More Native Peoples’History. Less Hispanophilia.
By Yenny Delgado
For more than five centuries, colonial narratives have tried to convince us that the languages of Abya Yala are Spanish, Portuguese, and English, all imposed through European colonial expansion.
Yet hundreds of Native languages are still spoken across the continent, carrying ancestral knowledge, collective memory, and distinct ways of understanding and relating to the world.They called it the discovery of the New World. But our ancestors had inhabited Abya Yala for more than 20,000 years, traveling across its lands and building communities in deserts, mountains, forests, the Amazon, and around rivers and lakes. We were, and remain, peoples of many nations, cultures, spiritual practices and languages.
They called us uncivilized while our ancestors developed extraordinary architecture, sophisticated agricultural systems, and remarkable knowledge of astronomy. They claimed they came to bring civilization, religion, and progress. But they took our lands, exploited our labor, imposed their beliefs, and tried to erase our histories. And then, they tried to label us Hispanic, Latinos, undocumented, and illegal, imposing names that erase our histories, obscure our identities, and deny the sovereignty and dignity of peoples of Abya Yala.
But we are still here!
So, this October 12, let us tell a different story. Let us learn more about our Native histories, knowledge, resistance, and contributions of the peoples of Abya Yala. Let us listen to our voices rather than continue celebrating colonial narratives.
More Native peoples’ history. Less Hispanophilia!
Read HISPANOPHILIA: Hispanic Heritage and the Colonial Category We Have Inherited
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