The other day I took a taxi in Atocha and asked him to take me to Museum of America.
-Where is it written? asked the alarmed taxi driver, who should never have heard of the existence of such a place.
And not the GPS either, I sighed.
-In collaboration with the Jiménez Díaz Foundation.
-Oh yes.
One of them was going to the exhibition on Miguel Cabrera, a very interesting neo-Spanish painter from the 18th century. It was very nice: the curators had carefully prepared an explanation about who was the most important exponent of caste painting, in addition to having recovered some of his paintings. The exhibition was complemented by a detailed reproduction of the techniques used by the artist which revealed the skills learned within the fascinating vice-regal court. But my experience was also unique for another reason: used to queuing and putting up with the noise of temporary exhibitions, I was able to take full advantage of all the time in the world there. There was no one there.
There must be a reason why the Museum of America is the least visited in Madrid. When to same Minister of Culture It occurred to him that museums needed to be decolonized, there was a lot of laughter at his expense and more than one noticed his lack of knowledge of Spanish museum heritage. But Urtasun was not alone in his ignorance, for the museum that could most clearly be in his crosshairs is a great unknown in all of Madrid. Even taxi drivers don’t know where it is. Of course, this is not the fault of such a hard-working group. The anecdote I told is the symptom of a real daily disinterest, which apparently only turns off once a year at this time.
And the subject is fascinating. What happens is that sometimes we expect history to be told to us at a level that we don’t demand from Science. It is an evil that affects the Humanities in general. No one believes someone who preaches the cure for cancer with soluble vitamin C pills, but we believe someone who tells us history with slogans like pills. “It was genocide!” » shout a lot. “It was heaven!” the others respond.
Decolonialists and imperialophiles can dictate their slogans, but the world in which the inhabitants of Spanish America lived was infinitely richer, more interesting and complex. To imagine it as a great concentration camp in which bearded battleships devoted themselves to the murder of men, women and children, while galleons sailed away laden with gold, is a grotesque caricature of the truth. Now, to think of multitudes of Indians going to college or being treated in modern hospitals, while a bunch of happy Indian women got married in church to crude but handsome conquistadors, it’s the same caricature, but in reverse.
More than the confrontation between irreconcilable positions, a true feeling of Hispanicness should imply a sincere interest in knowing everything that has been masked (I now speak of our Spanish case) by centuries of apathy. Not just in America, but right here in Spain. It’s simple: you can try going to YouTube and searching for music videos from that period. You can start for example with the cachua serranita of Ensemble Elyma or the rescue carried out by the group Temperaments of so many wonderful pieces. It is delicious music, with contagious joy and so particular that it stands out from the European elegance of Bach, Handel and company. Indeed, these European composers were inspired by rhythms and dances (the folía, the chaconne or the sarabande) imported from India. Hispanic America has thus influenced Spain and Europe in general, as in many other areas.
Even flamenco itself has its roots on the other side of the Atlantic, as has been demonstrated in recent years. It is surely time for us Spaniards to discover America and understand to what extent what constitutes us as a nation is inconceivable without it. This is seen both in the very Spanish potato omelette (inconceivable without the American tuber) and in so many illustrious little-known figures.
No country like Spain had as much access to the planet’s biodiversity in the 18th century. This is how the Museum of Natural Sciences was born, founded by a man from Guayaquil, the businessman and patron Pedro Franco Dávila. I apologize to the reader for the test: but what do we know about Bernardino de Sahagún, Juan de Palafox, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Félix de Azara or José Celestino Mutis? All of them were artists, scientists, writers and, in some cases, like Palafox’s, intellectuals, politicians and saints all rolled into one, which has merit.
But it is precisely for this reason that the reading of History cannot become a pretext for self-satisfaction. If Palafox, for example, became a saint, it is because in America he had to face the daily, unjust and corrupt reality of the Spanish administration. A people incapable of being impartial, who live only on flattery, are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past. We may believe, as Spaniards, that the responsibility for our defeats lies with others, but being a victim is a bad recipe for the lives of peoples and nations alike. Much of the sinister nationalism was consumed, and still is today, by victim propaganda. Consequently, the lessons of History that it gives us do not serve to justify or legitimize anything, especially since our parameters are not the same as those of the peoples of five hundred years ago. .
Some time ago, the great Octavio Paz, referring to the eternal controversies in his country regarding the figure of Hernán Cortés, wrote the following: “As soon as Cortés ceases to be a historical myth and becomes what he is really – a historical character -, “Mexicans will be able to see themselves with a clearer, more generous and more serene look.” This also applies to the Spaniards when they refer to the American past from prejudices, negative or The reality is gray, even in a character as incredible as Cortés, whose lights and shadows are extraordinary, as we can see by reading the solid and documented biographies that exist on him (since we are here, they are not. not all: those of Bennassar, Miralles, Martínez or Mira Caballos are among the best). We cannot express his personality by saying that he was a genocidaire or a hero, without further ado.
The wealth lies not in condemnation, but in understanding. In an era like ours, so enthusiastic about its agendas of progress and its accusatory or idealized visions of the historical past, there is nothing wrong with questioning the history of empires without falling into simplistic or dark interpretations. nor roses. Spanish America from the 16th to the 18th century was the first achievement of a great multi-ethnic and globalized civilization. It sounds very nice, but you have to be aware that the contribution of cultures other than Spanish was decisive. Immersing ourselves in the experiences of this precursor world helps us to listen and better understand those who think and live differently from us.
Faced with condemnation or self-aggrandizement, we Spaniards should open ourselves to the plural reality that is America. This implies actually assuming that the Today, crossbreeding is an integral part of our past. and our future. Only in this way can we look at ourselves in a clear, generous and serene way.
