Saturday, August 19, 2017

Colombia's Own 'Confederate' Problem

Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada stands in all his glory on the Plaza Rosario. Thief, mass-murderer, committer of cultural genocide...and hero.
In the United States, they're removing monuments to Confederate 'heroes' because they fought to defend slavery - generating, in many cases, controversy and even violent riots.

Bogotá, in contrast, just renovated a statue of conquistador and founder of Bogotá Jimenez de
A heroic Quesada painting hangs
in the presidential palace.
Quesada. We live in an era of supposed respect for indigenous cultures and human rights. But Quesada conquered indigenous peoples, undoubtedly enslaving and committing massacres in the name of the Spanish crown and Catholicism. In what is today Bogotá, he decimated the Muisca people, stole their treasures and executed their rulers.

We try to respect human rights. Quesada hung his own soldiers, because, to avoid starvation, they killed and ate horses.

Today, Colombia venerates indigenous artworks in museums and cultural sites. Quesada stole indigenous peoples' gold and emerald treasures and sent them to Europe.

Not satisfied with his treasures, in 1568 Quesada set off on yet another conquering expedition, this time to Los Llanos, in search of gold. He started off with an army of 1,500 Indians and 400 Spaniards, of whom only 4 Indians and 64 Spaniards returned home.

Quesada doesn't seem to deserve much admiration. But there he is glorified on the plaza Rosario and in the presidential palace. And I haven't heard anybody, including even indigenous people, question the situation.

And why even mention the idolizing of liberator Simon Bolivar, who unquestionably accomplished an immense amount: He freed about 6 nations from the Spanish empire and liberated his own slaves (which is more than George Washington can say). But the war involved massacres and other grevious human rights violations on all sides, including the revolutionaries'. And at the end of his rule, Bolivar, the supposed democrat, tried to make himself dictator for life.

Go figger.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours
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3 comments:

  1. Stuart O.August 27, 2017 at 6:27 PM

    They should be celebrated. It's thanks to the Spanish that human sacrifices are not being made. Or that people are not eating each other. In indigenous were murdering each other. They colonised each other too. They were violent times all across the globe. That's before we even mention the advanced civilisation that founded and benefited all as a whole. You only need to see that there how many more people being born and living that Spanish created life. Please don't bring that North America liberal disease to the good people of Latin America. It's embarrassing enough to see in the US.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MiguelAugust 28, 2017 at 10:11 PM

    Hi Stuart,

    You may be correct that some indigenous peoples treated each other horribely - but how does that justify the Spaniards barbarism?

    And, did you ever hear that as many as 90% of Latin America's indigenous people were wiped out by violence, forced labor and Old World diseases.

    So much for kind treatment.

    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  3. MiguelAugust 28, 2017 at 10:12 PM

    Hi Stuart,

    You may be correct that some indigenous peoples treated each other horribely - but how does that justify the Spaniards barbarism?

    And, did you ever hear that as many as 90% of Latin America's indigenous people were wiped out by violence, forced labor and Old World diseases.

    So much for kind treatment.

    Mike

    ReplyDelete