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000872 Visit since August 31, 2004
| TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY, a History
of The Mexican people (Chapter 1) |
by Prof. German Estrada
September, 2004 |
THE FOREFATHERS (part
16th) continues..
At about the same time, furthermore, a Spanish play
by Andre de Claramonte, El valiente negro de Flandres ,
was harping on the racial inferiority of the negro.
A contemporary of Lope de Vega, Claramonte, in describing
the character of the negro Juan de Mérida, wrote, "only
because of the color of his skin he could not be a
man of gentle blood," while Mérida laments the "disgrace" to
be "black in this world." For "that outrage I will
denounce fate, my times, heaven, and all of those who
made me black. O curse of color." This play makes clear
that color prejudice, the Spanish variety, had old
roots on the Iberian Península; claims to the
contrary, it was not an invention of the 1800s.
Sixteenth-century Spain became the champion of orthodoxy.
Trifling with tradition was not permitted, in the realms
of faith, ideas, or politics. By the end of the century,
the relative freedom to think for oneself was merely
a historical anecdote. Heterodoxy, the spirit of the
Renaissance, enjoyed scant welcome in Spain, while
scholasticism, a discredited formula in much of Europe,
dictated learning in schools and universities. Given
this lugubrious atmosphere, only the daring and unorthodox
risked the wrath of church and state to stay abreast
of learning.
For a while, the influx of silver and gold from Mexico
and Peru hid the ills of Spain from public scrutiny,
but not for long. By 1600, the signs of decay were
self-evident; at the close of the next century, the
downfall of imperial Spain was public knowledge. Corruption
and graft beset the regime of Charles I, who looked
the other way when his sycophants stole from royal
revenues and walked off with public properties. His
chancellor, Juan de Sauvage, made a profit of two million
ducats in just two months off royal rights to the African
slave trade. Phillip II sold public offices to the
highest bidders and failed to stop the corruption of
his father's time. At his death, Spain suffered from
an inflated and graft-ridden bureaucracy.
The church traveled down the
same path. Ritual and ceremony, rather than dedication
and compassion, were often its hallmarks, while corruption
seduced much of the clergy. The efforts of Ferdinand
and Isabella to clean up the morality of the clergy
had mostly failed. Priest, like lay sinners, took
concubines and fathered offspring. The high clergy,
rich by any standard, enjoyed the life of the nobility,
a reflection of society, where great wealth and dire
poverty lived side by side; the rich, the few; the
poor, the many. "Our condition",
wrote a Spanish sage of that time, is one in which
we have the rich who loll at ease, or the poor who
beg." To Miguel de Cervantes, Spain had become a country
of the "haves and have-nots." As the century ended,
no middle class of any significance existed.
Source: From the book Triumphs
and Tragedy, a History of the Mexican People by his
author Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and with his authorization.
(W.W. Norton & Company. New York-London). We'll continue with this fascinating
book.
estradanav@yahoo.com
Prof. Germán
Estrada is the author of the best selling book,
"México
Mágico: Everything You Wanted To Know
About... But Nobody Told You..." available in Puerto
Vallarta at The Net House, Mail Boxes, Etc., Books,
Books as well as directly from the author by internet.
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