Western Legacy
An afternoon in Quito, Ecuador, walking in the streets, I meet again the occasional looks I get as an european looking person. I’m wearing stained and messy second hand clothes as always, in which two missionaries have mistaken me for a homeless person earlier this morning. I get approached by two local indigenous police officers. As I pull out my ID card, they apologize in an unexpectedly polite tone “No, no, don’t worry… We didn’t mean to bother you, we just wanted to say that we are safeguarding this square and if you have any problems, or need anything just ask us for help”.
Never, ever in my 40 years of life in Europe have I been addressed so politely, let alone apologized by a police officer.
As I say “gracias” and we each go our way, a flashback comes in my mind… of an acquaintance, a local indigenous Ecuadorian guy…
An afternoon in Quito, Ecuador, returning from a job interview, dressed in new clean office pants and white shirt, he is standing in the bus. A random guy approaches him and tries to rob him. He defends himself and gets punched in the face. Eventually he flees the bus and escapes the robber. He approaches a nearby local police officer to report the incident. The officer says “who cares about that” checks his ID and threatens to beat him if he doesn’t go away.
My mind gets blocked by the dissonance of those two moments… “discriminating against your people and apologizing to a European” I’m looping in my mind, only to be awakened by memories….
…of many people I have encountered in Ecuador, who told me how they are taught from their early childhood, by their parents, family, and society, that Westerners are superior people, the less indigenous you are, the better you are, the more you look like an indigenous person, the less is your value. A cultural trauma centuries old and still vividly omnipresent.
…an indigenous friend of mine, an architect and single mother struggling to maintain herself and her son. In Ecuador, it is common for people to have two first names and two last names. Many people have one Western name like José or Guadalupe and one indigenous name like Raimi or Pakchu. The same goes for the last name. The friend of mine is one of those people. She is proud of her indigenous heritage and her indigenous names but presents herself exclusively with her Western names because nobody would hire her if she used the indigenous ones.
…an indigenous friend of mine, traveling to Europe, comes to the customs of the airport and is directed to another line where she waits, together with a few more people dressed in the nicest robes of their indigenous culture, for 4 hours for the customs officer to come and attend them. Next time she flies with the same passport but dressed in a suit, looking like a European, and passes the customs together with all the westerners in a few minutes.
…another indigenous friend of mine who lives in the Amazon, protects the forest from deforestation and earns only 3 USD for more than 10 hours of hard physical work in the jungle so that Westerners can enjoy affordable bananas in the comfort of their sofa while they give money to oil and mining companies from whom my friend is protecting the Amazon.
…my companion and I hanging out with the neighbor’s kid in the garden. Whenever called, the kid responds with “mande”. A new Spanish word for me… sounds nice but also somewhat off, as it reminds me of the Italian “mandare”. Afterward, my companion explains it to me… when centuries ago the European occupiers submitted and enslaved local people they taught them to respond to a call by a European Señor with “mande”, which means “send me” or “order me”. As they were considered inferior people they were expected to react with submission. The term “mande” eventually entered the everyday language and got normalized, so did the feeling of inferiority and submission of local people through centuries of still ongoing Western culturocide and domination.
…my companion’s father, who is considered in her family to be “a catch” because he has blond hair and looks like a Westerner.
…the position of superiority constantly present in western people I meet in Latin America, the rich gringos who buy land for their peace resorts, disrupt the local economy, extract gold from indigenous soil without permission, play shamans, and sell indigenous rituals to other westerners.
western companies which still today invade and poison the land of indigenous people to extract raw materials needed for the Western wasteful consumeristic life.
…an indigenous child who died of leukemia in the Amazon forest because the family didn’t have the money for treatment and a “helpless” French guy.
…the moment when I found out the society I lived in and supported with my hard work was built on the deaths of more than 500 million people and the theft of trillions worth of art pieces from the land where I’m living now.
As I continue my walk, accompanied by these memories, tears start coming out, as I’m deeply saddened by the cursed legacy of a self-righteous empire I was once part of.
As the words “legacy” and “empire” pass through my mind I remember the still unconscious defenders of the West I crossed paths with:
“Progress of any kind comes from conquest.”
“That isn’t your situation with us.”
“You are referring to what is called Bygone History”
“You claim to supply everything, but you’re still poor”
“Why not just take back the economic power, and why haven’t you?”
“I propose something else to leave the grievances behind”
“We are letting you participate”…
“our patience will run out that is a certainty”…
While their ignorance makes me doubt the future of a peaceful humanity, two Buddhists, whose recent accidental presence in my life has been a blessing, inspired me to still believe in a better world:
As their blessing is still omnipresent, I leave this story to live its life, in hope that one day the Western defenders will get the memo.
NOTE: We adhere to a strict human rights policy, are guided by the rules-based international order and moral superiority of the West. No Western citizen has been harmed in the writing of this story, your privilege is safe with us.
