500 Years 0f Evangelization and Colonization

by Rigoberta Menchu

Rigoberta Menchu is a Guatemalan indigenous leader and representative of the Committee of Campesino Unity (CUC), a popular organization which has suffered heavy repression. Rigoberta’s father was a Catholic catechist and a CUC leader. He was killed in the Spanish Embassy massacre in January, 1980. Rigoberta’s mother was kidnapped, raped and killed by Army soldiers in the same year. Rigoberta lives in exile in Mexico and is the author of the highly acclaimed I ... Rigoberta Menchu (Verso; London: 1984).

Many governments in Latin America, North America and Europe are planning grandiose celebration in 1992 to commemorate 500 years of progress and development in Latin America. As indigenous people, we question what progress, what development and for whom. They say that the 500 year anniversary is a chance to celebrate the encounter of two worlds and two cultures. How shameful it is for them to speak of “encounter” when in truth it has been a conquest since the beginning.

As indigenous people, we are proud to have been born from this continent. Yet for the past 500 years our people have been repressed, enslaved and annihilated. Looking back over the history of our continent, who would want to celebrate a history of colonization and repression? We can recount, one by one, the events of history of Latin America beginning with the conquest, and we can recite, one by one, the names of the thousands of disappeared in Latin America.

If they really want to make the 500 year anniversary an encounter of two worlds, they should begin by learning from the few indigenous who have survived. The blood of our people, and that of many ladinos* in Latin America, is the hope and the seed for democracy, of the respect for human rights, of the struggle of popular organizations. Because of our vision, our respect for life, and our tolerance among different ethnic groups, we could have offered much to the world which has produced nuclear arms which threaten the existence of all of us. We could have offered much if there had really been an encounter of two worlds in the past five centuries.

I don’t know how many hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested to erect monuments and finance celebrations which commemorate 500 years of power, colonization, and the shameful presence of repressive military regimes. Spending money that way is an outrage. Our people are dying of hunger. We don’t need buildings and repressive police forces, we need food and respect for human rights.

The commemoration of 1992 and 500 years of colonization and evangelization offers a chance to bring a more critical analysis to the relationship between the two worlds, perhaps for the first time in these five centuries. Which government will be the first to recognize the genocide of the indigenous population in Latin America?

The Pope and the Vatican are using the word “evangelization” to describe the anniversary in 1992. As a Maya, I am not offended by the word evangelization; however, we have to ask who should evangelize whom. Evangelization between the missionary and the indigenous can work both ways. If history were to judge, who stands more in need of evangelization: the missionaries or the indigenous?

After 500 years, the problem of evangelization has not ended. In many ways the Catholic Church and the evangelical Churches are still political instruments of domination, just as they have been for the past 500 years. They forget that we are all children of God and the churches should be concerned about the social as well as the spiritual interests of the children of God. We feel that the church can play an important role in reconciling conflicts, especially the ongoing armed conflict in Guatemala. The churches, including the fundamentalist sects, must take a stand against the powers of domination, against those criminals responsible for the horrible crimes in our countries. The voices of the disappeared and the murdered in Guatemala are crying out for justice.

We don’t have to live as if we belonged to the past. There are still more pages of history to be written.

*”Ladino” refers to Spanish-speaking non-indigenous people.