“The idea that today’s problems are due to what happened 500 years ago is prevalent across the area to a greater or lesser extent,” said this expert.
Miguel Saralegui (Bilbao, 1982), professor at the UPV and Ikerbasque researcher, is the author of books like ‘Machiavelli and contradiction’ or ‘Carl Schmitt Spanish thinker’. Now he has published Killing the Motherland. History of a Latin American passion’, where, through philosophical and political figures, he analyzes the evolution of the Latin American republics on the basis of anti-Hispanicism, a feeling that must be ‘accepted’.
– In your essay you say that «Spanish heritage is the original sin from which they must be cleansed without ever fully attaining it».
– Spain is a country of great symbolic significance in Latin America. It is not only due to a cultural heritage and contemporary economic relations, but precisely to the difficulty of these countries in achieving objectives presented as liberal democracy or economic development. These problems are related to the genetics, that of the colonies, and it has continued to this day. That structure of understanding was born with the republics, in the 19th century, with Bolívar, Sarmiento… With the great creators of Latin American identity. What is the Spanish heritage is changing and considered something that should be removed.
– What sequels does it have left?
– Anti-Spanish is a very aggressive and identity discourse where the exaggeration is huge, with the idea that today’s problems are due to what happened 500 years ago. To a greater or lesser extent, this theory occurs in all Latin American countries. But the consequences are relatively minor. Spaniards in Latin America are not only not mistreated, but sometimes in an easy way – especially compared to native minorities or the middle/lower class – certain advantages. It is hate speech that has no hateful consequences.
– A speech in which Mexico demands apologies.
– What the president of Mexico has claimed, we may find ridiculous because of the most pressing problems in that country, such as security or drug trafficking. But what López Obrador asks is perfectly reasonable in the sense that no Spaniard would consider the constitutive aspects of the conquest, such as the domination of a people or the imposition of a religion, as a good thing. Why is the Spanish identity getting mad at AMLO? There is a reactive nationalism that gets angry when Latin American presidents try to pass a complex historical judgment on them that does not match the gratitude that Spanish negative nationalism expects. Pedro Sánchez might say, “We are very sorry that we were not liberal democracies in the 16th century”. But Mexico’s claim would be just as innocent as Spain’s response.
– As Juan Bautista Alberdi mentions, it is about erasing “the abhorrent complexion” that Spain has left its former colonies.
– Alberdi was a great political thinker and he keeps repeating that genetic idea: Latin American countries come from the worst position because of this terrible heritage that must be erased. It is a genetic structure that has survived to this day. Like when AMLO says that “we, as Mexicans, mistreat the Indians because Spain taught us to mistreat them.” It’s like your parents are forcing you to watch television instead of studying, in the end you turn on the television the day you want to study because that’s what you’ve been taught.
– ‘Kill the motherland’. Is that feeling promoted by political circles and thinkers or is it also in the people?
– The identity of the Latin American republics is a successful process. For example, every Mexican or Chilean citizen knows the four or five things that define him as a nation. There is an anti-Spanish element that is universal. But in those countries with strong national immigration (Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile or Cuba) there is a very clear distinction between Spain and the Spaniards. On the one hand, an abstract idea of the country as something to be liberated and on the other, on a popular level, there is a general feeling of being close and friendly towards Spanish tourists. There is recognition of Basque, Galician, Asturian, etc. There is Spain as something negative and Spanish as something positive.
– Did the black legend increase resentment?
– I’d say no. There is that of Northern Europe – that of the Inquisition – but in Latin America there is its own black legend, especially in the 19th century, which has to do with the idea that Spain prevents the development of liberal democracy and capitalism, and that brings the economic slowdown. López Obrador’s speech is much more focused on the violence of the conquerors, that is, on the black legend.
– Is this hatred of Spain, 500 years later, justified?
– Hyperboles are always wrong. It is a great exaggeration, but at the same time as Spaniards we must be aware that this is the national exaggeration on which Latin America is built. Moreover, you could say that the Latin American countries with the least anti-Hispanicism are the ones that are making the most progress”, such as Chile, Uruguay or Argentina.
– Should the king apologize?
– Forgiveness can only be requested by the person who committed an offense from the person who committed it while both are alive. Though more than the king, it would be the institution. It would be interesting for us Spaniards as a people to think about what seems good to us and what seems bad to us. But what doesn’t seem right to me as an adult, means nothing. I’m surprised we’re so angry, I didn’t know we were so proud. Spanish nationalism is very cautious, reactive and defensive.
– In the book you say that “the ties between Spain and Spanish America are not the ties of a happy family, but the desire to reconcile a broken family.” How could they come to a reconciliation today?
– Like any family, you have to forget the insults and start all over again. What is clear is that it has not served to say ‘nothing happened here’. The speech of “no, the war was 500 years ago, here we love each other very much.” That strategy of ‘many years ago’ has not served to strengthen the state ties – because there is no problem with personal matters. You should be able to forget, but that’s a utopia. As much as we have ties, we will always be dealing with countries that have been set up against Spain. Don’t expect this to be a family that will get together easily. You have to accept that one of your children blames you more than the others.
Source: La Verdad
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