Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[marcos]

'Alonzo, (Blacksmith, Hernando de Alonzo, who built the boats that Hernan Cortés used to assault Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, was burned alive in México City in 1528. According to Dr. Liebman, Alonzo was the first Jew in North America who was caught practising Judaism. Nevertheless, there were some other conversos besides Alonzo in the leadership positions of the New Spain government-Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza, Fray Bartolome de las Casas, Gonzalo de Salazar, Alonso de Estrada, Diego de Ocaña, Pedro de la Maluenda.)'

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7016/Jews2.htm ... there are many more names there quite common as surnames in México .... the whole dynamic of the jews being forced to convert and of the moros being kicked out of Spain was what led to spanish fervour for greater expansionism, it was a crusade in the real sense of the term ...... part of throwing off the rule of the spanish was for the mejicano throwing off the rule of the church as well ..... there have been strongly anti-clerical governments since - the Calles regime was shooting priests there for a while in the nineteen twenties and thirties .... if you were caught with more than five people and a priest in your house, all your property was declared church and confiscated by the state

Fray Bartolomé de las Casas was the first bishop of Chiapas, he wrote a book called Las Lágrimas de los Indios, 'the tears of the indians', in which he details abuses of natives and suggests workable alternatives to the encomienda system, he is ignored and subsequently fired as bishop, remains a hero to the patriot though .... you can still go to his catedral, in a town named after him, San Cristóbal de las Casas

The world takes care of racism eventually yes, but very slowly at times, there is great struggle on the way to equilibrium .... the wounds hurt, they hurt both victor and vanquished too .... attitudes persist - there are many for whom the anglo invasions of the eighteen thirties and forties are quite fresh and vivid, some tend to great paranoia regarding all that is anglo, personally i think they're whacked out and should be ignored, that's what most do anyway now .... and then on the other side, you keep hearing of this mandating of english as an 'official' language, it's the mirror image .... well we can hope those types get ignored too, and maybe we can at least beat the africans to some kind of equilibrium

[edit] - speak of the devil, lol - #msg-1060662 ... <sigh>