Rosa Diaz
Madrid, June 18 (EFE).- The Spanish-Guatemalan writer José Tono Martínez believes “there is no worse policy than the one that hides your own past,” which is why he defends that the history of the conquest of America and the Spanish colonial past must “come out of the closet” and admit mistakes.
This is what he defends in his most recent book, ‘The Time We Signed Peace’, in which he brings together four stories that take place in different American countries and which are all “travel stories with the same protest background,” as he recognizes in one interview with EFE.
“We need a historical ‘outing’ – he insists -. Spain has to take the step with a law of historical memory of the Americas that allows us to recognize what was done wrong, recover the memory of what was defeated and vindicate what was done well. because there were also Spaniards who did things well, like Bartolomé de las Casas.”
The need for a law of historical memory of the Americas
The anthropologist and writer assures that “Spain was braver on this issue thirty years ago than now”, despite the fact that “it is now when we talk about historical memory, revisionism and cancel culture.”
The first of the stories in the book, ‘The time we signed peace’, tells how in 1992, the president of the Spain’92 Foundation (Rafael Mazarrasa), the entity that represented the V Centenario Society in the US, took an important step in that direction.
“We were the representatives of the Kingdom of Spain in relation to the Quincentennial events in North America and, in principle, we had to organize parades and celebrations, but the program changed subtly and, finally, the central event was a meeting between peoples who culminated in a ‘Declaration of Respect for Indigenous Nations and Cultures’ that was signed on the 106th floor of the North Tower of the Twin Towers,” recalls the author.
When years later, in 2009, the Bicentennial of Latin American Independence was celebrated, Spain’s position was “accompaniment”, a caution that Martínez prefers to describe as a “step backwards” and “lack of courage to address the past with a sense of self-criticism.” .
Spain’s setback regarding the review of colonialism
In the following years, Spain has continued to retreat on this issue and “has preferred to look towards Europe and turn its back on Latin America, without taking into account that the history of Spain cannot be understood without that of America.”
But the writer born in Guatemala does not consider the battle lost and in ‘The Time We Signed Peace’ remembers that forgotten chapter from 1992 and other moments in recent and ancient history that encourage “a courageous analysis that allows us to rework our metaphors.” and choose which predecessors we want to be our references.
In his opinion, the Spanish Government was brave in addressing the historical memory of Francoism and it must also be brave with colonial memory, “in line with countries like Belgium and Holland, which have already begun to take steps in that direction.”
“There are elements of indigenous tradition, such as their view on the environment, and chapters of colonial history, such as the one starring Bartolomé de las Casas, with which new generations can identify and that would allow them to reconcile with their past,” it states.
“It is also true,” he adds, “that lately there is a resurgence of imperialist positions that can be found in the narrative of conquests as references that put us back in the closet, but that is no reason to avoid the debate.”
“On the contrary, Spain and Latin America need cultural rearmament because if you leave the debate empty, that space will be occupied by political outbursts, as is happening with the propaganda revisionism of some American leaders,” he defends and mentions the presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López. Obrador, Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.
As Walter Benjamin and Martínez paraphrase said in his book, “yes, we can change history”, in fact, he emphasizes, “we must do it because the harshest criticism is the one received from the following generations and if a good legacy is left, it will be can, as Cornelius Tacitus said, ‘escape from the future with dignity intact'” EFE
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