October 8, 1999

The Birth of a Mestizo Nation

October 12^th is the day that is set aside to honor the Discovery/The Encuentro of what became known the Americas. The celebration for Latinos is a double-edged Sword. If Columbus had not arrived first in the Americas, the highly developed Aztecs, Mayans, Tianos, Incas, Toltecs, Zapotecs, Oaxacans, Mixtecas, Tarascan, Chichimecs, Coahuiltecas, Tabascan, Arawaks, Caribs, might have had their first Encuentro/ Discovery by the Chinese. As it turned out the first mixture of the proud indigenous people began with the European blood of the Conquistadors. They helped found the first MESTIZOS in the new world that laid the basis for all the Latinos thereafter. But, the Indigenous people paid a high price. We now quote from the book "Mexico in Transition," by Philip Russell, Colorado Press as he quotes an Indian poet of four centuries ago who writes as he saw it.

"When he first came to the new World Cortéz rejected an offer of land, stating," I came to get gold, not till the soil like a peasant." It was his longing for gold and his audacity which determined that Cortéz would be the conqueror of Mexico. However Cortés's defeat would only have put a stop to his own career. The conquest, part of the expansion of the Spanish empire, would have occurred anyway.

Seen from the side of the Indians, the Conquest was a double tragedy: Military defeat and the end of the Aztec empire. The feelings of the Aztecs were recorded by an Aztec poet of the conquest period:

Philip Russell

The Birth of The Mestizo

Broken spears lie in the roads;

We have torn our hair in grief.

The houses are roofless now, and their walls

Are red with blood.

Worms are swarming in the streets and plazas

And the walls are spattered with gore.

The water has turned red, as if it were dyed,

and when we drink of it,

it has the taste of brine.

We have pounded our hands in despair

against the adobe walls,

for our inheritance, our city, is lost and dead.

The shields of our warriors were its defense,

but they could not save it.

We have chewed dry twigs and salt grasses

We have filled our mouths with dust and bits of adobe;

We have eaten lizards and worms…

In Mexico, Moctezuma and Cuauhtémoc are national heroes, streets and monuments are named in their honor. Diego Rivera's portrayal of him as a brutal killer in a mural in the National Palace shows how the Mexican people feel about Cortez. They see him as a ruthless invader and not a hero. No streets are named after him.

In the Plaza of Three Cultures in Mexico City there is a plaque which commemorated the final battle. It states:

" It was neither a victory nor a defeat. It was the painful birth

Of the Mestizo people of today's Mexico."

Today, we pause and reflect on the meaning of the painful birth of our ancestors and perhaps vow to make them proud of their offspring.

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