A Spanish documentary celebrating the virtues of the conquest of the Americas has been released in Mexico, sparking heated debate about the legacy of colonialism. The film, “Hispanic America: A Song of Life and Hope,” directed by Jose Luis Lopez-Linares, portrays the Spanish as having had a civilizing effect on the Americas.
Shot in four countries – Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia – it depicts the Spanish as bringing Catholicism and art to the New World. However, it makes no mention of the abuses committed during the Conquest period.
The film’s release comes amid tensions between Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum and the Spanish government. Sheinbaum barred King Felipe VI from attending her inauguration ceremony earlier this month for failing to apologize for atrocities committed during the 1519-1521 Conquest of Mexico.
Mexican journalist Jose Juan de Avila called the film “a manipulative and racist piece of propaganda that attempts to rewrite history.” The debate is also linked to the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World on October 12, 1492, which is celebrated as Hispanic Day in Spain but known as Dia de la Raza (Day of the Race) in Mexico.
Some Mexicans subscribe to the view advanced in the documentary that the Conquest was a source of enlightenment. However, others see it as a violent act and are pushing for a more nuanced understanding of the period. The debate raises uncomfortable questions about privilege and inequality between people with light and dark skin in Mexico.
In Spain, King Felipe attended the film’s premiere in April, while activists from a militant Catholic association put up posters defending the 16th-century “conquistadors.” Mexican historian Alfredo Avila said that the debate is being stoked on either side of the Atlantic for domestic political gain. Around the world, former colonial powers are coming under pressure to face up to the less glorious chapters of their past. Emmanuel Macron deeply upset conservatives in France when he declared during his 2017 presidential campaign that his country’s colonization of Algeria was a “crime against humanity.”
Source: France
