The mother that betrayed her children

When the Portuguese navigators left the Iberian Peninsula they all had beautiful sails with the red cross of Copta painted on them. That cross meant that they were sailing under the blessing and protection of the church, through the "Order of Christ". This was the same blessing and protection that accompanied the Templarians in their journey to fight the "unfaithful Muslims" and spread the true religion, Christianity, over the middle-east. The "Order of Christ" originated from the secret medieval order, of the Templariuns, persecuted and destroyed during the 1100's. However, the Portuguese got the pope's permission to officially adopt the rules and mysteries of the Templariuns during the 1300's. This was done under the name of "Order of Christ", and the Portuguese made this the official religious channel for their sailing overseas, and eventual conquering of the new pagan lands..(1)

The connection between the interest of the Institution of the Church, and the economic interest of the conquerors was a definite evil on the Christianity that arrived in Latin America. This form of Christianity would become engrained in the roots of the new society that developed. It would be a brand carried forever on our hearts distorting our society from its birth, with the encounter of the people from the north and the peoples from the land.

On the 26^th of January in the year of 1500 a group of men, lead by the Spanish captain Vincent Yanez Pinzón, landed on a beautiful beach of white sand, full of footprints, in the northeast coast of Brazil. This is a polemic historic view. For many centuries the historians were aware of Pinzón's expedition, being widely documented, but they had differed about the place where he had landed. For the Portuguese historians, the place was Cape Orange, on the border between Brazil and French Guyana, but for the Spaniards, who based their affirmation on the testimony of Pinzón himself, the place was Cape Santo Agostinho in Brazil's territory of Pernambuco. But recently in 1975 a captain, chief of documentation from the Brazilian Navy, verified and attested in an irrefutable way that it was in Fortaleza on Mucuripe beach, the place where Pinzón and his men first arrive becoming the first Europeans to walk on Brazilian land.

Pinzón stayed on land for one or two days. During the night he saw the light of fires burning far away on the coast. He sailed that direction the next morning with his ships... 120 km later he found a beautiful river that he called "Rio Formoso", Beautiful River. It is now called Rio Curu, located 120 km away from the city of Fortaleza. On the beach they saw about 40 native men (the Potiguar Indians). They tried to attract them with necklaces and toys with no success. All of a sudden one of the natives threw to the land a golden object, a golden stick, according to one of Pinzón's men. When a sailor bent down to pick it up the natives jumped on him. Armed, with a sword he fought to defend himself, but was finally killed ... A violent battle started between the 40 Indians and the Spaniards. This is the story of the conflict narrated by Pinzón himself:

"In the water, the angry natives surround the launch, grabbing the wooden sides but are killed like lambs because they are naked. But the remaining ones didn't go away. They overtook one boat after killing the main master with an arrow. If they had poison on the arrows none of us would have escaped..."

The next encounter that the Portuguese had with the natives a few months later, (that became the first official encounter of the Europeans and Brazilian Indians, and the fact known officially as the "Discovery of Brazil") was totally different. The natives were friendly, and the encounter started a friendly relationship between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim Indians. What is behind Pinzón's story? Some historians think that Pinzón did not tell the whole story. The fact that he took 36 natives to sell in Spain as slaves, seem to indicate that in trying to capture the natives they resisted. The Potiguar were around 90 thousand people. They lived on the coast of Brazil from 100 km north of the Curu to 600-km south where the city of João Pessoa is today. At least three historians believe that they would never have attacked the Spanish without reason.

After this brief conflict, Pinzón's band kept north. They explored a few more places on the coast and came upon their next large discovery. They heard a continuos roar and the water became brown, no longer seawater. It was the mouth of the Amazon River, that they called it "the sweet sea", La Mar Dulce...

Pinzón went up river to explore the interior of a land, that he thought during the whole trip to be India, (close to Cathay China). The men concluded that if the river had the strength necessary to "sweeten the sea" it must have been born in huge mountains, and run enormous distances. This led them to believe they were in Asia. They saw several beautiful islands, and were "pleased with the fertility of the land". The river banks were densely populated full of villages... There were "trees so big that 16 men hand in hand were not able to circle them". The animals seemed to them to be huge and monstrous... The people who inhabited the land were: "docile and sociable but not very useful because they don't own anything that we desire, like gold or precious stones..."

For around 2 weeks Pinzón navigated that fascinating region, however he lost his interest as soon as he decided there was no gold around. But he could not return without some kind of gain, so he decided to capture more slaves out of the "docile people". At least he would have something to show for his trip.

Another Spanish navigator (Diego de Lepe) describes being in the same region only one month later. He saw destroyed villages and outraged natives. Infuriated, they attacked his ships everywhere he tried to stop... He was merely following the footsteps of Pinzón and the hatred he left behind. . De Lepe also captured around 20 slaves and went back to the Caribbean where the Spanish had established a few villages.(2)

We can now see the foundations for the future relationships between the Europeans and the natives of Latin America. Even though the Portuguese later started a presumably peaceful relationship with the Tupiniquim Indians, it ended up with the total destruction of the Tupiniquim. Most of the destruction happened in wars against other Indians and Europeans, all arranged by the Portuguese.

The "spirit of the conqueror" accompanied the Spaniards and Portuguese since their first attempt to colonize the land. The natives were always either viewed as obstacles for the final possession of a desired piece of land, or as useful tools to be used in the process of getting whatever the colonists were looking for at the time. There wasn't an awareness of the fact that they were people. In the Europeans worldview, they were the same as Africans, less human, an inferior category of beings, not animals, but not completely humans either. Even the Incas, Mayas and Aztecs with their complex civilizations were not ever viewed as equals or in the same category as the conquerors.

This train of thought is still present in Latin American society. There are different categories of people. People who are more human than others. The Indians of Latin America are still viewed subconsciously as lower than other societies. In Brazil we see this in the total indifference with which the Indians are regarded. To the regular urban Brazilian person, an Indian is something of the history books, not a reality. I remember a song I used to sing in my childhood years:

The whole song was written in the past tense. They were, they are no more. This was the way Brazil dealt with the guilt that persecuted the nation for so long. We erase them from our minds, in the same way we erased them from our land.

The true history of Brazil shows more than three hundred years of slavery, as cruel as the slavery of the Africans. The history told in the schoolbooks until now concealed this information. Some Indian Nations were used by the Portuguese to exterminate other nations (Tupiniquim X Tupinambá) . It's calculated that in the 1500's at least one thousand different ethnic groups inhabited Brazil's national territory, with a population of around 6 million people. Today, there are only around 230, with a population of 280,000.

Even in the 20th century more than 100 different groups have disappeared. Some were brutally massacred with shotguns; homemade bombs dropped from small airplanes, or even shots of viruses disguised as vaccines... The removal of the motherland or the construction of state roads near their home territory has culturally bulldozed many. Most of the tribes continue till this day lacking medical care or adapted education, a right granted by the Brazilian constitution but not provided... Even the church in Brazil also functions with the same blind spot of indifference. Until 30 years ago there was no Brazilian missionaries working to reach the Indians in Brazil, all the work was done by foreign missions. Today there are still 126 different tribes that have never been exposed to the Gospel... The number of Brazilian missionaries sent overseas has tripled in the last 10 years, but the number to the Brazilian tribes, has stayed the same, in spite of the great need.

In our Euro-centric view of history we always prefer to use euphemisms to refer to the crimes committed against the native peoples. In Brazil we have tried to maintain an aura of heroism around the "bandeirantes", the first exploratory expedition leaders who developed the country's inland. But they were bloody killers, responsible for the deaths of thousands of Indian people.

In the Indian part of Latin America the situation is even worse. In spite of being the majority of the population of many countries (Bolivia (85% Indian and mestizo population), Peru (82% Indian and mestizo), Mexico (88% Indian and mestizo ), etc.) the Indians and those of Indian descent are regarded as inferior and very seldom rise above the misery that characterizes the rural areas. Conflicts like the one in Mexico are likely to explode all over the continent. The conflict in Colombia (58% population mestizo) although not clearly an indigenous conflict, has its roots in the misery and abandon that keep the "campesinos" as a very vulnerable population to guerillas, drug-lords and other parallel forces. These forces take advantage of the huge gap between the instituted government and its Indian semi- Indian population.

The principle was established during the 1500's. Latin-America was not to be a land for all men. It was not to be a motherland for their sons. America was the wicked stepmother that oppressed and killed her natural children.

It is time to stop this. I'm sorry if this does not seem like a reconciliation claim to you. But in order to be reconciled we must first speak the truth. If we do not recognize the sins we have committed and perpetuated even as the church of Christ, it will be impossible to be reconciled.

I'm a Brazilian woman of Portuguese/Spanish descent. My maiden name is Carvalho "oak", which means that my Jewish forefathers were obligated to convert to Catholicism in order to survive the Iberian Inquisition. I'm calling my people to recognize their sin. Let's have a New Latin America in the new century. It's hypocritical to ask the Indians to repent from their sinful ways and turn to Christ if we have not repent from our biggest sin. The face of the missionary for the Amerindian is also the face of the ruthless conqueror. This face now needs to be the face of repentance and forgiveness.



(1) A Viagem do Descobrimento, Eduardo Bueno,Objetiva Editora, 1998, reference to the Templarians

(2) Text in italic translated and adapted from "Náufragos, traficantes e degredados - As primeiras expedições ao Brasil" - Eduardo Bueno, Editora Objetiva, 1998.