Joseph, I guess I have been feeling guilty about what the Conquest did to Mexico and South America since I was in school. When I was little, in grammar school, they started to teach us about the history of Mexico and the Southwest, (something my father, not my mother, was aware of) and when I found out what the Spaniards had done, I went to my father and told him that I hated every drop of Spanish blood in me because I thought it was terrible that the Spaniards had reduced the Aztecs' beautiful pyramids to rubble and built Catholic cathedrals on top of them. He told me that I shouldn't feel that way since we were Mestizos and the blood of both ran in our veins. He said the Indians were very cruel people whose religion condoned human sacrifice. (I think he even told me that women were treated very poorly by the Indians, whereas the Spaniards put women on a pedestal--I think he inferred that had the Indians won, I would be making corn tortillas in a hut there instead of living free here). He himself was an atheist, and he hated priests, but he never told me why. He was very torn about his feelings for Mexico. He had loved his childhood there, but he had hated the oligarchy there. He blamed them for having to leave Mexico at that time. The fighting between the Federales and the Revolucionarios was the worst there in that place. You know, today we had a visit from one of our friends who has a young son 16 years old who has been watching the "How the West Was Won" series on TV. His son's reaction was the same as mine when he saw what the Indians had suffered under the white man and his manifest destiny. He was very upset by the revelation. I think at an early age we either develop a social consciousness or we do not. Some cheer the white man's conquests and others feel bad about the sacrificing of the indigent people, their customs, their religions, their language, their history etc. It is this pillaging and subjugation that makes it impossible to trace our Indian ancestors. Our Indio ancestors had traditions, oral histories that are now lost. Emilie Garcia Port Orchard, WA. ----- Original Message ----- From: Joseph Puentes Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 12:36 PM To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com Subject: [ranchos] Spanish Blood
He made me feel so guilty about my Spanish blood, what there is of it. When a child is born as a result of rape and the woman's family treats the child as an outsider and poorly that is absolutely cruel. If anyone needs to feel badly and ashamed it should be the rapist not the victims or the children of the victims or the grandchildren of the victims or the great grandchildren of the victims, etc..
The Yndio and The Black blood in me is mixed with my Spanish blood. Yes the Spanish did terrible horrible unspeakable things to my people but now my people are, "Los Yndios, Los Negros, Los Espanoles." I can't survive if I hate part of myself. We have to realize that we are one people and are strong and intelligent and proud and everything and as much as any other peoples on this earth. No difference.
I love it when I find that certain of my lines continue to indicate that they were Espanoles. Not because I'm more proud of the Espanol in me that I am of the Yndio or Black, but only because I so much love my genealogy and finding the next generation and the fact that they are Espanoles gives me hope that a generation or two more might have records available whereas if they were Yndios the trail will fade most likely.
If I could prove that I was 100% Espanol maybe I'd feel different, I don't think so because we need to do whatever we can to put ourselves at peace with ourselves. I think its enough to realize our relatives did bad things but I don't think its reasonable for us to suffer for their iniquities. They sinned, They will stand before God, I will stand proud of what I am!
If it were me and that Inca said that to me I would have said as proudly as I could that my Aztecs could have pounded his Incas to a pulp. . .he dicho!
joseph
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