Sunday 20 November 2016

The day of Here We Are


The mestizo chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega says that when Francisco Pizarro and the priest Valverde asked the Inca Atahualpa to submit, "He was saddened (because they asked him for ...) things so rough, and he groaned: "Atac!”, which means, "Oh, pain," and with that he meant the great pain that he felt.

No wonder: that distressed feeling anticipated the massacre that would unfold a few minutes later.

Ten thousand of us, including children, were assassinated at dusk on 16th November, 1532. In what school, university, or public entity does a single minute of silence be made today for them?

Despite the pains, "Here we are", and from that permanence we honor our grandparents and we celebrate never having succumbed.

We do not fall into the uninformed traps of proclaiming "the meeting" of two worlds, "where it all began", "day of the race" and other such nonsense.

Because the conquest has not ended this pain has continued.

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