Brothers and countrymen:
The immediacy
to the fourth century of the establishment of our ancestors in the New World is
a very remarkable occurrence to stop being interesting to our attention. The
discovery of such a large part of the earth is and will always be, for
humankind, the most memorable event of their records. But for us, inhabitants
of this new land, and for our descendants, it is an object of the greatest
importance. The New World is our country, and its history is ours, and it is
here that we must examine our present situation, to determine ourselves, to
take the necessary actions for the conservation of our own rights and those of our
successors. Although three centuries of our history have passed, relatively,
due to the causes and effects more worthy of our attention, this History could
be notoriously be reduced to these four words: ingratitude, injustice, slavery and desolation. However, it is
worthy to review it more carefully. When
our ancestors moved an immense distance from his native country, giving up not
only food, but also civil protection they had over there. So, they set out to provide for themselves at
such great distances, they exposed themselves to procure subsistence anew, with
the most enormous hardships and the greatest dangers. The great success which
crowned the efforts of the conquerors of America was, apparently a right that although it was not the fairest,
was at least better than the conservatives noble elites (godos) had in of
Spain, to enjoy the fruits of their and value of their work. But the natural
inclination to their native country led them to make the most generous tributes
to it, not doubting that that service would provide them recognition, according
to the customs of that century that rewarded those who had contributed to
extend the domain of the mother nation. Although those legitimate hopes have
been dashed, their descendants and other Spanish who have kept going to America,
even thought we do not know another country in which it is founded our
livelihood and our posterity, still we have respected, preserved and warmly
loved our parents' attachment to their first home. For her we have sacrificed infinite riches of
all kinds, lavished our sweat and spilled our blood gladly. Guided with blind
enthusiasm, we have not considered that such effort was offered to a country
that is foreign to us, from which be expected, but ruthless treachery against
the land where we have been born and that supplies food for ourselves and our
children; the veneration and warm feelings of our parents to their first
homeland is the most decisive proof of the preference we own to ours.
Everything that we have offered to Spain has been usurped from us and our
children, being much our simplicity, we have allowed being caught with a chain
that if we do not break in time, we will have no other recourse but to bear
patiently this ignominious slavery. As our current situation is sad, it is an
act of compassion to hide it from our eyes, but having the power to find the
remedy, let us discover our this horrible
picture to considerate in the light of truth. This condition teaches us that any law which
opposes the universal good of those for whom it is made, is an act of tyranny,
and that requiring its observance is to force slaver, such a as a law that a
law directed to destroy the foundations of the prosperity
of a people. It is also clear that a people, who stripped of personal freedom
and their assets, when all other nations in the same circumstances are
interested in extending it, would be in a state of slavery worse to that imposed
by an enemy in the intoxication of victory. These incontestable principles being
assumed let us see how they adapt to our mutual situation with Spain. A vast
empire, some treasures that exceed all imagination, a glory and power superior
to what antiquity ever knew; there are our titles of gratitude to the
distinguished protection of Spain and its government. But our reward has been
such as the severest punishment applied to the guilty of the greatest crimes. Spain
banishes us from the ancient world, separating us from one society to which we
are united with the closest links, adding to this unprecedented usurpation of
our personal freedom, the other equally important of property of our goods.
Ever since men began to join in partnership for greater good, we are the only
ones that the government forces us to buy what we need at higher prices, and
sell our production to lower prices. For this violence to have the most
comprehensive effect, we have been enclosed, such a besieged city, so have been
closed all roads through which other nations could give us necessary things,
moderately priced and in fair exchange. Government taxes, gratuities to
ministries and the greed of merchants is authorized to engage in the most
unbridled monopoly concert, walking all on the same line. And since the need is
felt: the buyer does not have another choice. Even though we could use our
industry to meet our needs, the government undertook the job of chaining it.
You cannot see without indignation the effects of this detestable trade plan,
details of which would be amazing if the people who gave them to us hadn´t been
impartial and credible. Without the testimony of Don Antonio Ulloa, would be
difficult to persuade Europe that the price of goods, essentially needed
everywhere, such as iron and steel, was in Quito, in peacetime, more regularly
than 100 pesos, or 540 pounds per quintal of iron, and 150 pesos or 810 pounds
per hundredweight of steel, the price of not being first in Europe but 5 to 6
pesos (25 to 30 pounds). In a port as famous
as that of Cartagena de indias, also in peacetime, there has been a shortage of
wine so great, that they were not forced to celebrate Mass, but in one church,
and generally these shortages, and their excessive price, prevent the use of
this drink, more necessary there than
elsewhere, due the unhealthy climate. In
honor of humanity and our nation, is better to pass over in silence the horrors
and violence of other exclusive trade (known in Peru under the name divisions
or “repartimientos”), prerogative that is appropriated by magistrates and
mayors for the desolation, and particular ruin of the unfortunate indians and mestizos.
What wonder is that, if with so much gold and silver that we have almost
satiated the universe, we now barely possess to cover our nakedness? What so
much fertile land serve for, if in addition to the lack of tools to cultivate
it, it is otherwise useless to do it beyond our own consumption? Many goods nature
lavishes us with are entirely lost because tyranny prevents from using them,
and communicating with other people. The ingenious policy, which under the
guise of our own good, has deprived us of liberty. At least, it was necessary
they give us a break, some means of honor to restore and develop new resources.
The interests of our country, being but ours, the good or bad management of
them necessarily rests upon us, and clearly it belongs to ourselves the right
to exercise control, since we are capable of filling up the roles needed, with
mutual advantage of the country and ourselves. What displeasure did the Spanish
did express when some Flemish vassals occupied some public jobs in Spain? How
many requests and riots demanded that those foreigners were dismissed despite their
small number? The fear that Spain money pass to another country, although
belonging to the same monarchy, was the reason that made the Spanish insist on
that demand. What a difference there is between that of the Spanish momentary
situation and our three centuries here! Deprived of all government benefits, we
have not experienced your but the most horrible and most serious disorders and
vices. With no hope of immediate
protection, and swift justice to the distance of two or three thousand leagues,
without resources to claim, we have been delivered to the injustice, to the
rapacity of the ministers, favorites of Charles V. They are relentless toward
people who they don´t know and look as foreign, they seek to satisfy only their
greed with the perfect assurance that their iniquitous behavior will go
unpunished or ignored. The sacrifice made to the Spain of our most precious
interests is the merit they excused themselves with. But the misery in which
Spain itself has fallen, proves that these men have never known the true
interests of the nation, and they have sought only under this pretext to cover
their shameful procedures, and the events has shown that injustice never bears solids
fruit. In addition to our ruin and our ignominious servitude, homelessness,
greed and ambition Spain have always supplied a swarm of adventurers, passing
to America. They are resolved to compensate their losses with our substance
that pays their jobs. The way they compensate the absence of their homeland is
by making all possible evils to us. They renew everyday those scenes of horror
that obliterated entire villages, whose only crime was their weakness. So they
make the brightness of the biggest conquest in an inglorious spot for the
Spanish name. […]So while on the court, in the army, in the courts of the
monarchy, riches and honors are spilled to foreigners of all nations, we are
just declared unworthy of them and unable to take even in our own country, even
though they strictly belong to us. So the glory, which costed so much pain to
our parents, is for us a legacy of shame and our immense treasures have not
bought but misery and slavery.[…].
Let us consult our record of three centuries and there
we will see the ingratitude and injustice of the court of Spain, his infidelity
to fulfill their contracts, first with the great Columbus and then with the
other conquerors who gave the New World empire. We will see the posterity of
those generous men collapsed with contempt, and was stained with hatred that
slandered and persecuted them. With some simple particularities we could point
this persecutor spirit noted against American Spanish. Read only what the true Inca Garcilaso de la
Vega account, in the second volume of his Commentaries'), Book VII, capo 17.
When Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, this hypocritical fierce character,
determined to kill the only and last direct heir to the Empire of Peru, to
ensure the possession of that unhappy country to Spain, in the process
instituted against the innocent young Inca Tupac Amaru, among false crimes with
this prince was charged, others are also accused, says Garcilaso, to be born in
the country of Indian mothers and Spanish conquerors fathers. It was alleged that they had secretly agreed
with Tupac
Amaru, and other Incas, to excite a rebellion in the kingdom, to foster
discontent among those who had been born from the royal blood of the Incas, or
whose mothers were daughters, nieces, or cousins of the family of the Incas,
or their parents were the first Spanish conquistadores. Nevertheless, despite
their a reputation, they were little attended, that neither the natural right
of mothers, nor the great services and merits of the parents, provided them the
least advantage, since they were distributed among relatives and friends of the governors. Many
of them were exposed to starve if they did not want to live on charity, or
become highway robbers. Many accusations were made against the children of
Spanish-born Indian women, so they were taken, and all who were aged 20 years
and older, able to bear arms, and then living in Cuzco, were imprisoned. Some
of them were put to torture to force them to confess where there was no
evidence or signs. Amid these tyrannical fury and procedures, an Indian woman,
whose son was sentenced, came to prison and, raising his voice, said, My son,
as you have been sentenced to torture, bravely put up with it, as a man of
honor, do not accuse anyone falsely, and God will give you strength to bear it,
He will reward the dangers and penalties
that your father and his colleagues have gone through to make this a Christian
country, and to admit its inhabitants within the Church ... This exhortation
magnanimous, uttered with all the vehemence that this mother was able to, made
the biggest impression on the mind of the Viceroy, and brushed his plan of
putting to death those unfortunates. However, they were not acquitted, but they
were condemned to a slow death, banishing them to various parts of the New
World.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Death has already freed most of these exiles out of
their miseries. Some others drag an unfortunate life as a proof that cruelty of
character that has so often been reproached the Spanish nation, but this spot
really should not fall only on the despotism of their government. Three
centuries during which this government has had no interruption or change any
the same conduct with us, are full proof of a thoughtful plan that have entirely
sacrificed us to the interests and conveniences of Spain. However it is evident
that despite the efforts multiplied by false and iniquitous policies our
institutions have acquired such consistency that Montesquieu, that sublime
genius said: "The Indies and Spain are powers under the same owner, but
the Indies are the main and Spain is the accessory. This means in other words, that the reasons
for tyranny increase every day. Like an evil guardian who is used to living in
the splendor and opulence at the expense of his pupil, Spain with the greatest
horror sees the time that reason and justice have prescribed for us to
emancipate. The emptiness and confusion, which produce the fall of this
administration is the only reason that encourages the Court of Spain to
perpetuate our minority, to aggravate our chains.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The free use of the same rights is the
priceless heritage we should leave to our posterity. It would be a blasphemy to
imagine, that the supreme benefactor of men has led to the discovery of the New
World, so that a small number of rogues and morons were always the owners, and
have the atrocious pleasure to deprive millions of men, that haven’t given them
the least reason of grievance, the essential rights received from His divine
hand. Imagining that the eternal wisdom would deprive the rest of mankind, of the
immense benefits that the natural order was to procure in such a big event, is
as if wishing that the New World had been
unknown forever. This blasphemy is however implemented by the rights that Spain
assumes about America. Human malice has perverted the natural order of the mercies
of the Lord, not to mentions that of justice due to our particular interests to
defend the homeland of ours.
trans. Alex Salinas
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