Search for Identity

The quincentenary of the conquest, like all historic dates, is somewhat symbolic, but it can in fact help all of us on this continent to reflect on our identity to look at our past from the standpoint of the present. In speaking, therefore, of the quincentenary of the conquest we are on firmer ground than in speaking of that of the discovery, which is a European way of looking at things. The point is a delicate one, because it was alongside the use of force and the destruction of so many persons, cultures, and peoples that the Gospel came to be spread on this continent, and therefore when we speak of the church we cannot fail to refer to that task and that annunciation. The events of the 16th century have been confused ever since. It is impossible in concrete historical terms to separate the conduct of those who arrived on this continent calling themselves Christians from that of those who still make that claim today while at the same time accepting the inhuman, infamous, cruel, and antievangelical situation in which the poor of this continent live. We have tended to view political history as the sort of succession of personages in Latin America frequently military figures that led Eduardo Galeano to speak of an interminable military parade. If a history of the church is not to seem like such an interminable procession, we need to stop interpreting it by enumerating works, hospitals, and persons of goodwill and try instead to read it from the standpoint of those who were humbled by it -the standpoint of the vanquished. This is of course not an entirely new idea, but for the average Latin American this is likely to be a different history from the one that is usually taught. To be more precise, it is the history of the other, the history of the one who does not count and never has counted but continues to be right. This other for whom our society was not constructed, not even within the Christian community that we call the church (which continues to

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art history · CONQUEST · Genealogy · Gospel · Identity (music) · Parade · Political science · Politics · Procession · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious and Theological Studies

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  William L Smith•Teaching Sociology•1992

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  Open Access•Christopher Bratt•Acta Sociologica•2004

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