The Lost and Exploited: Lessons from Mexico's Colonization
How and Why Colonization erases people and their pain
Yo soy Mestiza. I am a woman blessed with the blood of a Mayan father who shook hands with the biggest politicians of his time, the legacy of a Lebanese grandfather who fled when the Ottoman Empire fell, the culture of the Mexica, and a distant relative of an Italian revolutionary and unorthodox Pope from the past. All of these bloodlines run through me. I am the result of all of their stories.
Rebels, radical change makers, and survivors. Those are the people that made me, those on whose shoulders I stand.
Part 1, Mexico:
When the Spanish colonizers arrived, they forced the Mexica—the indigenous people of what is now Mexico City—to tear down their own temples and rebuild, stone by stone, the churches of their conquerors.
They burned our codexes, our poetry, our songs. They taught us their language, their religion, and their ways, and if indigenous people refused to convert they were tortured and killed in the same churches they had to build.
The cruelty of the colonizers is fresh in the memory of the very colonial buildings that stand to this day. If you ever visit these places and listen to their historians, you’ll see the mines, and mills where “Indians” of all ages had to work until they dropped dead, just to be immediately replaced by another one. You’ll see the chains, you’ll see the torture chambers, you’ll see the sides of the churches where they could choose between conversion and death.
Yet again, we were the “barbarians,” we were the ignorants, the fools, the ones who, as somebody recently said about us “were slow to learn”.
They say we were bloodthirsty because of our sacrifices, but their inquisitions and cruelty were the “civilized” way.
Spanish people (and those with internalized white supremacy) say we are supposed to feel grateful because the colonizers brought us culture and religion, but we already had a culture and a religion. Those same people say we were not colonies but a big happy family, while we the indigenous population were genocided and their culture was erased, while they were forced labor and their dignity was stolen away.
If we are talking about genocide, the amount of dead Indigenous people in the whole American continent since the conquest is estimated to be 56 million people, according to the University College of London. 85% of the indigenous population died, according to historian Gisela von Wobeser. And then we have the survivors of these massacres being stolen away from their land, from their dignity and their heritage. Insert slow sarcastic clap for those that bring civilization, aka death.
And then, 500 years later, people come to this land, learn something about our ancient cultures, say cacao, mushroom medicine, or a couple of Mayan words, and create a whole empire selling it abroad. Same with our food (*cough* avocado), and our gorgeous lands, they come, they take, they use, while despising the “lazy Mexicans”, the “ignorant Mexicans”, the “dirty Mexicans”, “the loud Mexicans”. Like this French girl who went viral because “Mexicans protesting for women’s rights - a very important movement in a country where 11 women are killed every day- were keeping her from enjoying her favorite coffee and her favorite museum in Mexico City”.
Meanwhile, housing prices go up exponentially due to gentrification, our salsas are less spicy because tourists can’t eat the same amount of picante we eat (seriously! That one hurts!) and the avocado that used to be present on our tables always has become more and more expensive by the day. Indigenous people in Oaxaca are starting to be moved out to create space for a bunch of digital nomads, and cities inside our country charge in dollars and speak English, making prices and living impossible for those who are native to the land.
In other words, Mexicans are being colonized all over again.
Part 2 Apologies
Six years ago, when AMLO took power, he asked Spain and the Vatican to apologize for the crimes committed against Mexico’s Indigenous people. The request was mocked, much like when Afro-descendants speak of reparations for slavery, or the land back movement. The common response? “It was so long ago, just let it go.”
That’s what we call No Tener Madre—an utter lack of shame. It’s also supremacy, both internalized by Mexicans and reinforced by the Spaniards who refuse to acknowledge these atrocities.
But why are apologies important?
Apologies Acknowledge the Truth
They go beyond symbolism—they force acknowledgment of the harm done. AMLO’s request wasn’t just about the past; it was about the ongoing impact of colonization. Refusing to apologize isn’t just forgetting history, it’s erasing it, keeping the same structures of oppression in place. Apologies say, “We see you. We see your pain. It was real.”
Apologies Interrupt Supremacy
By apologizing, colonizers confront the reality that their actions were wrong and still have consequences. Without this, both explicit and internalized forms of supremacy persist. This recognition is healing for the oppressed, who are often told their trauma doesn’t matter.
Apologies Aren’t Just About the Past
They force us to reckon with the present. Colonialism's forces—racism, white supremacy, and extractive capitalism—are still alive. An apology is not the final step, but it’s a necessary beginning to real reparations, dismantling systems of oppression, and healing generational trauma.
Internalized Colonization
Resistance to apologies, especially from within colonized nations, speaks to internalized colonization. Generations have been conditioned to rationalize their own oppression. Asking for accountability isn’t weak—it’s an act of strength and reclamation.
Apologies aren’t about guilt—they’re about responsibility.
More than anything, apologies are crucial because they stop us from replicating the same cycles of oppression and colonization over and over again. As Mexico changes presidents today,
In a bold move, Claudia Sheinbaum hasn’t invited the King of Spain to her inauguration, a symbolic gesture that challenges centuries of silence and complicity. Can we blame her? Where neoliberals once said, “Let’s forget the past,” we say, “Let us embrace it, and heal it together.”
Thankyou this is so informative, I learned a lot from reading it!!