Dear Mexican brothers:
Your politicians demand that we Spaniards apologize to you, so let’s examine their reasons. In the 16th century, Hernan Cortes arrived to your lands accompanied by 518 infantry, 16 horsemen and a handful of harquebusiers, crossbowmen and sailors who, in the final battle of Tenochtitlanrepresented barely 1% of the assailants, since 99% of them were indigenous people from towns that had been enslaved and even devoured by Mexica cannibals, whom they hated to death.
Therefore, the most correct thing would be to consider that the fall of Montezuma It occurred in what we could call a civil war between indigenous people, in which the Spanish led the oppressed side trying to stop their tremendous desire for revenge. Perhaps there are those who think that we should apologize for not having let ourselves be eaten by the Mexica in their human sacrifices, but that is a point on which we are hardly going to agree.
It is true that, in the three centuries of the viceroyalty of New Spain, we brought a lot of gold to Spain. Specialists estimate that they were on the order of a 200 tons of gold and 15,000 silver, which corresponded to the ‘fifth royal’, which is 20% of all the precious metals extracted that our monarchy collected as tax, keeping the other 80% in America. But, to give us an idea, that enormous amount of gold and silver is the equivalent of the amount of precious metals that you extract today in just a couple of years.
Furthermore, in exchange for the riches that we brought us, we built you hundreds of cities, dozens of cathedrals and universities, countless roads and numerous hospitals, since we never considered you a colony, but from the beginning we integrated you as another part of Spain. It would be very difficult to do the math to know if with the gold we took we reached pay for the cultural and material wealth that we leave youso it is impossible for us, five centuries later, to ask your forgiveness for this.
When, after the Napoleonic occupation of Spain, we were forced to accept the independence of Mexico in 1821we left you an empire that extended from Panama, in the south, to the enormous territory that includes an imaginary line from Alta California to the Mississippi River. Just twenty-five years later, your bad independence leaders gave the United States half of your country, made up of the current states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah; and parts of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming.
The year of your independence, an immense majority of up to 60% of your population spoke indigenous languages. Barely 100 years after we left, in 1921, only 8% of you spoke them, after independent and nationalist Mexico massacred the indigenous people who, with Spain, had been protected. We have the excuse of the decline here caused by the Napoleonic wars and the disastrous Ferdinand VIIto which, just as now to Pedro Sanchezwe nickname the Felon. But, even so, as Spaniards, perhaps we should apologize for not having been able to defend yourselves with greater vigor against some disastrous independence leaders who, as soon as we left, They gave away your territory and massacred your indigenous people.
Today the Government of Mexico is presided over by an exalted far-left populist such as Claudia Sheinbaum. A woman belonging to the elite of European origin, daughter of Jews who arrived in Mexico just one hundred years ago. Sheinbaum replaced the exalted far-left populist in office Andrés Manuel López Obradorwhose grandparents came to Mexico from Spain at the beginning of the last century.
As Spaniards and Europeans we must also apologize to Mexico for the part of the blame that corresponds to us in the origin of these two harmful characters you voted for to govern you for six years. In short, we cannot apologize for what Spain did in Mexico so many centuries ago, but if you want an apology, we ask you to forgive us for having left America, leaving you in the hands of the pitiful leaders you have had since then and of those that only you can get rid of by learning to vote properly.
With our best wishes for democracy and prosperity. Sincerely; from Spain.
