By Thomas Creen, MJ • Phoenix, AZ
On September 23, 2015, in Washington, D.C., Pope Francis is scheduled to canonize the Spanish missionary to the Americas, Junípero Serra. As just one example of the good brought to the Americas by the Spanish, please read the passage below from the Mexican historian José Vasconcelos’ masterpiece Breve Historia de México:
“Instead of having so many statues of generals who never managed to defeat a foreigner, and so many busts of politicians who have jeopardized our nation’s interests, there should be a monument to the very first donkey brought to Mexico by the conquest. It should be in at least one of our downtown areas and in the most prominent place in all our parks. That would be one way to vindicate the ones that helped lift up our Indigenous peoples instead of always honoring those that have incited them to hate and have exploited them.
“Go ahead and read any of the chronicles of the conquest. You will see that all of them reported that it was the normal custom in every town, every neighborhood, for every chief to own anywhere from one to several hundred tamemes, the name for Indigenous people forced to do the work of beasts of burden—slaves that were eventually substituted by the burro. You can still find tamemes today [1956] in regions where the conquest never penetrated, like in some parts in the interior of Chiapas. There they still transport people and goods on the shoulders of Indigenous people.”
“If instead of wasting time on so many shameless political speeches, some good mayor in the 20th century would have provided the Indigenous peoples of Mexico with what the Spaniards spread throughout the continent back in the 16th century—that is, horses and donkeys—there would be no more tamemes.”
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