"The Pluricultural Unity of America"
 
by:  Raul Allard
 
in:  "Americas" (Mar-Apr 1984)
 
     America is the only one of the earth's great divisions for
which history records a definite birthday.  No day has ever been
set as marking the entrance of Europe, Asia, Africa or Australia
upon the world scene, but we know that America made its ap-
pearance to the rest of the world on October 12, 1492--even
though proud, advanced and powerful Indian civilizations and
empires existed before that date.  The occupation of American
territories by Columbus in the name of the monarchs of Spain,
Ferdinand and Isabella, marked the beginning of the human ex-
perience of America as an individual, pluricultural unit.
     A noted Spanish historian, Salvador de Madariaga, in compar-
ing the character of several European peoples, has affirmed that
the Spanish are a people of passion, the British a people of
action and the French stress the force of reason.  Indeed, a lot
of passion and energy were necessary for the early expansion of
the Spanish presence in America.  One is amazed at the rapidity
with which the stage of navigation and discovery (1492-1520) was
followed by the era of conquest (1520-1550) and then the colonial
period itself.  Cities, churches, forts and universities were
founded almost at once.  Soldiers came accompanied by ad-
ministrators, missionaries and colonists.  Viceroyalties were
established in the two great centers of Mexico and Peru to push
the Spanish Conquest both north and south.  By 1539 Hernando de
Soto had come upon the Mississippi and the following year Vazquez
de Coronado discovered the Grand Canyon.  The Spaniards, who
founded the first settlement in what is now the United States, in
St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, were also the first Europeans
who explored, governed and settled the present territory of the
United States.  In many states of the Union, Hispanic geo-
graphical names, cities, laws, language, institutions and people
have formed a permanent part of the local culture since the early
16th century.
     This Columbus Day--and every one in the coming decade--will
have special significance as we approach 1992 and the 500th
anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the New World.  In the next
nine years there doubtlessly will be a renewed debate and reflec-
tion on the significance of the Americas as a new reality in the
present world.
     Ever since the 16th century America has undergone, on a
massive scale, a sustained process of fusion of the cultural
values of peoples of different ethnic origins, and of groups at
historically different stages of evolution.  In the case of Latin
America and the Caribbean, there seems now to be a tendency
toward a rediscovery of the values considered to be authentic and
autochthonous, of those values defining the personality of our
people in historical terms as societies that have received the
interactive influence of indigenous, European and African
elements.
     America has been the land of hope and promise ever since its
discovery.  From the Caribbean Columbus wrote his family that "it
is a land to be desired, and once seen never to be left."
     The reality of the conquest and colonization was not so
idyllic.  But as the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Edward Seaga,
pointed out last September at the meeting of the OAS Inter-
American Council for Education, Science and Culture, "In com-
memorating the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus, we
are looking at the roots of our new societies. . . .  Belated
bitterness is both unproductive and harmful.  We must look for
the good that came out of the changes--the exciting developments,
the cultural enrichment, the new peoples that emerged from the
combinations of the old, the new crops, new animals, new
industries, new associations, new forms of government, new ideas
and new movements, new countries.  The whole world has never been
the same since the voyages of Columbus."
     In spite of the different regional and administrative
structures that were established in the colonies, a certain sense
of unity emerged.  His Majesty Juan Carlos, King of Spain,
reaffirmed this idea in his speech at the Organization of
American States in 1981.  "Spain perceived from the beginning of
the Discovery that America was a unit.  Neither the vastness of
its territory, nor the long time elapsing between the arrival of
the different discoverers, nor the variety of its climates
prompted the initial idea of unity; nevertheless it was so."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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