I am particularly grateful, Gentle Reader, for the separation of church and state. Here in lovely, liberal, somewhat socially democratic Canada, we have this blessing. There is no national religion in this country (outside of, ugh!, hockey) No one gets their head chopped off, nor burned at the stake, nor their beating heart carved out of their still breathing chest, for not attending services, and can write or say anything they want about any faith or god they want and still know they can wake up breathing in their own bed the next morning.
We really don't know how good we have it in the Twenty-First Century, regardless of the huge risks of climate change from global warming, the Great Deplorable in the Oval Office (that name will no longer be seen on these pages!), or the huge privileges and advantages that our children have at their fingertips, regardless of our disproportionate fears that they'll be abducted in the night. The nightmare that has been unfolding in the Middle East, thanks to the various, increasingly gruesome, Islamic fundamentalist groups, is but a faint historical belch of the cruel reality that everyone had to live under in Mexico and in Spain during the sixteenth century.
The very notion of freedom of religion, or of a secular state, would not even be conceived for another two hundred years. In the meantime, before Cortes brought his stinking unwashed thugs over the Ocean Blue (oh, that was Columbus. Well, same diff') you had no choice but obey and revere the priest chieftains of Tenochtitlan and honour the blood-thirsty gods, or you too would be dragged up the temple stairs.
As brutal, greedy and bloodthirsty were the Spanish Crown, they weren't stupid. They knew that if they were to successfully convert the heathen savages (who in most ways kicked their Spanish ass for civilization and culture) to the Holy Catholic Faith then they would have to do better than the thugs and corrupt priests they were bringing with them to the New World. So, they sent the best their church could offer: humble, pious and caring Franciscan Friars, followed by Jesuits, combining their skills of compassion and education with a finesse that successfully won over many of the indigenous people of Mexico. Throw into the pot that they were already a conquered people, vulnerable, and therefore malleable, and Bob's yer uncle!
It worked, but those pesky Jesuits with their sharp minds and talent for questioning authority really became a fly in the ointment to the Crown. So, late in the sixteenth century, they exported to the Mexica the Spanish Inquisition and bring on the big human barbecue! I am currently reading la historia de Mexico (History of Mexico) by Fernando Orozco Linares who claims that the barbarities of the Inquisition on both sides of the Atlantic have been greatly exaggerated by British and French writers because of their hatred of the Spanish, and that in Mexico anyway, only thirty-seven persons were burned at the stake. Well, that would be thirty-seven too many. Besides which, given that the author likely had a very conservative bent, having served much of his adult life in the Mexican military, why would he want to be confused by unpalatable facts? Better to demonize the naysayers, shoot the messenger as it were, than to face and own up to the atrocities that your country has perpetuated. It is also my understanding that penitent introspection is not an inherent Hispanic quality. There is no record, to my knowledge, of any official apologies or acknowledgements of wrongdoing being publicly declared, neither by Spain nor by Spanish Latin American governments, to address and initiate a painful process of reconciliation with the indigenous peoples of their countries whom they have historically slaughtered, raped, exploited and oppressed.
I see this as a critical step towards bringing healing to the Collective Trauma of Latin America. But first, the descendants of the people who unleashed the genocide are going to have some explaining to do!
No comments:
Post a Comment