquer Cuba. Velázquez was appointed Governor of New Spain. At the age of 26, Cortés was made clerk to the treasurer with the responsibility of ensuring that the Crown received the quinto, or customary one fifth of the profits from the expedition.

Velázquez was so impressed with Cortés that he secured a high political position for him in the colony. He became secretary for Governor Velázquez. Cortés was twice appointed municipal magistrate (alcalde) of Santiago. In Cuba, Cortés became a man of substance with an encomienda to provide Indian labor for his mines and cattle. This new position of power also made him the new source of leadership, which opposing forces in the colony could then turn to. In 1514, Cortés led a group which demanded that more Indians be assigned to the settlers.

As time went on, relations between Cortés and Governor Velázquez became strained. Cortés found time to become romantically involved with Catalina Xuárez (or Juárez), the sister-in-law of Governor Velázquez. Part of Velázquez's displeasure seems to have been based on a belief that Cortés was trifling with Catalina's affections. Cortés was temporarily distracted by one of Catalina's sisters but finally married Catalina, reluctantly, under pressure from Governor Velázquez. However, by doing so, he hoped to secure the good will of both her family and that of Velázquez.

It was not until he had been almost 15 years in the Indies that Cortés began to look beyond his substantial status as mayor of the capital of Cuba and as a man of affairs in the thriving colony. He missed the first two expeditions, under the orders of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and then Juan de Grijalva, sent by Diego Velázquez to Mexico in 1518. News reached Velázquez that Juan de Grijalva had established a colony on the mainland where there was a bonanza of silver and gold, and Velázquez decided to send him help. Cortés was appointed captain-general of this new expedition in October 1518, but was advised to move fast before Velázquez changed his mind.

With Cortés's experience as an administrator, knowledge gained from many failed expeditions, and his impeccable rhetoric he was able to gather six ships and 300 men, within a month. Velázquez's jealousy exploded and he decided to put the expedition in other hands. However, Cortés quickly gathered more men and ships in other Cuban ports.

Conquest of Mexico (1519–1521)
In 1518, Velázquez put Cortés in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. At the last minute, due to the old argument between the two, Velázquez changed his mind and revoked Cortés's charter. Cortés ignored the orders and, in an act of open mutiny, went anyway in February 1519. He stopped in Trinidad, Cuba, to hire more soldiers and obtain more horses. Accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men (including seasoned slaves ), 13 horses, and a small number of cannons, Cortés landed on the Yucatán Peninsula in Maya territory. There he encountered Geronimo de Aguilar, a Spanish Franciscan priest who had survived a shipwreck followed by a period in captivity with the Maya, before escaping. Aguilar had learned the Chontal Maya language and was able to translate for Cortés.

Cortés's military experience was almost nonexistent, but he proved to be an effective leader of his small army and won early victories over the coastal Indians. In March 1519, Cortés formally claimed the land for the Spanish crown. Then he proceeded to Tabasco, where he met with resistance and won a battle against the natives. He received twenty young indigenous women from the vanquished natives, and he converted them all to Christianity.

Among these women was La Malinche, his future mistress and mother of his son Martín. Malinche knew both the Nahuatl language and Chontal Maya, thus enabling Cortés to communicate with the Aztecs through Aguilar. At San Juan de Ulúa on Easter Sunday 1519, Cortés met with Moctezuma II's Aztec Empire governors Tendile and Pitalpitoque.

In July 1519, his men took over Veracruz. By this act, Cortés dismissed the authority of the governor of Cuba to place himself directly under the orders of King Charles. To eliminate any ideas of retreat, Cortés scuttled his ships.

March on Tenochtitlán
In Veracruz, he met some of the tributaries of the Aztecs and asked them to arrange a meeting with Moctezuma II, the tlatoani (ruler) of the Aztec Empire. Moctezuma repeatedly turned down the meeting, but Cortés was determined. Leaving a hundred men in Veracruz, Cortés marched on Tenochtitlán in mid-August 1519, along with 600 soldiers, 15 horsemen, 15 cannons, and hundreds of indigenous carriers and warriors.

On the way to Tenochtitlán, Cortés made alliances with indigenous peoples such as the Totonacs of Cempoala and the Nahuas of Tlaxcala. The Otomis initially, and then the Tlaxcalans clashed with the Spanish in a series of three battles from 2 to 5 September 1519, and at one point, Diaz remarked, "they surrounded us on every side". After Cortés continued to release prisoners with messages of peace, and realizing the Spanish were enemies of Moctezuma, Xicotencatl the Elder and Maxixcatzin persuaded the Tlaxcalan warleader, Xicotencatl the Younger, that it would be better to ally with the newcomers than to kill them.

In October 1519, Cortés and his men, accompanied by about 1,000 Tlaxcalteca, marched to Cholula, the second-largest city in central Mexico. Cortés, either in a pre-meditated effort to instill fear upon the Aztecs waiting for him at Tenochtitlan or (as he later claimed, when he was being investigated) wishing to make an example when he feared native treachery, massacred thousands of unarmed members of the nobility gathered at the central plaza, then partially burned the city.

By the time he arrived in Tenochtitlán, the Spaniards had a large army. On November 8, 1519, they were peacefully received by Moctezuma II. Moctezuma deliberately let Cortés enter the Aztec capital, the island city of Tenochtitlán, hoping to get to know their weaknesses better and to crush them later.

Moctezuma gave lavish gifts of gold to the Spaniards which, rather than placating them, excited their ambitions for plunder. In his letters to King Charles, Cortés claimed to have learned at this point that he was considered by the Aztecs to be either an emissary of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl or Quetzalcoatl himself—a belief which has been contested by a few modern historians. But quickly Cortés learned that several Spaniards on the coast had been killed by Aztecs while supporting the Totonacs, and decided to take Moctezuma as a hostage in his palace, indirectly ruling Tenochtitlán through him.

Meanwhile, Velázquez sent another expedition, led by Pánfilo de Narváez, to oppose Cortés, arriving in Mexico in April 1520 with 1,100 men. Cortés left 200 men in Tenochtitlán and took the rest to confront Narváez. He overcame Narváez, despite his numerical inferiority, and convinced the rest of Narváez's men to join him. In Mexico, one of Cortés's lieutenants Pedro de Alvarado, committed the massacre in the Great Temple, triggering a local rebellion.

Cortés speedily returned to Tenochtitlán. On July 1, 1520, Moctezuma was killed (he was stoned to death by his own people, as reported in Spanish accounts; although some claim he was murdered by the Spaniards once they realized his inability to placate the locals). Faced with a hostile population, Cortés decided to flee for Tlaxcala. During the Noche Triste (June 30 – July 1, 1520), the Spaniards managed a narrow escape from Tenochtitlán across the Tlacopan causeway, while their rearguard was being massacred. Much of the treasure looted by Cortés was lost (as well as his artillery) during this panicked escape from Tenochtitlán.

Destruction of Tenochtitlán
After a battle in Otumba, they managed to reach Tlaxcala, having lost 870 men. With the assistance of their allies, Cortés's men finally prevailed with reinforcements arriving from Cuba. Cortés began a policy of attrition towards Tenochtitlán, cutting off supplies and subduing the Aztecs' allied cities. During the siege he would construct brigantines in the lake and slowly destroy blocks of the city to avoid fighting in an urban setting. The Mexicas would fall back to Tlatelolco and even succeed in ambushing the pursuing Spanish forces, inflicting heavy losses, but would ultimately be the last portion of the island that resisted the conquistadores. The siege of Tenochtitlan ended with Spanish victory and the destruction of the city.

In January 1521, Cortés countered a conspiracy against him, headed by Antonio de Villafana, who was hanged for the offense. Finally, with the capture of Cuauhtémoc, the tlatoani (ruler) of Tenochtitlán, on August 13, 1521, the Aztec Empire was captured, and Cortés was able to claim it for Spain, thus renaming the city Mexico City. From 1521 to 1524, Cortés personally governed Mexico.

Appointment to governorship of Mexico and internal dissensions

Many historical sources have conveyed an impression that Cortés was unjustly treated by the Spanish Crown, and that he received nothing but ingratitude for his role in establishing New Spain. This picture is the one Cortés presents in his letters and in the later biography written by Francisco López de Gómara. However, there may be more to the picture than this. Cortés's own sense of accomplishment, entitlement, and vanity may have played a part in his deteriorating position with the king:

"Cortés personally was not ungenerously rewarded, but he speedily complained of insufficient compensation to himself and his comrades. Thinking himself beyond reach of restraint, he disobeyed many of the orders of the Crown, and, what was more imprudent, said so in a letter to the emperor, dated October 15, 1524 (Ycazbalceta, 'Documentos para la Historia de México', Mexico, 1858, I). In this letter Cortés, besides recalling in a rather abrupt manner that the conquest of Mexico was due to him alone, deliberately acknowledges his disobedience in terms which could not fail to create a most unfavourable impression."

King Charles appointed Cortés as governor, captain general and chief justice of the newly conquered territory, dubbed "New Spain of the Ocean Sea". But also, much to the dismay of Cortés, four royal officials were appointed at the same time to assist him in his governing—in effect, submitting him to close observation and administration. Cortés initiated the construction of Mexico City, destroying Aztec temples and buildings and then rebuilding on the Aztec ruins what soon became the most important European city in the Americas.

Cortés managed the founding of new cities and appointed men to extend Spanish rule to all of New Spain, imposing the encomienda system in 1524. He reserved many encomiendas for himself and for his retinue, which they considered just rewards for their accomplishment in conquering central Mexico. However, later arrivals and members of factions antipathetic to Cortés complained of the favoritism that excluded them.

In 1523, the Crown (possibly influenced by Cortés's enemy, Bishop Fonseca), sent a military force under the command of Francisco de Garay to conquer and settle the northern part of Mexico, the region of Pánuco. This was another setback for Cortés who mentioned this in his fourth letter to the King in which he describes himself as the victim of a conspiracy by his archenemies Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, Diego Columbus and Bishop Fonseca as well as Francisco Garay. The influence of Garay was effectively stopped by this appeal to the King who sent out a decree forbidding Garay to interfere in the politics of New Spain, causing him to give up without a fight.

Royal grant of arms (1525)
Although Cortés had flouted the authority of Diego Velázquez in sailing to the mainland and then leading an expedition of conquest, Cortés's spectacular success was rewarded by the crown with a coat of arms, a mark of high honor, following the conqueror's request. The document granting the coat of arms summarizes Cortés's accomplishments in the conquest of Mexico. The proclamation of the king says in part:

"We, respecting the many labors, dangers, and adventures which you underwent as stated above, and so that there might remain a perpetual memorial of you and your services and that you and your descendants might be more fully honored ... it is our will that besides your coat of arms of your lineage, which you have, you may have and bear as your coat of arms, known and recognized, a shield ..."

The grant specifies the iconography of the coat of arms, the central portion divided into quadrants. In the upper portion, there is a "black eagle with two heads on a white field, which are the arms of the empire". Below that is a "golden lion on a red field, in memory of the fact that you, the said Hernando Cortés, by your industry and effort brought matters to the state described above" (i.e., the conquest). The specificity of the other two quadrants is linked directly to Mexico, with one quadrant showing three crowns representing the three Aztec emperors of the conquest era, Moctezuma, Cuitlahuac, and Cuauhtemoc and the other showing the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Encircling the central shield are symbols of the seven city-states around the lake and their lords that Cortés defeated, with the lords "to be shown as prisoners bound with a chain which shall be closed with a lock beneath the shield".

Death of his first wife and remarriage
Cortés's wife Catalina Súarez arrived in New Spain around summer 1522, along with her sister and brother. His marriage to Catalina was at this point extremely awkward, since she was a kinswoman of the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez, whose authority Cortés had thrown off and who was therefore now his enemy. Catalina lacked the noble title of doña, so at this point his marriage with her no longer raised his status. Their marriage had been childless. Since Cortés had sired children with a variety of indigenous women, including a son around 1522 by his cultural translator, Doña Marina, Cortés knew he was capable of fathering children. Cortés's only male heir at this point was illegitimate, but nonetheless named after Cortés's father, Martín Cortés. This son Martín Cortés was also popularly called "El Mestizo".

Catalina Suárez died under mysterious circumstances the night of November 1–2, 1522. There were accusations at the time that Cortés had murdered his wife. There was an investigation into her death, interviewing a variety of household residents and others. The documentation of the investigation was published in the nineteenth century in Mexico and these archival documents were uncovered in the twentieth century. The death of Catalina Suárez produced a scandal and investigation, but Cortés was now free to marry someone of high status more appropriate to his wealth and power. In 1526, he built an imposing residence for himself, the Palace of Cortés in Cuernavaca, in a region close to the capital where he had extensive encomienda holdings. In 1529 he had been accorded the noble designation of don, but more importantly was given the noble title of Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca and married the Spanish noblewoman Doña Juana de Zúñiga. The marriage produced three children, including another son, who was also named Martín. As the first-born legitimate son, Don Martín Cortés y Zúñiga was now Cortés's heir and succeeded him as holder of the title and estate of the Marquessate of the Valley of Oaxaca. Cortés's legitimate daughters were Doña Maria, Doña Catalina, and Doña Juana.

Cortés and the "Spiritual Conquest" of Mexico
Since the conversion to Christianity of indigenous peoples was an essential and integral part of the extension of Spanish power, making formal provisions for that conversion once the military conquest was completed was an important task for Cortés. During the Age of Discovery, the Catholic Church had seen early attempts at conversion in the Caribbean islands by Spanish friars, particularly the mendicant orders. Cortés made a request to the Spanish monarch to send Franciscan and Dominican friars to Mexico to convert the vast indigenous populations to Christianity. In his fourth letter to the king, Cortés pleaded for friars rather than diocesan or secular priests because those clerics were in his view a serious danger to the Indians' conversion.

"If these people [Indians] were now to see the affairs of the Church and the service of God in the hands of canons or other dignitaries, and saw them indulge in the vices and profanities now common in Spain, knowing that such men were the ministers of God, it would bring our Faith into much harm that I believe any further preaching would be of no avail."

He wished the mendicants to be the main evangelists. Mendicant friars did not usually have full priestly powers to perform all the sacraments needed for conversion of the Indians and growth of the neophytes in the Christian faith, so Cortés laid out a solution to this to the king.

"Your Majesty should likewise beseech His Holiness [the pope] to grant these powers to the two principal persons in the religious orders that are to come here, and that they should be his delegates, one from the Order of St. Francis and the other from the Order of St. Dominic. They should bring the most extensive powers Your Majesty is able to obtain, for, because these lands are so far from the Church of Rome, and we, the Christians who now reside here and shall do so in the future, are so far from the proper remedies of our consciences and, as we are human, so subject to sin, it is essential that His Holiness should be generous with us and grant to these persons most extensive powers, to be handed down to persons actually in residence here whether it be given to the general of each order or to his provincials."

The Franciscans arrived in May 1524, a symbolically powerful group of twelve known as the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, led by Fray Martín de Valencia. Franciscan Geronimo de Mendieta claimed that Cortés's most important deed was the way he met this first group of Franciscans. The conqueror himself was said to have met the friars as they approached the capital, kneeling at the feet of the friars who had walked from the coast. This story was told by Franciscans to demonstrate Cortés piety and humility and was a powerful message to all, including the Indians, that Cortés's earthly power was subordinate to the spiritual power of the friars. However, one of the first twelve Franciscans, Fray Toribio de Benavente Motolinia does not mention it in his history. Cortés and the Franciscans had a particularly strong alliance in Mexico, with Franciscans seeing him as "the new Moses" for conquering Mexico and opening it to Christian evangelization. In Motolinia's 1555 response to Dominican Bartolomé de Las Casas, he praises Cortés.

"And as to those who murmur against the Marqués del Valle [Cortés], God rest him, and who try to blacken and obscure his deeds, I believe that before God their deeds are not as acceptable as those of the Marqués. Although as a human he was a sinner, he had faith and works of a good Christian, and a great desire to employ his life and property in widening and augmenting the fair of Jesus Christ, and dying for the conversion of these gentiles ... Who has loved and defended the Indians of this new world like Cortés? ... Through this captain, God opened the door for us to preach his holy gospel and it was he who caused the Indians to revere the holy sacraments and respect the ministers of the church."

In Fray Bernardino de Sahagún's 1585 revision of the conquest narrative first codified as Book XII of the Florentine Codex, there are laudatory references to Cortés that do not appear in the earlier text from the indigenous perspective. Whereas Book XII of the Florentine Codex concludes with an account of Spaniards' search for gold, in Sahagún's 1585 revised account, he ends with praise of Cortés for requesting the Franciscans be sent to Mexico to convert the Indians.

Expedition to Honduras (1524–1526)
From 1524 to 1526, Cortés headed an expedition to Honduras where he defeated Cristóbal de Olid, who had claimed Honduras as his own under the influence of the Governor of Cuba Diego Velázquez. Fearing that Cuauhtémoc might head an insurrection in Mexico, he brought him with him to Honduras. In a controversial move, Cuauhtémoc was executed during the journey. Raging over Olid's treason, Cortés issued a decree to arrest Velázquez, whom he was sure was behind Olid's treason. This, however, only served to further estrange the Crown of Castile and the Council of Indies, both of which were already beginning to feel anxious about Cortés's rising power.

Cortés's fifth letter to King Charles attempts to justify his conduct, concludes with a bitter attack on "various and powerful rivals and enemies" who have "obscured the eyes of your Majesty". Charles, who was also Holy Roman Emperor, had little time for distant colonies (much of Charles's reign was taken up with wars with France, the German Protestants and the expanding Ottoman Empire), except insofar as they contributed to finance his wars. In 1521, year of the Conquest, Charles was attending to matters in his German domains and Bishop Adrian of Utrecht functioned as regent in Spain.

Velázquez and Fonseca persuaded the regent to appoint a commissioner (a Juez de residencia, Luis Ponce de León) with powers to investigate Cortés's conduct and even arrest him. Cortés was once quoted as saying that it was "more difficult to contend against [his] own countrymen than against the Aztecs." Governor Diego Velázquez continued to be a thorn in his side, teaming up with Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, chief of the Spanish colonial department, to undermine him in the Council of the Indies.

A few days after Cortés's return from his expedition, Ponce de León suspended Cortés from his office of governor of New Spain. The Licentiate then fell ill and died shortly after his arrival, appointing Marcos de Aguilar as alcalde mayor. The aged Aguilar also became sick and appointed Alonso de Estrada governor, who was confirmed in his functions by a royal decree in August 1527. Cortés, suspected of poisoning them, refrained from taking over the government.

Estrada sent Diego de Figueroa to the south. De Figueroa raided graveyards and extorted contributions, meeting his end when the ship carrying these treasures sank. Albornoz persuaded Alonso de Estrada to release Gonzalo de Salazar and Chirinos. When Cortés complained angrily after one of his adherents' hands was cut off, Estrada ordered him exiled. Cortés sailed for Spain in 1528 to appeal to King Charles.

First return to Spain (1528) and Marquessate of the Valley of Oaxaca
In 1528, Cortés returned to Spain to appeal to the justice of his master, Charles V. Juan Altamirano and Alonso Valiente stayed in Mexico and acted as Cortés's representatives during his absence. Cortés presented himself with great splendor before Charles V's court. By this time Charles had returned and Cortés forthrightly responded to his enemy's charges. Denying he had held back on gold due the crown, he showed that he had contributed more than the quinto (one-fifth) required. Indeed, he had spent lavishly to build the new capital of Mexico City on the ruins of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, leveled during the siege that brought down the Aztec empire.

He was received by Charles with every distinction, and decorated with the order of Santiago. In return for his efforts in expanding the still young Spanish Empire, Cortés was rewarded in 1529 by being accorded the noble title of don but more importantly named the "Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca" (Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca) and married the Spanish noblewoman Doña Juana Zúñiga, after the 1522 death of his much less distinguished first wife, Catalina Suárez. The noble title and senorial estate of the Marquesado was passed down to his descendants until 1811. The Oaxaca Valley was one of the wealthiest regions of New Spain, and Cortés had 23,000 vassals in 23 named encomiendas in perpetuity.

Although confirmed in his land holdings and vassals, he was not reinstated as governor and was never again given any important office in the administration of New Spain. During his travel to Spain, his property was mismanaged by abusive colonial administrators. He sided with local natives in a lawsuit. The natives documented the abuses in the Huexotzinco Codex.

The entailed estate and title passed to his legitimate son Don Martín Cortés upon Cortés's death in 1547, who became the Second Marquess. Don Martín's association with the so-called Encomenderos' Conspiracy endangered the entailed holdings, but they were restored and remained the continuing reward for Hernán Cortés's family through the generations.

Return to Mexico (1530) and appointment of a viceroy (1535)
Cortés returned to Mexico in 1530 with new titles and honors. Although Cortés still retained military authority and permission to continue his conquests, Don Antonio de Mendoza was appointed in 1535 as a viceroy to administer New Spain's civil affairs. This division of power led to continual dissension, and caused the failure of several enterprises in which Cortés was engaged. On returning to Mexico, Cortés found the country in a state of anarchy. There was a strong suspicion in court circles of an intended rebellion by Cortés.

After reasserting his position and reestablishing some sort of order, Cortés retired to his estates at Cuernavaca, about 30 mi south of Mexico City. There he concentrated on the building of his palace and on Pacific exploration. Remaining in Mexico between 1530 and 1541, Cortés quarreled with Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán and disputed the right to explore the territory that is today California with Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy.

Cortés acquired several silver mines in Zumpango del Rio in 1534. By the early 1540s, he owned 20 silver mines in Sultepec, 12 in Taxco, and 3 in Zacualpan. Earlier, Cortés had claimed the silver in the Tamazula area.

In 1536, Cortés explored the northwestern part of Mexico and discovered the Baja California peninsula. Cortés also spent time exploring the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Gulf of California was originally named the Sea of Cortés by its discoverer Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. This was the last major expedition by Cortés.

Second return to Spain
After his exploration of Baja California, Cortés returned to Spain in 1541, hoping to confound his angry civilians, who had brought many lawsuits against him (for debts, abuse of power, etc.). On his return he went through a crowd to speak to the emperor, who demanded of him who he was. "I am a man," replied Cortés, "who has given you more provinces than your ancestors left you cities."

Expedition against Algiers
The emperor finally permitted Cortés to join him and his fleet commanded by Andrea Doria at the great expedition against Algiers in the Barbary Coast in 1541, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. During this campaign, Cortés was almost drowned in a storm that hit his fleet while he was pursuing the Pasha of Algiers.

Last years, death, and remains
Having spent a great deal of his own money to finance expeditions, he was now heavily in debt. In February 1544 he made a claim on the royal treasury, but was ignored for the next three years. Disgusted, he decided to return to Mexico in 1547. When he reached Seville, he was stricken with dysentery. He died in Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville province, on December 2, 1547, from a case of pleurisy at the age of 62.

He left his many mestizo and white children well cared for in his will, along with every one of their mothers. He requested in his will that his remains eventually be buried in Mexico. Before he died he had the Pope remove the "natural" status of four of his children (legitimizing them in the eyes of the church), including Martín, the son he had with Doña Marina (also known as La Malinche), said to be his favourite. His daughter, Doña Catalina, however, died shortly after her father's death. After his death, his body was moved more than eight times for several reasons. On December 4, 1547, he was buried in the mausoleum of the Duke of Medina in the church of San Isidoro del Campo, Sevilla. Three years later (1550) due to the space being required by the duke, his body was moved to the altar of Santa Catarina in the same church. In his testament, Cortés asked for his body to be buried in the monastery he had ordered to be built in Coyoacan in México, ten years after his death, but the monastery was never built. So in 1566, his body was sent to New Spain and buried in the church of San Francisco de Texcoco, where his mother and one of his sisters were buried. In 1629, Cortes's last male descendant Don Pedro Cortés, fourth Marquez del Valle, died. The viceroy decided to move the bones of Cortés along with those of his descendant to the Franciscan church in México. This was delayed for nine years, while his body stayed in the main room of the palace of the viceroy. Eventually it was moved to the Sagrario of Franciscan church, where it stayed for 87 years. In 1716, it was moved to another place in the same church. In 1794, his bones were moved to the "Hospital de Jesus" (founded by Cortés), where a statue by Tolsá and a mausoleum were made. There was a public ceremony and all the churches in the city rang their bells.

In 1823, after the independence of México, it seemed imminent that his body would be desecrated, so the mausoleum was removed, the statue and the coat of arms were sent to Palermo, Sicily, to be protected by the Duke of Terranova. The bones were hidden, and everyone thought that they had been sent out of México. In 1836, his bones were moved to another place in the same building.

It was not until November 24, 1946, that they were rediscovered, thanks to the discovery of a secret document by Lucas Alamán. His bones were put in the charge of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). The remains were authenticated by INAH. They were then restored to the same place, this time with a bronze inscription and his coat of arms. When the bones were first rediscovered, the supporters of the Hispanic tradition in Mexico were excited, but one supporter of an indigenist vision of Mexico "proposed that the remains be publicly burned in front of the statue of Cuauhtemoc, and the ashes flung into the air". Following the discovery and authentication of Cortés's remains, there was a discovery of what were described as the bones of Cuauhtémoc, resulting in a "battle of the bones".

On December 16, 1560, the lawsuits related to vassals of the Cortes estate were resolved by a royal order issued by Philip II.

Taxa named after Cortés
Cortés is commemorated in the scientific name of a subspecies of Mexican lizard, Phrynosoma orbiculare cortezii.

Disputed interpretation of his life
There are relatively few sources to the early life of Cortés; his fame arose from his participation in the conquest of Mexico and it was only after this that people became interested in reading and writing about him.

Probably the best source is his letters to the king which he wrote during the campaign in Mexico, but they are written with the specific purpose of putting his efforts in a favourable light and so must be read critically. Another main source is the biography written by Cortés's private chaplain Lopez de Gómara, which was written in Spain several years after the conquest. Gómara never set foot in the Americas and knew only what Cortés had told him, and he had an affinity for knightly romantic stories which he incorporated richly in the biography. The third major source is written as a reaction to what its author calls "the lies of Gomara", the eyewitness account written by the Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo which does not paint Cortés as a romantic hero, but rather tries to emphasize that Cortés's men should also be remembered as important participants in the undertakings in Mexico. In the years following the conquest more critical accounts of the Spanish arrival in Mexico were written. The Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote his A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies which raises strong accusations of brutality and heinous violence towards the Indians; accusations against both the conquistadors in general and Cortés in particular. The accounts of the conquest given in the Florentine Codex by the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún and his native informants are also less than flattering towards Cortés. The scarcity of these sources has led to a sharp division in the description of Cortés's personality and a tendency to describe him as either a vicious and ruthless person or a noble and honorable cavalier.

Representations in Mexico
In México there are few representations of Cortés. However, many landmarks still bear his name, from the castle Palacio de Cortés in the city of Cuernavaca to some street names throughout the republic.

The pass between the volcanoes Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl where Cortés took his soldiers on their march to Mexico City. It is known as the Paso de Cortés.

The muralist Diego Rivera painted several representation of him but the most famous, depicts him as a powerful and ominous figure along with Malinche in a mural in the National Palace in Mexico City.

In 1981, President Lopez Portillo tried to bring Cortés to public recognition. First, he made public a copy of the bust of Cortés made by Manuel Tolsá in the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno with an official ceremony, but soon a nationalist group tried to destroy it, so it had to be taken out of the public. Today the copy of the bust is in the "Hospital de Jesús Nazareno" while the original is in Naples, Italy, in the Villa Pignatelli.

Later, another monument, known as "Monumento al Mestizaje" by Julián Martínez y M. Maldonado (1982) was commissioned by Mexican president José López Portillo to be put in the "Zócalo" (Main square) of Coyoacan, near the place of his country house, but it had to be removed to a little known park, the Jardín Xicoténcatl, Barrio de San Diego Churubusco, to quell protests. The statue depicts Cortés, Malinche and their son Martín.

There is another statue by Sebastián Aparicio, in Cuernavaca, was in a hotel "El casino de la selva". Cortés is barely recognizable, so it sparked little interest. The hotel was closed to make a commercial center, and the statue was put out of public display by Costco the builder of the commercial center.

Cultural depictions
Hernán Cortés is a character in the opera La Conquista (2005) by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero, which depicts the major episodes of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521.

Writings: the Cartas de Relación
Cortés's personal account of the conquest of Mexico is narrated in his five letters addressed to Charles V. These five letters, the cartas de relación, are Cortés's only surviving writings. See "Letters and Dispatches of Cortés", translated by George Folsom (New York, 1843); Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" (Boston, 1843); and Sir Arthur Helps's "Life of Hernando Cortes" (London, 1871).

His first letter was considered lost, and the one from the municipality of Veracruz has to take its place. It was published for the first time in volume IV of "Documentos para la Historia de España", and subsequently reprinted.

The Segunda Carta de Relacion, bearing the date of October 30, 1520, appeared in print at Seville in 1522. The third letter, dated May 15, 1522, appeared at Seville in 1523. The fourth, October 20, 1524, was printed at Toledo in 1525. The fifth, on the Honduras expedition, is contained in volume IV of the Documentos para la Historia de España.

Children
Natural children of Don Hernán Cortés
 * doña Catalina Pizarro, born between 1514 and 1515 in Santiago de Cuba or maybe later in Nueva España, daughter of an indigenous woman in Cuba, Leonor Pizarro. Doña Catalina married Juan de Salcedo, a conqueror and encomendero, with whom she had a son, Pedro.
 * don Martín Cortés, born in Coyoacán in 1522, son of doña Marina (La Malinche), called the First Mestizo; about him was written The New World of Martín Cortés; married doña Bernaldina de Porras and had two children:
 * doña Ana Cortés
 * don Fernando Cortés, Principal Judge of Veracruz. Descendants of this line are alive today in Mexico.
 * don Luis Cortés, born in 1525, son of doña Antonia or Elvira Hermosillo, a native of Trujillo (Cáceres)
 * doña Leonor Cortés Moctezuma, born in 1527 or 1528 in Ciudad de Mexico, daughter of Aztec princess Tecuichpotzin (baptized Isabel), born in Tenochtitlan on July 11, 1510, and died on July 9, 1550, the eldest legitimate daughter of Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin and wife doña María Miahuaxuchitl; married to Juan de Tolosa, a Basque merchant and miner.
 * doña María Cortés de Moctezuma, daughter of an Aztec princess; nothing more is known about her except that she probably was born with some deformity.

He married twice: firstly in Cuba to Catalina Suárez Marcaida, who died at Coyoacán in 1522 without issue, and secondly in 1529 to doña Juana Ramírez de Arellano de Zúñiga, daughter of don Carlos Ramírez de Arellano, 2nd Count of Aguilar and wife the Countess doña Juana de Zúñiga, and had:
 * don Luis Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, born in Texcoco in 1530 and died shortly after his birth.
 * doña Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca in 1531 and died shortly after her birth.
 * don Martín Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, 2nd Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca, born in Cuernavaca in 1532, married at Nalda on February 24, 1548, his twice cousin once removed doña Ana Ramírez de Arellano y Ramírez de Arellano and had issue, currently extinct in male line
 * doña María Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, married to don Luis de Quiñones y Pimentel, 5th Count of Luna
 * doña Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, died unmarried in Sevilla after the funeral of her father
 * doña Juana Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, married Don Fernando Enríquez de Ribera y Portocarrero, 2nd Duke of Alcalá de los Gazules, 3rd Marquess of Tarifa and 6th Count of Los Molares, and had issue

In popular culture

 * Hernán Cortés (called by the Italian form of his name, "Fernando") is the hero of Antonio Vivaldi's 1733 opera Motezuma.
 * Cortés features as an antagonist in the 1980 novel Aztec by Gary Jennings.
 * Cortés was portrayed (as "Hernando Cortez") by actor Cesar Romero in the 1947 historical adventure film Captain from Castile.
 * Cortés is the villain of "Idol of Death", the 21st episode of The Time Tunnel (1967).
 * "Cortez the Killer", a 1975 song by Neil Young
 * In 1986, Polish illustrator Jerzy Wróblewski created a 48-page comic book titled Hernán Cortés i podbój Meksyku (Hernán Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico). The comic book, based on historical chronicles, narrated Cortés's life, concentrating on the titular 1519–1521 period; it was noted for its realistic depictions of violence, unusual in Polish comic books of the era.
 * Cortés is an ambiguous character in the 2000 animated movie The Road to El Dorado, voiced by Jim Cummings
 * Cortes played by Óscar Jaenada, is a morally ambiguous protagonist in the 2019 eight-episode TV series Hernán.

title: Hernán Cortés


text:
Herstory

Herstory is a term for history written from a feminist perspective and emphasizing the role of women, or told from a woman's point of view. It originated as an alteration of the word "history", as part of a feminist critique of conventional historiography, which in their opinion is traditionally written as "his story", i.e., from the male point of view. The term is a neologism and a deliberate play on words; the word "history"—via Latin historia from the Ancient Greek word ἱστορία, a noun meaning 'knowledge obtained by inquiry'— is etymologically unrelated to the possessive pronoun his.

Usage
The Oxford English Dictionary credits Robin Morgan with first using the term "herstory" in print in her 1970 anthology Sisterhood is Powerful. Concerning the feminist organization W.I.T.C.H., Morgan wrote:

 * The fluidity and wit of the witches is evident in the ever-changing acronym: the basic, original title was Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell [...] and the latest heard at this writing is Women Inspired to Commit Herstory.

During the 1970s and 1980s, second-wave feminists saw the study of history as a male-dominated intellectual enterprise and presented "herstory" as a means of compensation. The term, intended to be both serious and comic, became a rallying cry used on T-shirts and buttons as well as in academia.

In 2017, Hridith Sudev, an inventor, environmentalist and social activist associated with various youth movements, launched 'The Herstory Movement,' an online platform to "celebrate lesser known great persons; female, queer or otherwise marginalized, who helped shape the modern World History." It is intended as an academic platform to feature stories of female historic persons and thus help facilitate more widespread knowledge about 'Great Women' History.

Non-profit organizations Global G.L.O.W and LitWorld created a joint initiative called the "HerStory Campaign". This campaign works with 25 other countries to share girl's lives and stories. They encourage others to join the campaign and to "raise our voices on behalf of all world's girls".

The herstory movement has spawned women-centered presses, such as Virago Press in 1973, which publishes fiction and non-fiction by noted women authors like Janet Frame and Sarah Dunant.

This movement has led to an increase in activity in other female-centric disciplines such as femistry and galgebra.

Criticism
Christina Hoff Sommers has been a vocal critic of the concept of herstory, and presented her argument against the movement in her 1994 book Who Stole Feminism? Sommers defined herstory as an attempt to infuse education with ideology at the expense of knowledge. The "gender feminists", as she called them, were the group of feminists responsible for the movement, which she felt amounted to negationism. She regarded most attempts to make historical studies more female-inclusive as being artificial in nature and an impediment to progress.

Professor and author Devoney Looser has criticized the concept of herstory for overlooking the contributions that some women made as historians before the twentieth century.

Author Richard Dawkins also described his criticism in The God Delusion, arguing that "the word history has not been influenced by the male pronoun".

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Herstory


text:
Talk:Hillbilly

Modern Usage
Re modern usage, does the term still only apply to people from mountainous areas? I haven't noticed it being any more specific in this regard than "redneck." 68.105.109.51 22:53, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

The supporters of William of Orange were not known as Orangemen, as far as I know. I don't think that term would have come into usage until the founding of the Orange Order, in 1795.

''I am not deleting any of this, even though most of it violates NPOV. That doesn't bother me so much as the extraordinary lack of knowledge on display. For suggestions, it would be good to note that hillbillies as a term is no longer perjorative, "hillbillies" can be found in Texas, Arkansas, Southern Indiana etc. Historically, in Appalachia, the role of (king) coal and mining towns cannot be overlooked. And of course, Junior Johnson, Dolly Parton and a host of others hailing from Appalachia, who have so greatly enriched modern culture, should certainly be discussed here, in context.''

I'm not going to defend my writing in this case as expert, but lets look at a few things. most people still consider hillbilly to be an insult. just because alcohol is illegal, doesn't make it nonexistent. The reason that its production was popular in the mountains was exactly because it was so isolated.

 * I never said non-existent. Just off the top of my head I could give precise directions to the remains of a still in Scott's Gulf, White County, Tennessee, walk you right there. (From Crossville, take a left on Stringtown road, drive to the gravel road on the right leading to Virgin Falls, continue on this road past Virgin Falls to the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, call me on your cell phone from there... I will walk you in...:) The issue was occurrence and motivation.

I tended to focus on the extreme examples, but that is what is interesting to me. It probably is more folkloric than factual. If you hate it so much, then fix it or remove the parts you think are false. you have demonstrated some personal knowledge, so lets see it.

 * Relax. This will be as hard to write as white trash, but there is no particular hurry. Couple of things need to be done: Most of our discussion needs to move to a talk page, where anyone interested can hammer out the details. Quite a bit of what you wrote could be resurrected as popular folklore associated with hillbillies. The main subject matter needs to wikied to Appalachian folk life and customs, etc. And there surely must be links to Li'l Abner and Snuffy Smith.

Oh, and another thing. Who said the article was done? write about the damn coal mines and dolly parton.

 * Slow down! Stop ranting! Presenting what you wrote as "Folklore associated with hillbillies" or some such thing sounds like a great idea. It would much more accurate, and would help flesh out a better article. Dolly Parton and King Coal deserve (long) first class articles, but both subjects will difficult and time consuming to write.

I'm sorry, the quality of my judgement in writing tends to wax and wane. I was already mad about a particular argument in Osama bin Laden, so I flipped out. Please accept my apologies.

 * No problem. I pledge to _not_ use the word "ridiculous" to characterize an argument anymore.  :)  I did do some work on Dolly's page...

I think I have an old national geographic (one of many hundreds I now own I'm afraid) that details appalachian life in the 1960's, and my old college had a book on appalachian english "dialects" so maybe I'll dredge up some unique info after all. --Alan D. (not sjc)

--- Could someone please expand, about Hillbilly culture, it's image in american culture, etc? especially for us non-american readers. thanks.

 * "Hillbilly" is a pejorative applied to Appalachian Americans, generally. Its origins are with the migration of Scots and Irish and Germans to the Appalachian lands in the early 19th century.  Essentially, settlement in the southeastern United States followed the forced expulsion of the American Indians, so the first settlers were along the coast ("Piedmont"), then in the uplands, and then the mountains.  Thus, the coastal folks regarded the uplanders as newcomers, as poor, and as uncouth.  They, in turn, regarded the mountain people as poor, uncouth, and ignorant.  To some degree, this is anti-immigrant hostility.  However, each wave of English language settlers also brought with it a later version of British English that was preserved as an isolate and/or a different regional selection of British English.  People in eastern North Carolina, eastern South Carolina, and southern Georgia speak a different dialect from those in W. NC, W. SC, N. GA, and all of Alabama.  Both of these speak yet a different dialect from those living in the Appalachain Mountains.  When both of the first two waves of immigrants had grown prosperous (cotton, first, transportation and tobacco for the second group), the hill folks were still poor.  They remained poor (terrible land for farming) and isolated into the 2nd half of the 20th century.  When these people came down into the metropolitain areas of, for example, Atlanta, Columbia, or Raleigh, they spoke "funny," had "funny" vocabulary, and were exploited as cheap labor.  They were derided as "hillbillies."  Some adopted the term themselves (as, of course, some Irish would call themselves "micks," some Italians "wops," some African Americans "nigger") and attempted to redefine it as a point of pride (e.g. some types of country music will boast of being "hillbilly").  The dialect has recently been spreading (as the mid-Georgia/W. SC/W. NC dialect had, earlier) as prosperity is reaching the edges of this region.  The price is, of course, that there is less and less "hillbilly" culture, because part of the spread is prosperity and travel, and those things are the negation of some of what was "hillbilly" characteristic.  (Now, also, there is less "hillbilly" and more regional identification, as, for example, in West Virginia and western Virginia, where the group identifier is much less "hillbilly" than "coal folks" and "hill folks.")  Geogre 01:30, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Oh, and let me add to that something I had forgotten. People from the Appalachains themselves migrated, and the same group that settled there settled other places.  Hence, in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas you also have "hillbillies," as these "Arkies" would later, during the Dust Bowl, migrate (along with the Okies) to California and Oregon and get called hillbillies by other economic migrants.  Those Ozarks settlers were the same Scots and Germans as had moved to the Appalachains.  Generally, the term is a term of abuse, and it's applied when folks leave the mountains and come in contact with other, lowland folks.  The name of the dialect is, by the way, Hillspar.  There are two versions of it, at least.  (The West Virginia coal country mountain dialect is different from the E. Tennessee and N. Georgia dialect, and both of these are different from the Arkansas Ozarks dialect (although it is much closer to the TN and GA version).)  Geogre 12:36, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I've never heard of this dialect "Hillspar". I Googled it and came up with few hits that referenced it, and none that defined it authoritatively.  Does anyone know anything more about it?  I've read of the language of Appalachia called Southern Midland, Highland, or Appalachian, but never Hillspar.  Eastcote (talk) 22:02, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Clean up
Hell everyone, I have gone over this article a bit. It still needs significant cleanup, expansion, fact checking, spellchecking, copy-editing, wikifying, etc, etc... but I think it has great potential. Let's see if we can make it a feature article. -- FirstPrinciples 13:27, Feb 8, 2005 (UTC)

Also guys, remember to sign your talk page posts with four tildes ( ~ ) so we can keep track of who's commenting ;) -- FirstPrinciples 13:29, Feb 8, 2005 (UTC)

Could this term have orginated out of the feuds between highlander lowlander Scots?
Could this term have orginated out of the feuds between highlander lowlander Scots?

 * There's a definite Ulster connection through "Billy Boy", which is still a common term back home. -- Pat Mustard 15:02, Jul 4, 2005 (UTC)

Its more likely the term 'redneck' came from the Irish ginger hair gene, or propensity to sunburn. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hachimanchu (talk • contribs) 03:59, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Yokel
It is a bit odd that "yokel" redirects here, but its etymology is not explained. -- Beland 21:52, 18 December 2005 (UTC) Barbara Shack 15:42, 25 March 2006 (UTC)Yokel has an article of its own now.

On removing Image:Cletus.gif and accusations of vandalism
I note the uncivil edit summary with which Fred Chessplayer's removal of Image:Cletus.gif was reverted by User:Abelson. Abelson, please refrain from referring to obviously good-faith edits as "vandalism". That is considered a personal attack. "RTFT" is rude and uncouth and notably uncalled for, considering that the "fucking tag" on the image description page supports Fred's action, not yours. It says: ... It is believed that the use of this photograph to illustrate the person, product, or event in question, in the absence of a free alternative... qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law. Other use of this image, on Wikipedia or elsewhere, may be copyright infringement.". Bolding in original. That would mean the image is fair use in an article about the Simpsons, not anywhere else. Cletus is a Simpsons character, not a generalized hillbilly. I have removed the image again, please don't put it back. Thank you. Bishonen | talk 19:21, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Regardless of the tone in which Abelson's objection was expressed, I believe he/she was right. Looking at the four factors used to judge fair use, I find it unimaginable that a noncommercial, nonprofit, educational use of a single image from a 30-minute cartoon, in no way undercutting the market value of that cartoon (and if anything promoting it), would not qualify as fair use--unless no use of a Simpsons image would ever qualify.  (The fact that this image would illustrate a page about hillbillies and not about the Simpsons would not seem to be legally relevant.)

 * As far as the relevance of the image to the article, I find it hard to think of a major element of the hillbilly stereotype that Cletus does not illustrate. He's as much a hillbilly as Lil' Abner or Snuffy Smith, and far more widely known to the contemporary culture, I would think.

 * I would strongly support restoring the image. Nareek 13:44, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
 * The point I was making isn't to do with market value or with the use being non-commercial and educational, but is purely about what the image can fairly be used to illustrate. What makes you think that that's not legally relevant? You say "unless no use of a Simpsons image would ever qualify" as if you think that proposition self-evidently absurd, but it isn't. No use of a Simpsons image would ever qualify for illustrating anything other than the Simpsons. If my partial quote above of the tag on the Image:Cletus.gif page doesn't convince, could you please click on the link and read the whole of it? Are you aware of Jimbo Wales' new, much stricter, policy with regard to Fair Use images? If you reinsert that image here, I would say the image itself is likely to get deleted. Bishonen | talk 17:51, 14 January 2006 (UTC).
 * No, I'm not aware of Wales' new Fair Use policy; a link would be helpful. I am pretty familiar with the concept of Fair Use, and I don't see how--legally speaking--using Cletus' image to illustrate an article on the Simpsons would be different than using it to illustrate an article on Hillbillys. Which of the four factors would that affect? If Wales wants to use a Fair Use standard on his website that's stricter than the legal standard, that's up to him, but I hate to see people thinking that their actual rights are less than they really are. Nareek 19:09, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

 * OK, I've now read Fair Use, and I have a better understanding of the issues now.  One point is that Wikipedia has to be careful with Fair Use because while Wikipedia itself is nonprofit and noncommercial, others who use Wikipedia's content may not be--so there is a slightly higher standard to be met. But from the description of what is and isn't Fair Use for Wikipedia, it's still clear that a picture of Cletus used to illustrate the Hillbilly stereotype would be safely in the Fair Use category: It's the use of an image for purposes of critical commentary on that image, the same standard type of Fair Use that allows book reviewers to quote passages from books without first getting permission from the publishers.

 * I'm not going to put the image back, but I think you ought to. Nareek 19:09, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Thank you for being so reasonable — I don't hate images either. I did try to find a good link for you, sorry. I realize it would help. But I'm afraid you've lost me with the "for purposes of critical commentary on that image, the same standard type of Fair Use that allows book reviewers to quote passages from books without first getting permission from the publishers" — I just don't see any similarity. Where's the critical commentary on the image? (And if there was some, what would it be doing in this article?) Do you mean the "are stereotypical hillbillies" phrase... ? That's not commentary on the image. Well, never mind, I think we've reached a plateau in any case. I've asked a user who does a lot of work in this area, Gmaxwell, to take a look at the issue. I'd like to wait for him, if that's all right. Bishonen | talk 19:33, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

 * It's using Cletus to illustrate the hillbilly stereotype, thereby implicitly commenting on The Simpsons as a program that uses stereotypes (which the show would certainly not deny--Springfield used to have a bowling league called The Stereotypes). It's similar to using, say, a still from Birth of a Nation to illustrate early 20th Century racism--part of the reason you have Fair Use is so copyright owners don't have the ability to block people from criticizing their work in this way. Nareek 20:17, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

 * I would say that the argument that Cletus should only apply to articles involving the Simpsons doesn't seem completely correct. Although Cletus is a simpsons character, he is a dramatized character portrayal of a cultural stereotype.  Noting that the context of the image use was to give a pop-culture refrence, I feel the use of the image falls within fair use.  Especially seeing that images from TV and Movies are present across all of wikipedia.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.229.213 (talk) 19:21, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

I like the song dammit
yep...down here in LA we believe in the hillbilly and the stomp whether or not anybody else does, we like it... aw hell, f*****m all if they dont like it.. I still do! KID ROCK! Love, Tren

Local Pride
Not everyone living in "Hillbilly Country" takes offense at the term. I spent my childhood in the Smokies and return there often and the term "Hillbilly" is thrown around pretty lightly. And believe it or not, some people do make moonshine and do smoke corncob pipes. An old family friend gives homemade moonshine as gifts and sometimes as payment to workermen at his house. People there take pride in their "hillbilly" life and the word only becomes offensive if it is used in a negative way from an outsider (e.g. "You're a dumb hillbilly") rather than in a general descriptive way (e.g. "Your Uncle Chuck is a hillbilly through and through"). Completely POV, but there's my 2 cents. --144.202.242.250 06:54, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. It's not written correctly. I wrote "sometimes considered a pejorative" but that was removed. My grandfather was from West Virginia and he always call himself a hillbilly with pride. I was really stunned when I watched the million dollar baby and the boxer called her mother, who really was an awful person, a "hillbilly" in a very hateful way. I'd never heard it used like that. It sounded to me like the screenwriter didn't know what he was talking about. Or is that something new? Do kids use the word hillbilly in a hateful way now? --cda 12:32, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Hillbilly seems to be taken as perjorative primarily by people who aren't hillbilly's. Those of us from appalachia tend to use it as a term of solidarity and heritage.DHBoggs 18:33, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I'm under the impression that educated hillbillies prefer the term HillWilliam. Mr Christopher 22:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

 * I too know many people who are happy to describe themselves as Hillbillies, include some of my relatives from eastern Kentucky and a neighbor I've had in east Tennessee. Note that there is a regional distiction between those who prefer to be called hillbillies (mostly in the mountains) and those who prefer to be called rednecks (mostly in te large valleys, such as the Tennessee Valley, coastal plains, and deep south) -- with some corresponding difference in culture and dialect.  Unfortunately, out life experience would be "original research" (at best) by Mediawiki standards, so none of this is likely to have much influence on the page. --50.149.180.189 (talk) 21:55, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Hillfolk
My folks are from Izard County, Arkansas and the preferred term there seems to be "hillfolk" or "hill people". Hillbilly is okay if used with good humor but it can be misused as an insult. It's not the word, it's the intent. Even hillfolk sometimes use hillbilly to insult one another when protesting the sort of Li'l Abner stereotype behavior.

BTW, the article refers to Li'l Abner and The Beverly Hillbillies TV show as being located in the Ozarks. The BH MOVIE had the Clampetts be from Arkansas because of "Cousin Bill" jokes but the TV show repeatedly referred to Bug Tussle, Tennessee. And the Yokums of Li'l Abner were located in Appalachia, too, state unspecified, but I don't have a good source for that, it was just something Al Capp said in an interview. He based the way the Yokums talked on one trip South to Florida through the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia, apparently. Halfelven 05:31, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Naive
I added the word naive to the stereotype section because I don't think this article conveys how the majority of hillbilly portrayals in the media are child-like, innocent country folks that are usually liked by the outsiders they encounter. Ma and pa Kettle, lil Abner, the klampetts. They weren't portrayed as being ridiculed, they were often sort of envied for their innocence. Blah, I'm not expressing it well. But the article just isn't hitting the true hillbilly spirit yet. --cda 11:31, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Hillbilly and Redneck are often transposed because they have been reduced to derogatory remarks conserning people that are nieve or have a southern or moutainous accent.Also the term has been applied to people who break public expectations for "normal" people--64.24.57.77 05:49, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Killing each other
I'm not American so I don't really know but I've become quite interested in these white, poor, rural people but it seems like they're always killing each other in pool- room disputes or in bars because of their 'rough' nature.

Also do hillbilly 'clans' still exist in any form. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.2.88.225 (talk) 18:05, 1 February 2007 (UTC).

 * They were never exactly formal like Scottish highlang clans, but clanish could describe culture attitudes toward family (and those out side it). People are much less violent than in the past.  Still the idea was something like, if a hillbilly goes to big city, get robbed or killed by local thugs, then then the rest of the family would rise up support, deffend, or avenge them -- and when it happened between hillbillies then a feud might start.  But that's been grossly exaggerated.  The Hatfield's and McCoy's were two families, in one very long feud, and over the many decades it lasted there were only a few sporatic acts of killing or violence.  Most of the poeple in the area weren't involved, and the fame of this one feud lead shows that it was somewhate unique, not a daily occurance. --50.149.180.189 (talk) 22:02, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

No. Nothing of the sort. However, like most people around the world, the people of Appalachia were quite family oriented and disputes occasionally arose between families as they do everywhere. This might result in a fued. Occurrencnes of serious (murderous) fueds seems to have not been especially common. The most famous being the Hatfield/McCoy fued - which was largely an attempt to cheat Devilanse Hatfield out of some rich timberland. Moonshining, however, like any illegal activity, could be a very dangerous business. Some moonshiners, much like drug dealers, wanted to get rid of the competition and there were murders of moonshiners and of police officers and government officials, but it would be exaggerating to consider Appalachia as a particularly or unusually violent area. DHBoggs 12:08, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

pro-Union names of many rural Appalachian
I don't think this is accurate, at least as it applies to West Virginia. Grant County was created by the Wheeling government out of Hardy County, which had voted to seceed from the Union. The same is true of Lincoln County which was portioned primarily from Boone County, another Secessionist county. The people in these counties would hardly feel like honoring Lincoln or Grant. It was both an act of malice and an act of homage by Wheeling. It should also be remembered that the ex-Confederates, and anyone who supported them, were stripped of all civil rights and could do nothing to oppose Wheeling. This is discussed in Eric Foner's book "Reconstruction". I am not a qualified editor and do not want to make any changes on my own, I just wanted you to know. Bob

 * The entire state of Kentucky was on the Union side, yet after the war was still looked down on. East Tennessee wanted to succeed from Tennessee and stay with the Union, but the state government in Nashville wouldn't let them.  People just forget that not all the South joined or supported the Confederacy.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.149.180.189 (talk) 22:06, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

English dialects
I heard from someone that there are regions ("always getting smaller nowadays") where people speak a type of English much closer to what was used in the Shakespearean era. Is there any truth to this? Esn 07:54, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Wrong term
The article says: "Many of these immigrants were of Germanic origin and were named William, a common Germanic name during that time."

Should't that be "German" instead of "Germanic"? As Germans in general, German immigrants had a mixed Germanic, Slavic and Celtic background.

And the common name is not William, it's Wilhelm. Nobody in Germany was ever called William, it's an anglo-saxon version of that name.

 * There is nothing "Anglo-Saxon" about the name William. The origin of William is French, and the name was brought to the British Isles by the Normans. Anglo-Saxon names sound like Arthur, Alfred, Ethelred, etc.Jonathan f1 (talk) 06:47, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Modern Hillbilly Teminology (Suburban Hillbillies)
Upon reading this article I noticed that all definitive Hillbilly mention in this article was directed toward the classical sense of the term. This article fails to mention any specifics in regards to modern “Hillbilly-ism.” In modern terminology, there are many kinds of Hillbillies and Hillbilly subgroups. Hillbillies now live everywhere across America spreading Hillbillyism as they travel.

The problem I have with this article is it largely references the definition of Hillbilly by regions and localities rather than the mental mind states and personal preferences inherent in modern hillbilly lifestyles and customs.

I have made minor change to the WP article section in regards to modern usage to reflect these particular modern viewpoints. Perhaps we should build upon this addition to foster better definition of what it truly means to be considered a Hillbilly in modern society. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.13.244.119 (talk) 03:11, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia requires reliable, verifiable sources to back up claims. If you have a couple of such sources, put them in the article, and everything will be copacetic. Speciate 22:13, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

 * well,hank3 should be listed in the bands section,HELLBILLY!(i agree wif that other dude,yall should interject suma that modern hillswank inta this here our-tickle.yes sir. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.46.49.98 (talk) 15:52, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

 * I think most of these urban and suburban hillbillies are people who've migrated out the the hillbilly regions and kept the culture or identity. My dad is a hillbilly, and happy to claim it, but I'm a military brat and not really a hillbilly.  I know a lot of hillbillies who'd take offence at people who never really lived the lifestyle of the hills, in the hills (and its a hard life), calling themselve's hillbillies just because they have hillbilly ancestors or feel hillbillyish -- or at least point out that they weren't really hillbillies. --50.149.180.189 (talk) 22:24, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

What about mentions of chicagoland hillbillies in the syndicated series Married With Children...? That show was RIFE with chicagoland "hillbillyism". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.13.244.119 (talk) 03:48, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Modern Terminology (citation fix)
I have located two specific examples in mass media popular culture to verify the material present in the article stub in regards to usage of the term hillbilly outside of Appalacia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.13.244.119 (talk) 20:37, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

What the hell is "The term Hillbilly is commonly used in urban and suburban areas, the Chicagoland area as an example, in what could be more practically referenced as "Urban Hillbillies." suppose to mean?  Reference?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.212.85.179 (talk) 08:01, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

It means exactly what it says, with pop-culture references in the next paragraph backing up the statement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.229.213 (talk) 23:05, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Content Doubly-Referenced
Content has been more deeply referenced, with even more references added. Does anyone STILL have a problem with it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.229.213 (talk) 17:29, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

 * It's been almost two weeks now since changes have been made and no one has responded in the forums. If no one has anything to comment on by the two week mark, I think it will show that the issue has been resolved ant the tags should get pulled.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.229.213 (talk) 18:25, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Removed Northern Arkansas
Until an edit of 07:06, 5 May 2006, the paragraph referring to the "derogatory nickname given by the coastal plain-dwelling Anglo-Saxon Southerners for the hill-dwelling settlers" listed eastern TN, western VA and eastern KY. At that time northern Arkansas was added. I've now removed it, as the people of the Ozarks couldn't have been included in the name given by those of the plains to their neighbors in the Appalachians. (And I'd better change "given by X for Y" to "given by X to Y" while I'm at it.) Klippa (talk) 11:51, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Urban Hillbilly
I think that is a neologism, and you might as well give the example of the Beverly Hillbillies. Hillbilly can be used interchangeably with hick, or redneck, but in the strictest sense applies to people from the Appalachians, or persons that live a similar lifestyle. I am from Chicago, and we don't call people from the suburbs or city Hillbillies. Although like many dergatory names it is often used inarticulately Rds865 (talk) 22:00, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Well being from the Chicago Suburbs, WILL County, I see the term used regularly and uniformly out here. It's basically used as a softer term to describing people that are borderline white trash.

Seeing that there are no "REAL" hillbillies in illinois, due to an obvious lack of mountains, this is the practical use for the word in the entire State.

What we should keep in mind here is that there are no concrete definitions for what a Hillbilly/Redneck/Hick/Good-old-boy/etc are. For the most part, these are subjective terms that change depending on which region of the country your from. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.229.213 (talk) 21:00, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Origin of Term
I was told that the word Hillbilly is actually derived from the Hungarian word helybeli, which means native. It came about when Hungarian immigrants to the US started to move into the coal mining regions of Appalachia and called the native people's Helybeli. The word became corrupted to hillbilly. Has anyone heard this explanation before? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.105.199.123 (talk) 02:08, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

 * Doubtless you were misinformed. Just when did all these Hungarian immigrants supposedly move into Appalachia?  See the comments on this talk page about the equally strange theory about the German musical instrument.  Eastcote (talk) 18:14, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

It is sort of ignorant to disclaim what someone else had heard unless you have solid evidence to disprove it. There were a number of Hungarian immigrants in the late 1800s that settled in the coal mining towns of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2010/03/magyars-in-morgantown.html

http://www.library.appstate.edu/appcoll/research_aids/ecasto.html

So it is possible the term is derived from the Hungarian word helybeli.

 * Let's not bat words like ignorant around. It's really quite a stretch to conjecture that the term came with Hungarian immigrants.  Do you have anything proving the term originated with Hungarians?  The English words "hill" and "billy" seem pretty obvious.  Eastcote (talk) 01:11, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

This is just a heads up that I'm going to make some changes to the beginning of the article under "History" to bring the article more in line with recent scholarship on the term. The origin theories currently listed in the article really seem to be reaching a bit. The term didn't appear in print till 1900, but the origins given in the article date from 100 to 300 years earlier. Read Harkins "Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon". I will keep the theories as currently presented in the article, but they will all be listed as conjectural. Some are a bit far-fetched: there's no citation that "hill-billies" was first encountered in documents from 17th century Ireland; or that the term was first used in America by British soldiers; or that a significant number of German immigrants were named Wilhelm (a lot of Scotch-Irish immigrants were named William, too); etc.... Eastcote (talk) 14:16, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

If there was a significant German population, the term might have simply derived from the German word Hillebille, which is a wooden instrument often used at charcoal kilns. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.102.47.153 (talk) 11:41, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

"Scotch"- vs. "Scots"-Irish
I edited the term "Scots-Irish" back to "Scotch-Irish". "Scotch-Irish" is the historical American term. See the article on Scotch-Irish. Also compare "Tha Boord o Ulster-Scotch", (The Ulster-Scots Agency), which promotes the Ullans language in Northern Ireland. Eastcote (talk) 03:17, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
 * You have given a links to a disambig pages that targets two articles correctly using the word "Scots." In the context that the phrases are used in the this article, saying the epithet "scotch" would be akin to using "colored" to describe African-Americans.  young  american  (wtf?) 13:01, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
 * This article is about the term "hillbilly"; the term "Scotch-Irish" has already been argued at length in the article pertaining to that term. I really don't want to get into an edit scuffle over this, but please review the section under "Scotch-Irish American" pertaining to use of the term "Scotch" when describing these folks.  Also review the discussion page for "Scotch-Irish American" where the term is discussed at length.  Perhaps "Scotch" is an epithet when referring to the Scots, but it is historically correct when referring to the Scotch-Irish.  Eastcote (talk) 15:08, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
 * As a SCOTS-Irish American, I still find the term to be offensive. Perhpas there is a place for discussing the use of the terms by wealthy English-American settlers to the east of the mountains, but, as it stands, the term is highly offensive when used to lable the current generation of Americans of Uslter-Scot heritage.  young  american  (wtf?) 15:16, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Followup: I've started a discussion over at Talk:Scotch-Irish American.  young  american (wtf?) 15:32, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not going to fall on my sword for it, but I'm sorry it is highly offensive to you. Most of us Scotch-Irish folks don't have such a high-strung problem with it.  As I said, "Scotch"-Irish is the accepted, non-pejorative, form in American usage, as well as the accepted form in the Ullans language per the Ulster-Scots Agency, aka Tha Boord o Ulster-Scotch, http://www.ulsterscotsagency.com/.  Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scotch-irish) dates "Scotch-Irish" to 1744.  "Scots-Irish" only goes back to 1972.  Eastcote (talk) 15:39, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I would imagine that the "n-word" goes back a bit further that African-American, too. that said, I must disagree with your contention that "most" don't find it offensive and I whole-heartedly disagree that it is considered to be "accepted, non-pejorative." I know this could easily break down into a "my friends say this, my friends say that," but I really do believe that more would find it offensive than not.  young  american (wtf?) 15:46, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you kidding me? "Ullans" is not a language. It is a regional accent that is being relentlessly promoted as a language for sectarian and political purposes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kobashiloveme (talk • contribs) 16:35, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

The entire supposition of the terms 'redneck' or 'hillbilly' having anything to do with Ulster is a matter of propaganda. Hachimanchu (talk) 04:07, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

 * I wouldn't exactly call it "propaganda", which assumes some political motive. However, any Ulster connection of the terms as used in the United States is purely conjecture.  Eastcote (talk) 12:37, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

There exists a similar word in Germany - Hillebille
There exists a similar word in Germany - de:Hillebille. translation

There it was an ideophon used by charcoal makers and others. It looks like this:

--Arcy (talk) 18:58, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Origin and first use of the term
The Methodist Year-Book of 1834 by De Puy contains the word "Hill-Billy" in connection to the Ozarks. This far predates the first in-print reference made by the author noted in the first section of the article. The Railroad Trainman, Vol. 9, Pg. 770 (printed in 1892) also includes reference to a hillbilly, as does the Burns Mantle Yearbook, Vol. 20, Pg. 372 (1899) where a certain individual is insulted as "a bosom- beating, hypocritical, hill-billy, bladder-mouth, rink-stink, windbag — ."

Anyway, perhaps there is something to the Scots origin theory.

Sukiari (talk) 23:29, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

 * That's interesting. Are you sure the early quote is from 1834?  I tried looking for it, but can't find it.  I did find it on Page 58 in the Methodist Yearbook for 1921, which says at the top of the book "First Issue 1834".  Perhaps it is this 1921 Yearbook you are referring to.  The 1892 reference looks like the earliest so far.  To put it in the article, would that be considered "original research"?  I think a secondary source is required rather than a primary source.  I still wouldn't make the leap to a Scottish origin theory at this point, though.  It's a simpler theory that it arose locally.  Eastcote (talk) 13:40, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Request for Comment: Steeler Nation Criticism
(Note: Issue is use of the term "Hillbilly" in source, thus its relevance here.) Marketdiamond (talk) 14:39, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Please feel free to read & comment here. Thank you.

Planned Edits
Hi! I am planning on doing some edits on this article and wanted anyone involved to be aware. As of now, I am thinking about adding citations to the pop culture section. In addition, I want to add a usage section in order to show how the term is used and in what context. I am starting the editing process in my Sandbox, if you want to take a look. I'm open to any suggestions, comments, or feedback. Angela Reighard (talk) 21:59, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Intragroup versus intergroup usage
The section titled "Intragroup versus intergroup usage" doesn't really relate to the material. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.19.204.34 (talk) 18:46, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

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just one more source to consider
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/hillbilly.htm 89.134.199.32 (talk) 20:35, 27 July 2018 (UTC).

Fincher family
We are hillbillies. Rooted. Apache and cherokee bred Mistyfinchet (talk) 16:57, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Speech marks
This article is littered with inappropriate and unneccessary speech marks that give it a sarcastic tone as if it's disbelieving of the existence of the Hillbilly stereotype. Entire page needs to be corrected. Adam Friedland's Soiled White Pants (talk) 04:46, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

Suggested Addition for Hillbilly Elegy
It should be noted that J. D. Vance's book "Hillbilly Elegy," as noted in the In Popular Culture, is regarded as very controversial in many southern appalachian spaces for its "bootstrap" narrative and its frequent condescension towards and perpetuation of stereotypes about southern appalachian people, to the point where there is a published response book titled "Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy." The backlash from the appalachian community seems important to note here since previous paragraphs cover in-community reactions to certain former portrayals and including this would continue that theme. (For a more in-depth cover of the why it's considered offensive, for anyone who's curious, check out The Bitter Southerner's episode, Hillbillies Need No Elegy.) 138.43.158.124 (talk) 00:26, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
 * "The backlash from the appalachian community seems important to note" It would be, if we had reliable sources mentioning its existence. Otherwise, the policy o n due and undue weight applies here: "Neutrality requires that mainspace articles and pages fairly represent all significant viewpoints that have been published by reliable sources, in proportion to the prominence of each viewpoint in the published, reliable sources" Dimadick (talk) 07:56, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

Partially correct!
HILLBILLY: The word originated Scots-Irish / Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland / Ulster who moved into the Appalachian Mountains in the 1700s. Billy/Billies was a term meaning "brother, friend or comrade. "Billy Boys" was the term used refering to Ulster Protestants who supported "William of Orange" (aka Billy) in invading England.  They were also known to wear red sashes around their necks (coining the term Rednecks) and once the Scots-Irish migrated in droves to the US, they quickly moved into the mountains and hills of Appalachia.  The "Billys", now were now comrades of the hills/mountains, and therefore became known as Hillbillies. ~Livewire 103.9 of Erwin, TN 2605:59C8:60FB:8910:1EA7:AD82:D578:4751 (talk) 15:23, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

 * Thanks for your input, but there is no documentation that connects this Ulster use of "billy" with the term "hillbilly". It might indeed have come from that Ulster usage, but two centuries intervened between William of Orange and the first recorded use of "hillbilly" in America. Eastcote (talk) 19:54, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

Ozarks are west of the Mississippi river
"Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in southern Appalachia and the Ozarks. The term was later used to refer to people from other rural and mountainous areas west of the Mississippi river, too, particularly those of the Rocky Mountains and near the Rio Grande."

The "Ozarks" are west of the Mississippi river. 2607:F220:41D:4D47:1D5:9C88:EC44:A290 (talk) 13:08, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * You're correct, also that sentence didn't really reflect the body. I rewrote it. Schazjmd   (talk)  14:37, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hillbilly