500 years ago there was no Mexico, nothing was called Mexico. There were settlements such as Tenochtitlan which was a very large city with a certain political and economic dominion over some of its neighboring towns. A small part of what today is Mexico (more if we compare it with what today is Mexico and what was lost to the United States) Tenochtitlan and its domains did not reach New Mexico, Arizona, California, Texas or Florida to the north, and to the south, Belize and Guatemala. All the states that currently make up Mexico as a country, in the time of the Aztecs were independent lands with their own schemes of governments, languages, idiosyncrasies and religion.
With the arrival of the Spaniards, Tenochtitlan and the areas dominated by them were invaded. The kingdom of “Aragon and Castilla” (which is NOT Spain) congregated it calling it “The New Spain”.
In our case, Yucatan, we were not even remotely part of the Aztec empire. Our cities were not even similar to Tenochtitlan. The Mayas at that time were settlements called “tribes” and “cacicazgos”. Uxmal and Chichen Itza, amongst others, had been abandoned for centuries.
What the European powers of that time invaded and plundered was not Mexico as a country (because it did not exist), but a land today called America, which at that time was not even known to be a continent. To demand an apology from Spain is the same as to demand it from Portugal for Brazil or England for the United States, just to name a few. Today Mexico is a country, then we were not.
López Obrador’s occurrence is an absurdity that should be truly embarrassing for him, since if we have to demand an apology from anyone for the damage caused in our nation, it is to our disgusting and corrupt Mexican governments and politicians of the past, starting with Lázaro Cárdenas and not forgetting the sewer that PRI governments were for more than 70 years… and even so, it is absurd.
López Obrador seeks to create a conflict where there is none, with a nation with whom we have more in common than against.
Do you really think it has a any logic and sense to demand an apology from any of the “conquering” countries for something that happened more than 500 years ago? Most of us wouldn’t even exist if there hadn’t been that exodus from Europe to America.
Lopez Obrador confirms that ignorance is the lack of culture of reason; foolishness is ignorance accompanied by presumption. The ignorant err for lack of acquired principles; but the fool… that is the dumbest of the ignorant.
For The Yucatan Times –
José E. Urioste Palomeque
[email protected]
Merida Yucatan, March 2019
