July 2022 – The Pull Of The Land

July 14, 1789: Further Comments

July 29, 2022July 29, 2022 Richard Barnes

The fall of the Bastille and its attendant, macabre events (see here) were a sinister foreshadowing of what was to come to Paris and to all of France, not to mention much of the world in the ensuing centuries, including the bloodletting in Spanish America.

The King, Louis XVI, had been awakened long before dawn in Versailles to receive the news of the Bastille. The Assembly had been meeting in Versailles. In the morning, as the deputies listened to themselves give speeches, the King was announced, entered, and spoke, “You have been afraid, well it is I who have confidence … in you.”

He then announced further that the troops would be removed not only from Paris, but from Versailles as well. As if to say, “You see? No need to fear me at all.” The announcement was greeted with thunderous applause and cheers.

Two days later, the king journeyed to Paris to further demonstrate his goodwill. But Maximilian Robespierre, one of history’s most blood-soaked names, in a surviving letter to a friend, wrote, “The present Revolution has produced in a few days greater events than the whole previous history of mankind…”

“A patriotic army of 300,000 men, composed of every class of citizen, accompanied by Gardes Françaises, Suisses, and other soldiers, has captured the Bastille and punished its Governor and the Prévost des Marchands for their treachery. The fear that this army might march to Versailles has decided the Revolution.”

That’s how the more astute revolutionaries saw, interpreted, and described the king’s supine actions.

The crowds had been admonished, upon pain of death, to not dare shout out, “Vive le Roi“. Unsurprisingly, they humbly obeyed.

After touring the city, surrounded by deputies and armed crowds, he returned to Paris.

The following is from Otto Scott’s Robespierre. I quote it as a microcosm of what was to follow throughout the country and, through the next two centuries, many corners of the entire globe, but especially Eurasia and China:

“Five days later … on July 22, 1789, ex-Minister Foullon [whom the newspapers had accused of saying the ‘people could eat hay’; this was never proved or sourced] was … surrounded … a bundle of straw [tied] to his back and … a necklace of nettles and thistles around his head. He was dragged to City Hall….”

“The new Mayor Bailly orated about the law. Lafayette, summoned to the scene, argued that if Foullon was taken in safety to prison instead of being summarily lynched, he could be brought to disclose his ‘confederates’. After several hours of this the fiery crowd seemed placated. But when the old man — he was seventy-four — and his guard emerged from City Hall, a man suddenly jumped forward, caught Foullon by the neck, and three him into the crowd. A cluster closed around [him] immediately. Beating him energetically … [dragged him] across the Place de Greve to the lamp iron at the corner of the rue de la Vannerie. A noose was thrown over him; one man hoisted him up while others pulled on the lower end of the rope. After he was strangled to death his cadaver was lowered, his head cut off and stuck onto a pitchfork. The rest of the body was stripped, mutilated, and carved into pieces. A horrid parade through the streets started.”

A side note, Alexander Hamilton had expressed concerns about the nature of the French Revolution to his friend Lafayette, who paid no heed as he hastened back to France. Hamilton’s warning likely rang in his ears a few short years later, when he escaped just ahead of the mob.

Many men and women, including the king and queen, were executed after days, months, and years of imprecations and insults hurled at them, culminating with the same accusations painted on placards and posters as people trudged behind them, shortly before their lynchings.

Words are powerful. And effective. All revolutionaries understand that.

Clarence B. Carson wrote, “What particularly intrigued revolutionary socialists, Karl Marx among them, about the French Revolution was the drastic changes it made in the lives and ways of a people. It demonstrated, at least for them, in embryo form, the potentialities for changing man and men in society by revolution. The relentless thrust to equality especially caught the attention of socialists….

“In sum, society would be completely reconstructed.”

The French Revolution expressed those ideas loudly and made attempts at such. It moved to change the calendar with Year 1 being the first year after the Convention of 1792. But the most virulent attacks were on the church and its priests, nuns, adherents, and property. In Nantes the guillotine could not kill priests quickly enough so the representative-on-mission there, Jean-Baptiste Carrier, conjured up an even more effective way to rid the revolution of clergy, and entire families of men, women, and, children too. “Wolflings grow to be wolves,” he explained.

Boatloads of people were towed to the middle of the Loire and scuttled. Other boatloads were merely emptied into the river and, should any unfortunate attempt to grasp the side of the boat, his or her fingers or hands were slashed or cut off, ensuring drowning. Reports survive of many cases where Carrier ordered men and women stripped, tied together, and thrown into the river. “Republican Marriages” he called them. Modern historians tend to discount this, although they cannot deny the fact of thousands of cruel, inhumane deaths.

Carrier later became yet another fulfillment of Jacques Danton’s exclamation at his execution, “The Revolution, like Saturn, devours her own children!”

But the main objective must be kept in sight at all times: the de-Christianization of France. In this hatred of Christianity, revolutionaries have been consistent throughout the centuries. And this hatred is very knowledgeable, it not only attacks the church and churches, it attacks the home. One of the first acts of Revolutionary France was to make it much easier to dissolve the marriage bonds. It also decriminalized abortion. This was re-criminalized in 1810 with the Napoleonic Code.

As noted before, all this was studied with great interest by Karl Marx. As for Vladimir Lenin, an absolutely pitiless man, he said that he had learned much from the French Revolution, but that the revolutionaries had made one major mistake which he would not make: they had ended the Terror. This he was determined to not do.

The king and the queen were executed by guillotine. Their young son, born in 1785, died in prison ten years later, in 1795, days before physicians were called to perform an autopsy which revealed countless scars reflecting indescribable torture. The people whom the king loved and trusted had repaid him with their own currency.

It pains me to say, yet again, that Venezuela, the land of my birth, had its own birthing pangs in the philosophies and anti-clerical fervors of the French Revolution, however much lip service her revolutionaries paid to the American Declaration of Independence.

Simón Bolivar said, “We need equality to recast, so to speak, into a single whole, the classes of men, political opinions, and public custom,” thereby neatly encapsulating The One while ignoring The Many. His executions of defenseless prisoners of war, his pitiless emptying of Caracas, and his Declaration of War to the Death follow logically from such sentiments.

May Venezuela see better days soon. Meanwhile, may those of us in the USA, learn to push back and not acquiesce so easily as did Louis XVI.

Whenever you hear lofty sounding words and ideals, be sure to check the fruit. That’s always a dead giveaway.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité, sounds marvelous. But the fruit is seen in the original’s last three words: ou la mort.

Joseph-Foullon shortly before strangling and beheading.

Depiction of executions by drownings in Nantes. Jean-Baptiste Carrier is in the center.

King Louis XVII, the dauphin in captivity. He died at 10, likely of torture, certainly of neglect. Some believe he was poisoned.

Simón Bolivar. His political philosophies were steeped in Rousseau and other French thinkers.

Maximillian Robespierre. An absolutely ruthless politician utterly convinced of his own virtue and superiority to other men while proclaiming equality for all. His political thinking was steeped in Rousseau. He too fulfilled Jacques Danton’s cry, “The Revolution, like Saturn, devours her own children!”

July 14, 1789

July 27, 2022July 27, 2022 Richard Barnes

(This was first posted on July 16, 2020. Given that Bastille Day continues to be uncritically celebrated, it is good to be reminded)

I was on an audit in Mexico City on July 14, 1989. The radio station dedicated hours to the meaning of July 14, 1789, Bastille Day, two-hundred years before. The reason I know the program was hours long is that when, close to noon, I got back in the car to drive to another location, it was still going on.

The seemingly erudite, and fawning, discussions about liberté, égalité, fraternité brought back childhood memories from my Venezuelan history classes and my utter frustration at my inability to understand just what the multiple Venezuelan 19th century wars were all about. See here.

If my teachers had told me that the phrase originally ended with three additional words: ou La Mort, it might have helped my understanding. Those last words were eventually dropped. Clever move. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” sound much friendlier than “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death.”

And death was certainly a prominent guest on July 14, 1789.

The King, who was determined to not offend the people, ordered his troops to withdraw from Paris. He was in Versailles, hosting and groveling before the National Assembly while assuring them of his absolute acquiescence to their demands. As his troops withdrew, crowds converged at the Bastille carrying countless pikes and wearing tricolor pins that appeared seemingly from nowhere. But, of course, nothing appears from nowhere.

The Bastille had a hereditary governor, the Marquis de Launay, who, a few days earlier, had been visited by a delegation of Paris who told him the cannons in the building were an insult to the people. He promptly removed them and blocked the embrasures with wood. Then, on the 14th, “the people” began firing and demanding the drawbridge be lowered.

The Marquis appears to have finally realized that his appeasement had only emboldened the mob and, believing the Terms of Surrender the mob had sworn to, he lowered the draw bridge, as the crowd had been demanding.

A few minutes later, the Marquis de Launay’s head, had been severed and was atop a pike, dripping with blood, as it bobbed in the crowd. Several soldiers who had negotiated the Terms of Surrender with the mob, had their heads severed, but not before they had been disemboweled. The entrails carried amongst the crowd did not seem to elicit any horror or reproach from the bloodthirsty rabble. On the contrary, heads, hands, torsos, genitals, and more entrails were soon seen bobbing among the multitudes.

Seven prisoners were released. Seven. Who were astounded to see the head of their former warden, known to be a hesitant, mild sort, with a placard underneath: “De Launay, Governor of the Bastille, disloyal and treacherous enemy of the people.”

The king’s reaction, to the applause of the multitudes, was to send more troops away in order to not further provoke the people. We all know how his acquiescence ended for him, for his family, and for his country. A country that has never, to this day, recovered the heights and glories of its past.

The events of the storming of the Bastille were an ominous foreshadowing of what awaited France, including the French Revolution’s progeny, culminating with the Russian Revolution of 1917, a little over a century later.

This year, on July 14 (when this is being written), I checked a different Latin American land’s radio stations and, sure enough, inevitably, a paean to Bastille Day emerged. As noted in several posts on this blog (see here and here for two examples) Venezuela’s and much of Latin America’s intellectual heritage looks more to Paris than to Madrid. It has always been so in the modern era. And that helps explain the differing trajectories taken by North and South America.

As we observe and react to the current disturbances, let us ask ourselves whether these resemble 1776 or Bastille Day. They are not the same.

And whenever you hear or read liberté, égalité, fraternité, or similar sentiments, be sure to remember to add the remaining words from the original: ou la mort.

Propaganda poster from 1793. Note that even as late as 1793 the phrase, *ou la mort*, was still in use.

The French Revolution as depicted by its admirers.

A more accurate representation of the French Revolution.

Burial of victims of Russian Revolutions of 1917. *Ou La Mort*.

Mexico’s Turbulent History — Part IV: Colonial Mexico (conclusion)

July 21, 2022July 21, 2022 Richard Barnes

By Mike Ashe

Spanish Immigration

Interestingly Spaniards did not emigrate to New Spain in great numbers; only about 20,000 made México their home. In order to migrate Spaniards had to prove Roman Catholic purity; in other words, Jews and Muslims were excluded in the fear that they would taint New Spain’s religious order. In the late 16^th century, Spain and Portugal had the same monarchy (Iberian union) and many Portuguese Jews that nominally converted to Roman Catholicism resulted in “Crypto-Jews” immigration to New Spain, although in small numbers.

As an aside, not until the 19^th century were Non-Spanish Jews allowed to immigrate freely. The Polanco section of México City where we lived was home to a large colony of Mexican Jews with European ancestry (Germans, French, British were the first to immigrate followed by Eastern European Jews at the end of the century). The total Mexican Jewish Population is not large (about 50,000) but highly influential.

The Mexican Hacienda

The birth of the Hacienda economic system began immediately after the fall of the Aztec nation. When you think of the Hacienda you might picture courtyards, verandas, and sprawling land/acreage containing crops, cattle, and of course vaqueros on horseback. There were of course many of them all over México, Texas, New México, and California. Many of these still exist and in California they have been upscaled with the same colonial motif and occupied now by many of the wealthy Los Angelinos as well as throughout California.

The single most famous of all the Haciendas was awarded to Hernando Cortes which is now the State of Morelos. He built a fortress atop conquered Aztec ruins in Cuernavaca. Cuernavaca and surrounding areas (Valley of Morelos some 40 miles south of México City at an elevation of about 5,000 ft) were prized rich farm land with the most appealing climate of all of México.

My family would make many day trips to Cuernavaca, Cocoyoc, and other resorts in the area. The area at that time had some very nice swimming pools with very high platforms for diving. My two bothers and I would jump off them (never diving too high) for hours. In those days visiting these resorts was not too expensive and some did not charge to use their facilities, so we made the trip often.

These are all treasurers for the enjoyment of the Mexican people.

The Other Colonial Mexican Haciendas

Cortes gifted his soldiers with land grants along with tribute from the conquered indigenous people as forced labor. Much like the medieval feudal systems in Europe.

The term Hacienda included Silver Mines in Zacatecas and surrounding areas in the north, Cattle Ranches, farms, sugar plantations, textile mills, and factories. Most of the hacienda owners did not live in the haciendas but visited from their places in the cities. In modern México, this practice is very much the same.

In the Haciendas system most of the commerce was designed for export to Spain, including sugar, cocoa, silver, gold, textiles. Hernando Cortes was the first to introduce domestic animals (cattle, goats, sheep) to México. He also introduced European edible plants to the New World, although some scholars credit this to Christopher Columbus’ second voyage.

The Spanish influence on North American culture included the raising of cattle and the Vaqueros (cowboys) with silver spurs and wide brim sombreros to supply mining towns and export the hides to Spain. Some of these family Hacienda were huge, with over 11 million acres.

Hacienda life attracted many Spanish Settlers which in some cases resulted in an increase in misery and death for the indigenous people. The church did champion the cause of the downtrodden and the crown introduced new laws that would grant freedom to them. These laws were not received well by the New World Spaniard’s and change was slow in coming but it did come eventually.

[As explained by Robert Wayne Powell in Tree of Hate, part of the problem was that well-intentioned royal decrees were promulgated on the basis of Lascasian reports which oftentimes did not reflect realities on the ground and did not request nor consider input from the Spaniards working the lands in the New World — RMB]

Spanish Crown’s plan to extend Borders.

Spain’s plan was to 1) increase her own wealth and influence in México and 2) to promote Catholicism through conversion of the indigenous peoples. The agencies/systems included:

The Presidios or military garrisons. In Mexico they were used in the desert frontier to control rebellious indigenous tribes. The warriors were captured and enslaved in the presidios. The present-day Northern States included Baja California Sur, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua, and Coahuila.

They also extended as far as California to include San Diego, Monterey, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Many in Florida including Presidio San Miguel de Panzacola located in present-day downtown Pensacola. Current-day states included South Carolina, Georgia. Louisiana, Texas, New México, and Arizona.

[For those interested in the Presidio system and its truly amazing successes — far more successful than the post-Civil War North American forts system– I recommend Philip Wayne Powell’s Mexico’s Miguel Caldera. His work is objective and shows that Spain’s efforts in Mexico were often highly laudable — RMB]

Pueblos, were civilian towns sometimes clustered around presidios for protection in the north.

Missions Roman Catholic priests came to Mexico to spread the word of Jesus Christ and to convert the indigenous people. Early missionaries won over the people and championed their cause. They learned the native languages and helped record native history. The indigenous peopled learned Latin so well that they taught it to the Spanish settlers. The Florentine Codes were compiled which enabled the writing of Nahuatl using the Roman alphabet. This later served to preserve the history of Mesoamerica.

Spanish Architecture

Stunning is the only way to describe it and mostly still standing.

Spanish Inquisition

The friars were replaced by materialistic clergy and many of the efforts by Zumarraga (Mexico’s first bishop) were overturned. The new clergy were dependent on settlers and not the church, which became a secular institution. The Spanish Inquisition was a dark chapter in Spanish rule in Spain and in New Spain. The inquisition lasted for 250 years and claimed about 50 people (many Crypto-Jews) who were burned at the stake. The Inquisition was used in the later years of Spanish rule to stamp down political dissent.

Independence from Spain is brewing

A forerunner of the fight for Independence from Spain was William Lamport, an Irish nobleman. He was one of the inspirations for Zorro and was arrested and spent 17 years in prison for instigating rebellion against the crown.

Also contributing to the unrest against Spain were the religious disputes against the Jesuits who had accumulated substantial wealth in Mexico. In 1804 the crown decreed that church’s funds for charitable works were taken by the state and the Jesuits expelled. This was a severe blow to the poor of Mexico who were dependent on credit and charity in bad times.

A caste system existed in Mexico at the end of the 18^th Century which was enforced by law.

On top were the white rulers, numbering about 1 million. The top of that group were the Spanish from Spain most of them returned to Spain post-Independence.

Next in the hierarchy were the Spanish born in Mexico. They could not hold royal office. Only whites were allowed to wear fine silk cloths and gentlemen were called caballeros and the ladies damas.

The rest or majority were of mixed races.

The people of Mexico like those of the 13 North American colonies were exploited by Spain and England. Many of the colonists from both wanted to make their wealth and return to Europe.

It’s interesting that the China trade arrived from the Philippines that included silks, ceramics, tea, and spices which arrived in Acapulco and were transported across Mexico to Vera Cruz and sent to Spain along with the Silver from mines in the North.

It’s also interesting that pirates preyed on shipments leaving Vera Cruz bound with these rich cargos.

In 1808 Spain was invaded by Napoleon which forced the abdication of King Ferdinand in favor of Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte. This created a split in Mexico with some supporting Ferdinand and others wanting independence from Spain. A Jesuit priest, Miguel Hidalgo Costilla, in 1803 assumed the duties of parish priest in Dolores in present-day Dolores Hidalgo in Guanajuato. He was a passionate supporter of independence.

Independence from Spain Ends Colonial Rule

On September 16, 1810 (celebrated today as Mexican Independence Day) father Hidalgo rang the church bells to call his parishioners to an announcement of revolution against the Spanish, racial equality, and redistribution of land. It became the Grito de Dolores. His rebellion was suppressed outside of Guadalajara and Hidalgo fled north, was later captured, and shot by firing squad as a rebel.

Jose Morelos y Pavon, also a parish priest turned military leader, fought for independence until he was captured and executed in 1815 (the now State of Morelos bears his name). Another priest, Mariano Matamoros, became one of Morelos’ generals and was also captured and executed in 1814. The seed however was sown by these priests and in 1821 Augustin de Iturbide led troops into Mexico City and declared the country’s independence.

The treaty of Cordoba established Mexico as an independent constitutional monarchy under Augustin de Iturbide. This was accepted by the Spanish viceroy Juan de O’Donnju.

Other noteworthy revolutionary leaders included Vicente Guerrero, Juan Almonte, Josepha Ortiz de Dominguez, Guadalupe Victoria (First President of Mexico) Ignacio Lopez Rayon, Juana Marian Guadalupe Perez Pavon, Nichols Bravo, Leona Vicario.

Next: Independence

Palace of Cortés in Cuernavaca, Mexico, built circa 1523-1528: the oldest colonial-era civil structure in the continental Americas.

Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Remedios, built circa 1575

Santa Prisca in Taxco, Mexico, built in the mid 18th century, considered one of the best examples of the Mexico baroque style

The churrigueresque style cathedral in the silver town of Zacatecas, Mexico. First built in 1568, with several construction projects over the following two centuries culminating in a work of integration between 1731 and 1752. Not fully completed until 1904.

Mexico City National Cathedral, built in sections between 1573 and 1813.

Basilica de Guadalupe in north Mexico City. The shrine was built in 1709; structure completed in 1974

Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico City, built 1785-1786, with structural changes over the next two centuries.

Las Mañanitas Gardens, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

Mexico’s Turbulent History — Part III: Colonial Mexico

July 18, 2022July 18, 2022 Richard Barnes

This is the third in a series of posts by my friend, Mike Ashe, who has lived in and visited Mexico and has a love and appreciation for that great country.

Mexico has much in common with all of Latin America, not least of which is her Spanish heritage. Therefore, in reviewing her history, one can glean understanding regarding Venezuela as well.

And, as you will see in some of Mike’s commentary, she has much in common with us and Europe in her secular rush to gender ideology, critical race theory, anti-Christianity, and more.

Thank you again, Mike.

By Mike Ashe

Prologue

Rewriting, canceling and ignoring historical era norms to promote an ideology has always been a reality throughout history and continues now in 21^st century México. From the beginning of Colonial Time there has been a constant battle between Secularism and Catholicism. In 1857 the Mexican Constitution established human rights but still did not resolve the continuing conflict.

Recently and without merit, the now President of México, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) asked the Spanish Government and Pope Francis to apologize to the indigenous Mexicans for wrongs committed during the Spanish conquest some 500 years ago.

It is absurd that this irresponsible grievance ideology continues to deflect the lack of vision and governing incompetence of today’s politicians like AMLO. The truth is that modern México, would not be possible without New Spain (with all its good and bad).

AMLO has always been a far left secular demagogue introducing his own version of his North America’s neighbor’s “WOKENESS”. But this attack on Spain and The Catholic Church is nothing new in Mexican politics especially when attempting to deflect blame for his and other’s failed presidencies/governances.

AMLO has always been an admirer of the Castro brothers and Che and has developed a warm relationship with the current Cuban dictator Miguel-Diaz-Canel. In 2020 Guadalajara’s Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez published on his website that the “atheist” Mexican government has begun to take her people down a slippery slope to communism. He backed up his claim by citing how AMLO is assuming a dictatorial role, promoting gender ideology over family values, support for abortion among others.

Roman Catholicism in México, (Counterweight to the Secular Theology, started in 1521 and continues today). In the 1926-29-Cristero Civil War — a rebellion launched by Marxist President Plutarco Elias Calles by executive decree to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church and repress religious freedom. It was bloody: 60,000 Mexican troops and 30,000 Cristeros plus many more civilians lost their lives. In 2000 the Vatican conferred sainthood to 20 priests and 3 laymen.

The First 100 Years

First, let us not forget that Tenochtitlan was an elegant island city with magnificent twin snowcapped Volcanos on the horizon. The altiplano climate at 5,000-7000 ft above sea level was mild year-round with an abundance of water and food for its people. Tenochtitlan was a huge city with public institutions, a system of government, schools, and public services to rival the cities of Europe at that time. This was truly an enchanted part of the world as the 16^th Century began. The Spaniards that first entered the Valley of México, were spellbound by its beauty.

As for the Aztec leader Montezuma the Spaniards arrival meant war and ultimately defeat for him and his people. There are many accounts of what transpired then, suffice it to say that the conquest was completed in 1524.

Colonial México, began when the conquering Spaniards renamed Tenochtitlan México, City. Tenochtitlan was completely destroyed and rebuilt as Nueva Espana (New Spain) and lasted almost 300 years. We will not get into the reconstruction here but it was extensive and lasted for centuries. Hernando Cortes as Governor moved quickly, bringing the first stocks of cattle, sheep, goats, and European vegetables and encouraging his men to marry native women, beginning the first Mestizo race.

In the 1540’s most of the Yucatan was conquered and the city of Merida was founded in 1542. The Mayan empire did not fall until the end of the century. Silver finds in Zacatecas prompted the need to conquer the north sending missionaries into modern day Texas, New México, Arizona, California, Utah, and Colorado.

The destruction was not limited to Tenochtitlan; it meant the almost complete depopulation of the Aztec empire or 10-12 million (Pre-Conquest) with only a million survivors primarily due to the European Small Pox and Measles epidemics (to which the indigenous people had no immunity). The plagues along with famine lasted till the mid-17^th century.

Solving a Labor Shortage

The labor shortage was rectified by the importation of African Slaves and Asians, practically equivalent to slaves.

Blacks were imported as slaves early in the 1520’s and slavery lasted throughout the 300 years of colonial rule bringing in some 200,000 slaves (as a frame of reference, a total of 450,000 arrived in the US. However both the US and Mexico pale against Brazil, which received over 4,900,000 African slaves).

Slaves were used in the silver mines of Zacatecas, Taxco, Guanajuato, and Pachuca; textile factories in Puebla and Oaxaca; and in households everywhere. The knowledge about México’s Africans Slavery is limited; even today most think that Blacks arrived in México, as runaways from North America and Cuba. Now, African descendants identify as Mexican, not Africans. It’s amazing that their spirits were never broken and that there is little to no resentment among their descendants.

As an aside — the heritage of Mexican Blacks includes a rebellion of escaped slaves in the Vera Cruz region lead by Gaspar Yanga (a reported prince from Gabon Africa) between 1570-1609. Yanga’s decades long resistance was in the vicinity of Mount Orizaba the highest mountain in Mexico at 18,491 ft (third highest in North America after Denali and Logan). In 1631 after many bloody battles Yanga and the Spanish Viceroy Pacheco negotiated a settlement that recognized an autonomous region for the African community called San Lorenzo de los Negros. Later renamed in 1932 Gaspar Yanga in horror or the liberator. Slavery was abolished in Mexico in 1829.

Another little-known slave importation included about 8,000 Asians imported into México on Portuguese Galleons from the Philippines/South East Asia, categorized as Chinos to also bolster the labor shortage. They were later treated the same as the indigenous, or vassels of the Spanish Crown after 1672 and not held as property.

As an aside-the massacre of Chinos occurred during the Mexican Revolution mostly by Pancho Villa in the North. The Asians were marched off the largest building in Ciudad Chihuahua and thrown down abandoned mineshafts. Of course, historians blame it as a colonial leftover!

The most important part of the colonial period was the introduction of Roman Catholicism in new Spain.

As New Spain was born, old Spain became challenged with the prospects of governing a land and population that was far greater than their own and two months away by sea to reach. To their credit, they appointed a Viceroy to oversee the Territories from California to Panama, Caribbean Islands, and the Philippines (there were total of 62 viceroys). They also setup a high court including Nuno de Guzman one of three judges in México, with disastrous results for the indigenous population.

During the same time the first bishop of México, Juan de Zumarraga entered México, in 1527 and was enraged by Guzman’s mistreatment of the poor indigenous people and the judges corruption. Guzman was savage in his treatment of the people of México, he was returned to Spain and put under house arrest. His replacement proved to be a man of high quality and corrected many of the abuses.

The bishop and the Spanish friars were viewed by the people as their allies and all of México, was converted to the Catholic faith.

Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe (It’s reported occurrence is perhaps the most consequential in Mexican History)

According to the account of the apparition written in the Nahuatl language The Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego (an indigenous Chichimec peasant) four times and once to his uncle Juan Bernardino.

The first apparition occurred in the morning of 9 December 1531 Juan Diego experienced a vision of a young woman on the Hill of Tepeyac and speaking in the Nahuatl language identified herself as the mother of the true deity. She asked that a church be erected at the site in her honor.

Diego reported the apparition to the Archbishop Juan de Zumaraga. The bishop, not unexpectedly, did not believe. Later that same day (the second apparition) Our Lady asked Diego to keep insisting.

The following day on the 10^th Diego spoke to the archbishop the second time. This time the bishop asked for a sign to prove her identity.

Later that day Diego returned to Tepeyac (the third apparition occurred) reporting the archbishop’s request for a sign, to which she agreed.

On the 11^th of December Juan Diego’s uncle became ill which required that he attend to him. Early the next day his uncle’s conditioned had worsened and on his death bed Diego took his uncle to a priest to hear his last confession.

Ashamed that he had been tardy in meeting with the Virgin, Diego chose another route bypassing Tepeyac. En route the virgin intercepted him (fourth apparition) asking him where he was going. Diego explained his situation and the virgin asked him “No estoy yo aguí, que soy tu madre?” (Am I not here? I who am your mother?) This is the most important phrase in Mexican History and is inscribed above the entrance to the Basilica de Guadalupe.

The Virgin then directed Juan Diego to gather roses on the summit of Tepeyac which due to the winter was normally barren, he obeyed and found Castilian roses not native to México, but common in Spain (special miraculous significance). The Virgin arranged the flowers in Juan Diego’s cloak and when he opened the cloak later that day before the Archbishop Zumaraga the flowers fell to the floor revealing on the cloak fabric the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Also, during the fourth appearance the Virgin Mary told Diego that his uncle was fully recovered. On December 13^th the virgin also appeared to Diego’s uncle Juan Bernadino (the fifth apparition) who pleaded for his life. She instructed the uncle to inform the archbishop of his miraculous cure. A second miracle was performed when a man was mortally wounded on the neck by an arrow, the crowd took the wounded man to the Diego’s cloak and when the arrow was removed, he was completely cured.

That same image appears in our home, in the factories and fields of México, and most importantly in the hearts of her people.

Next: The Mexican Hacienda (and more)

This is a family heirloom. My mother bought this painting in a gallery in Mexico City and is our family treasure. The campesino in the painting is fondly referred to as Uncle/Tío Pedro, as a tribute to the family’s Mexican roots — Mike Ashe

Pictorial view of Mexico City shortly after the conquest of the Aztecs

Philip Wayne Powell had a scholar’s understanding of Mexico’s history as well as deep personal affection for it. In his great book, *Mexico’s Miguel Caldera* (pictured above) he tells of the clash between “Savagery and Civilization” and eloquently concludes, the peace that emerged to form a Mexican society was the work of men such as Caldera. If you have an interest in Mexico and in the contrast between Spain’s approach to the Indian problem and ours, you will be rewarded by reading Powell — RMB

Very few know about Mexico’s war against Christianity alluded to by Mike above. A recent film that addressed it is *For Greater Glory*, released in 2012 — RMB

A great John Ford film, though unsurprisingly under appreciated, is the 1947 adaptation of Graham Green’s *The Power and the Glory*, whose backdrop is Mexico’s fanatical persecution of Christianity in the early 20th century. The movie’s title is *The Fugitive* — RMB

Understanding the Covid Catastrophe

July 17, 2022July 17, 2022 Richard Barnes

Prolific blogger, Bill Muehlenberg recently published a bracing post appropriately titled, “Understanding the Covid Catastrophe”.

Thank you, Bill Muehlenberg, for your post and for your allowing us to re-publish.

(Link to his blog is below)

By Bill Muehlenberg

Who knew just a few short years ago that the entire world would be turned upside down, with an infectious disease as its base. Plenty of astute observers and experts who have been analysing all this have made the case that the illness itself was not what was so catastrophic, but how governments responded to it, even using it for their own ends.

Many thousands of articles and podcasts and papers and speeches now exist on all this. And plenty of solid books looking at the hype, the hysteria, the fear-mongering and the Chicken Little scenarios being pushed around the world are available.

Not all that long ago I listed 21 of the best books to be aware of on the Covid wars and the Great Reset globalists who are behind so much of this: Top 21 Books on the Great Reset and the Covid Wars – CultureWatch

Excellent books and articles continue to appear. One of the newest and best articles is by science writer Debbie Lerman. While I encourage you to read the whole piece, let me provide some key excerpts from it here. She begins:

So much basic scientific data and so many best practices and ethical standards in public health were abandoned during the Covid pandemic, it would be difficult to list them all. Nevertheless, we must remember just how much reality has been warped since March 2020 and try to understand how that warping occurred. Maybe if we understand what happened, we can prevent it from happening again. Maybe we can unwrap the narrative enough so that more people can see clearly what went wrong.

For my own sanity, I need to understand what happened, so I can come to terms with why people behaved the way they did, and why so many of my own assumptions were shattered during the pandemic. I want to know why real science got thrown out as misinformation, propaganda turned into absolute truth, the free press morphed into a government mouthpiece, and supposedly liberal and scientific institutions abandoned ethical standards and critical thought to impose zero-evidence, zero-Covid authoritarian lockdowns and mandates.

How did my family, friends and neighbors – who I thought shared my liberal, humanist values – turn into a group-thinking, bullying herd? What forces were exerted to erase scientific and intellectual integrity from the minds of literally millions of doctors, scientists, economists, journalists, educators and other normally curious and compassionate people worldwide?

To help answer these questions she examines “four extremely powerful forces [that] converged catastrophically to initiate, and then perpetuate, the snowball that became the avalanche of Covid insanity.” Let me look at each one briefly.

1. Panic

She writes: “I believe pandemic panic was driven from above – from the highest echelons of the most powerful governments – and below – within populations primed for disaster and perpetually on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”

She discusses the Wuhan lab leak and then says:

Further strengthening this hypothesis is the fact that the countries with the strictest and most prolonged lockdowns, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada, were all members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance, along with the US and UK. It makes sense that precisely those countries sharing the earliest and most detailed intelligence about the lab leak felt not only justified, but compelled, to carry out the strictest lockdowns.

All of this leads me to conclude that a small group of top intelligence and public health officials, fearing a catastrophically deadly engineered virus had been released (regardless of its observed effects in the real world), convinced themselves, their governments, and in turn their populations (without publicly revealing the virus’ origin) that the strictest containment measures were needed or else millions would die.

2. Politics

Lerman looks in detail at the Trump years and what followed, and concludes:

To top it all off, the pandemic happened during an election year. So Trump hatred and pandemic hysteria were effectively bundled together to get Trump voted out and Biden, a Democrat more aligned with the public health establishment, in. Subsequently, anyone elected on a pro-lockdown, zero-Covid agenda was incentivized to continue advocating for the strictest measures for as long as possible.

3. Propaganda

The third force contributing to global Covid hysteria was, as Michael Senger points out in his eye-opening book Snake Oil: How Xi Jinping Shut Down the World, a concerted propaganda campaign by the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, that managed to turn the pandemic (at least until recently) into a celebration of China’s inimitable social cohesion and a showcase for the supposed success of its authoritarian anti-pandemic measures.

Previously, China had suffered loss of face and international condemnation due to a pandemic outbreak and coverup. This time, the CCP seized control of the narrative by imposing draconian, unprecedented zero-Covid measures no democratic government would ever dream of, then claiming, contrary to logic and basic epidemiological science, spectacular victory.

Everything from social media bots to China-friendly editorial boards at prestigious medical journals was leveraged to denigrate any state or nation with a less restrictive approach. Deviations from the Chinese methods were labeled – in a brilliantly insidious 21st-century demonstration of Newspeak – heartless, pro-death, anti-humanitarian and materialistically motivated.

The World Health Organization, largely supported by and beholden to China, vociferously praised the CCP and the Chinese people for their discipline, commitment, and ultimate victory. Fawning scientific and general press coverage marveled at how sometimes authoritarianism could be good, if it meant saving millions of lives.

Thanks to the propitious convergence of panic and politics described above, the CCP propaganda succeeded spectacularly in convincing democratic governments to adopt hitherto unthinkable authoritarian measures and to pretend, or convince themselves, that such measures actually worked.

4. Profits

She looks at some of the big money-makers here:

Big Tech

In October 2021 the New York Times reported: “In the last year, the five tech superpowers — Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook — had combined revenue of more than $1.2 trillion. … some of the companies are growing faster and are more profitable than they have been in years.”

Test Makers and Sellers

In January 2022 CBS reported “Windfall profits for test makers,” including Abbott Laboratories ($1.9 billion in third-quarter sales related to COVID-19 testing, up 48% compared to the year-ago period). Other beneficiaries with skyrocketing profits were labs that process PCR tests and drugstore chains like CVS and Walgreens.

Vaccines

In February 2022 The Guardian reported that Pfizer made nearly $37 billion in sales from its Covid-19 vaccine in 2021 – making it one of the most lucrative products in history. Pfizer’s overall revenues in 2021 doubled to $81.3 billion, and it expects to make record revenues of $98 – $102 billion this year.

Billionaires

In January 2022 OxFam reported: “The world’s ten richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion —at a rate of $15,000 per second or $1.3 billion a day— during the first two years of a pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall and over 160 million more people forced into poverty. If these ten men were to lose 99.999 percent of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99 percent of all the people on this planet. They now have six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people.”

Her conclusions are ominous indeed:

· An engineered pandemic potential pathogen leaked from a high-security US-funded lab in Wuhan long before it was acknowledged by China. By the time it became known, it was too late to contain. Having outlined the cataclysmic convergence of forces I believe came together to create the Covid catastrophe, I now have a Covid story that makes sense to me.

· When they found out, top US intelligence and public health officials affiliated with the Wuhan research panicked, fearing millions of deaths, international mayhem and personal culpability. This caused them to disregard real-world data about the virus and to abandon basic epidemiological principles and best practices in public health.

· The Chinese authorities adopted scientifically nonsensical zero-Covid policies not because they thought they would work but to deflect attention from China’s role in the viral leak and coverup. In a brilliant propaganda coup, they turned the pandemic into a celebration of their authoritarian measures, convincing the world to follow their example.

· All Democrats in the US and their allies elsewhere reflexively and uncritically favored all the policies that President Trump – viewed as their mortal enemy – opposed. These were the very same scientifically bogus policies that the panicked officials and Chinese propagandists were pushing.

· Many who controlled the narrative in media, academia, public health and medicine were particularly susceptible to panic, politicization of the pandemic, and Chinese propaganda, which all came together to induce widespread groupthink and herd behavior. As cogently explained in The Great Covid Panic, such behavior is detached from logical reasoning and the ability to objectively evaluate reality.

· Major industries and individuals with enormous wealth and influence saw huge gains from the pandemic. It was, and still is, in their best interests to push for more testing, more treating, more vaccinating, more remote work and learning, more online shopping, and more of everything else pandemic-related.

Bear in mind that dozens of references go along with this piece. So she has very well documented what she is saying here. Please have a read of the whole article: The Catastrophic Covid Convergence ⋆ Brownstone Institute

I and others have been warning for years now that the use of fear and the exploitation of a crisis – real or imagined – makes for the perfect soil for Big Brother statism to be raised in and to flourish. We have seen that played out in sickening details over the past 30 months, and it is certainly not over yet.

Unless we wake up and start to take a stand, all this will only get worse. And if it does, we will only have ourselves to blame.

Understanding the Covid Catastrophe