The other side of October 12: reflections of resistance
It is no coincidence that Columbus Day, that of the Civil Guard and the Virgen del Pilar coincided on that date. The three represent oppressive structures (statue, army and church). On the other hand, there is indigenous resistance and population that the Spanish State retaliates for through its military and religious armies. On the same day there are many interpretations of what should be celebrated or not to be celebrated, and this has been demonstrated by the campaigns that in recent years have called for the abolition of 12 October as a sign of "Spanish race". On that day, the interpretations are mixed between the victor and the defeated, between the colonizers and the colonized, between the exploiters and the exploited.
The succession of the winners highlights the greatness of the Catholic Monarchs and the expansion of the Spanish Empire, and presents it as an inevitable and necessary civilizing conquest. On the other hand, there is indigenous genocide, which served to illegitimately enrich and enrich this empire. Today, this dynamic continues thanks to transnational corporations that continue to plunder the natural resources of indigenous peoples to maintain our well-being at the expense of their impoverishment. It includes the occupation of former indigenous territories, the financing of wars, singers or paramilitaries, labour and sexual exploitation and the justification for violence to continue to perpetuate dependence after 500 years.
In this dichotomy, from Mugarik Gabe we believe it is time to recognize the old debt to the indigenous peoples of Abya Yala (American continent), and we would like to begin an old process of forgiveness and to make a modest recognition of the political proposal of these peoples towards emancipation. The paradigm of Good Living, also known as Wët Fxi`zenxi (people of Nasa, Colombia), Sumak Kawsay (kichus towns, Ecuador and Bolibia) and Utz K'aslemal (people of the Mayans, Iximulew-Guatemala) reach us hand to preserve nature, the collective that surrounds us and us.
Today, transnational corporations continue to plunder the natural resources of indigenous peoples to maintain our well-being, at the expense of their impoverishment (...) to continue to perpetuate dependence after 500 years.
This proposal of life unites us to Amalur, our peoples and our people. It reminds us that caring for people and the environment must be a priority for all societies. If we put these principles at the heart of our day-to-day policies and practices, we can rebuild a model that we've already forgotten, but at some point they were right. "The future has already passed," said the president of the Generalitat. This quote from the members of Abya Yala reminds us that the only way to survive is to return to origin to rethink the future in a more sustainable, coherent and equitable way.
This dazzling and humble advice can hardly be established in the minds of those who unjustly exercise economic, social and political power. The current system does not allow us to dream, forces us to run for tomorrow, without thinking whether that will ever come tomorrow. It pushes us into extreme developmentalism based on the overexploitation of some countries over others. And developmentalism based on chauvinist, racist and clasile logics that give societies no time to recognize that wars are instruments of territorial conquest and that violence continues to be a method of domination. We've been led to believe that there's no other way to live.
In the meantime, wealth is accumulating in fewer hands and a large number of impoverished countries are being built. What happens if we get organized and go back to the source? We must not invent anything new, the future has already passed. We have to go back to what we were: societies that are balanced between peoples, equality between men and women and dissent with sexual gender, along with nature.
The resilient strengths of society are still here to remember that the mechanisms of oppression and domination are not necessary. We have already experienced growing impoverishment in all societies and its consequences. From now on, from the perspective of indigenous resistance, the paradigm of the oppressed, we want to live history.
Estibaliz Gómez de Segura, member of Mugarik Gabe
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