Our brothers and sisters of The Decolonial Thought Community in Mexico have taken up the concept of Genocide Memorial Day that is promoted by DIN. On October 12, 1492 Columbus the Criminal opened the doors of hell for the Indigenous people of the America. On October 12 they organize an event to commemorate the Indigenous Holocaust.

The Indigenous Holocaust Memorial is an event that seeks to show a dissent, a disagreement with the narratives of submission that justify colonialism. Almost two centuries after the national liberation struggles and the end of the colonial administrations, these discourses still stand and sometimes, without any dispute. For that reason, it is important for us to disrupt this continuity, not only because of objective rigour but above all because we start from an ethico-critical position.

Already in 1992, when the 500th anniversary of the misnamed “discovery” of America or “encounter” of two worlds was being celebrated, there was an intense intellectual debate about the pertinence of the word “encounter” because it concealed the violence behind the colonization process (which led to the elimination of approximately 60% of the Mesoamerican population during the 16th century) and the asymmetry of power between the components of the supposed hybrid or “mestizo” culture.

In our state, Tlaxcala, the issue is even more complex. We are heirs of a people, altepetl, that successfully resisted the expansionism of the triple alliance led by the Mexicas (Aztecs), and that did not miss the opportunity to establish an alliance with the European conquerors to free itself from such domination, which would undoubtedly brought some benefits after the fall of Aztec empire. However, this alliance was neither a peaceful process nor an easy consensus. There were, throughout all the process, tensions, such as the initial confrontations with the Spanish of which the Otomí people can give full faith; but in addition, there were those who disagreed with this alliance, perhaps the most symbolic example is Xīcohténcatl the young captain who was executed because of his dissent.

No one can judge the attempt of liberation of a people. However, afterwards, the Tlaxcala people joined the colonizing project of the Westerners and was a relative complice in the violence that it implied. It would take some time to understand that somehow, our people had participated in the construction of their new chains of oppression and material-cultural destruction, that is, the modern regimes of domination (Patriarchy/Racism/Capitalism) that appear in the context of the colonial encounter and will soon take on a global vocation shaping the modern world system.

For us, this event means the testimony of the presence of a critical ethos of Tlaxcala and an awareness that starts by denouncing the violence of human beings against human beings as well as a commitment to contribute to the destruction of the regimes of modern global domination. We therefore join in solidarity in the series of events called by the Decolonial  International Network(DIN) as: “Genocide Memorial Day”.

The meeting will be attended by Ahmed Uddin from the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a founding memberorganisation of DIN and initiator of the GMD.

 

The Decolonial Thought Community