By Marial Quezada (previously Survival Worldwide, US) & Sara Mediavilla (Survival Worldwide, España)
The conquista has not ended, not even 200 years in the past, once we turned unbiased (from Spain). Quite the opposite, we’re nonetheless situated and practiced within the conquista…in coloniality. It’s not the previous, it’s the current. The previous, is a constructed historical past. — Itaxavi Mendoza (Ñuu Savi, Mexico)
August thirteenth marks 500 years since Hernan Cortés and his males, searching for gold and financial energy, violently invaded and overthrew Tenochtitlan, the center of the Aztec empire, in what’s current day Mexico. Many seek advice from it because the “conquista” or “fall” of Tenochtitlan, however in actual fact, this wasn’t the tip of conquest, it was the start of colonization and the genocide of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples the world over are nonetheless right here and nonetheless combating to defend their lands and lives towards invaders.
“The invasion resulted in only a few of us to talking our mom tongue and only a few persevering with the traditional ceremonial methods, as a result of by ache, terror, slavery, rape, submission and horrible actions they needed to erase us, they needed to vanish our lineage. However our power of spirit is bigger, and we live on.” — Xóchitl (Chichimeca/Zapoteca, México)
In gentle of the five hundredth anniversary of the autumn of Tenochtitlan, Indigenous Zapatista activists travelled a protracted 47 days by boat from Mexico to Spain for a “reverse conquista”. Since main an rebellion within the Mexican state of Chiapas within the 90’s, the Zapatista Military of Nationwide Liberation (EZLN) has struggled for autonomy and been on the forefront of the Indigenous rights motion in Mexico. This yr in Europe, somewhat than demanding the repatriation of the gold-encrusted church buildings, they’ve peacefully “invaded” to advertise dialogue and assert their resistance to the continued threats of colonization and world capitalism to Indigenous Peoples.
“They didn’t conquer us. We’re nonetheless right here, resisting and rebelling”. — Subcomandante Moises (EZLN/Zapatistas, Mexico)
This previous yr additionally marked 400 years because the touchdown of the Mayflower on Wampanoag land in what’s now america. For a lot of Indigenous Peoples, the Mayflower historical past represents a genocide that killed as much as 90% of the Indigenous inhabitants, adopted by insurance policies that result in stolen and misplaced language, land, and generations of youngsters. This genocide and discrimination nonetheless ripple all through the continent, seen within the extraordinarily excessive charges of poverty, illness, home abuse, police brutality, imprisonment, suicide, and the low life-expectancy of Indigenous individuals in North America in comparison with the descendants of immigrants. These tragedies are legal and stem from the racism perpetrated by the settler colonial society.
“It’s nearly a miracle we’re nonetheless right here. We’re the descendants of a Individuals who survived tried genocide- the lack of our Ancestors’ lives, the erasure of our spirituality, tradition, lands, and pure sources, all to a distorted notion of western superiority and a self-declared divine proper to dominate different individuals. We’re painfully conscious that historical past can’t be allowed to repeat itself”. — Chairwoman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais (Aquinnah Wampanoag, United States)
The latest identification of mass graves of Indigenous youngsters in Canada and the US has uncovered the legacy of colonization, genocide and devastating impacts of faculties that aimed to strip youngsters of their indigenous identification, indoctrinate them to adapt to the dominant society and thereby ease the theft of their peoples’ lands. And nonetheless, throughout the globe, round two million Indigenous youngsters attend Manufacturing facility Colleges — which have related goals: erasing Indigenous methods of life and enabling the taking of their lands and sources.
“From the invention of agriculture to the doctrine of discovery, to the genocide of complete continents, and to the period of Indian Boarding colleges, we now have survived all of it. We as Indigenous persons are nonetheless right here”. — Jaque Fragua (Jemez Pueblo, United States)
Fashionable-day Mayflowers and up to date conquistadores have many faces- the conservation trade, manufacturing facility colleges, land grabbing, logging, mining. As we speak, complete populations of uncontacted tribes are being decimated by genocidal violence from outsiders who steal their land and sources, and convey illnesses to which they don’t have any resistance. There are sadly many examples:
- In Paraguay, the uncontacted Ayoreo dwell on the run, escaping the cattle ranchers’ bulldozers which might be destroying their land
- In Brazil, President Bolsonaro has waged battle towards Indigenous Peoples. If his authorities succeeds in eliminating Land Safety Orders that shield Indigenous lands from loggers, miners and different invaders, complete peoples might be worn out.
- In Peru, until their lands are legally acknowledged and guarded, uncontacted tribes will proceed to face the fixed risk of extractive industries and invaders.
The anniversaries of the Mayflower touchdown and fall of Tenochtitlan remind us that the violent colonization of Indigenous Peoples is just not relegated to the previous. We should take motion to maintain historical past from repeating itself- for tribes, for nature, for all of humanity.
Initially printed August 13, 2021
