Quoted: Damarys Ocaña on Hispanic Heritage Month
Three ships on the horizon. What do they bring? Many today are proud that the Niña,, the Pinta, and the Santa María – which brought Christopher Columbus and his men to Cuba on Oct. 28, 1492, on their first trip to the Americas – also carried with them European scientific advances and the richness of a culture more than 1,000 years old. Others see Spain’s coming to the Americas as disastrous: It made an empire wealthy off the backs of indigenous tribes and enslaved Africans whose families were torn apart and who died of overwork and European diseases. But perhaps there’s middle ground to consider. Honor those who died and acknowledge the good, bad, and ugly of our beginnings – for, like it or not, out of that violent mash-up of cultures, ambitions, and wills, Latinos and Latin culture were born. And above all, be proud of our accomplishments, especially since at some point in the histories of all our countries, we took the reigns of our own destiny.
— “Birth of a Culture” by Damarys Ocaña, published in Latina October 2009.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Luis wrote:
“especially since at some point in the histories of all our countries, we took the reigns of our own destiny.”
If by that you mean the descendants of European colonizers took the reigns and maintained the status quo racial hierarchy that stratifies people based on how much white blood they exhibit and continues to exploit the blackest and brownest, then sure. That’s what happened.
We’re not so far out of the bad old days yet.
Posted 01 Oct 2009 at 5:14 pm ¶
Jess wrote:
It wasn’t all the descendants of European colonizers — a look at the population of Mexico (where I don’t think too many people can say they are of pure Spanish descent) attests to that.
Not to say there aren’t issues between the largely mestizo elites and indigenous people, for instance. But I’d argue that Ocana is partly right that especially recently, people all over Latin America have been taking a hard look at their relationship to the US and what they want to do with their economies, for instance.
Posted 04 Oct 2009 at 10:58 am ¶