By Rocio Moreno* | Desinformémonos

The inhabitants of Abya Yala know what genocide is. 500 years ago, with the European invasion in our territories, we not only suffered displacement from our lands, languages and ways of thinking, but also violence and death.  According to the demographic historians Borah and Cook, 90% of the native population of what we now call Mexico, died of different causes as a result of colonization. Historians say that the population was reduced but we should begin to name correctly the deaths provoked in the name of war and invasion. What happened 500 years ago was genocide. Since ancient times wars of colonization and imposition have been justified as order and progress, and now 500 years later things have not changed much.

Today, the powerful, the conquerors-invaders continue to advance with the same strategies. What our eyes are perceiving over the past few weeks with the Palestinian people is the same colonizer. When I was a child my mother told me about the fall of Tenochtitlán. I remember that she told me that there were rivers of blood throughout the old city. The scene that I reconstructed in my mind was a place without life; of death, blood, and total destruction of the city. Now we are told that liberty and democracy are virtues given by capitalism and nation states. They also say that our civilization has left savagery behind, that now we are diplomatic. But in reality, there is a profound and subtle violence that justifies the most irrational and schizophrenic acts that we have faced. It is natural for inhabitants of Abya Yala to understand the resistance of the Palestinian people; Palestine is a mirror of our past-present. And from that past, the wounds provoked by that genocide are still here. We know their pain, and many of us feel it too.

Free Palestine!

Understanding the resistance of the Palestinian people for those of us who live in Abya Yala must be almost natural, since it is a mirror of our past-present, and from that past, there are still the deep wounds caused by a genocidal war. We know your pain, and many of us feel it too.

To rise again after a war, a profound wave of violence, with thousands and  MILLIONS OF DEAD is nothing easy. In the present context of Mexico, where violence governs our entire country, I often ask myself why haven’t we been able to stop the crisis of civilization that we live every day. Each time I convince myself that surely we are rising up from the genocide of 500 years ago. Since the European invasion we have not been able to leave behind war, crisis, etc.

It pains me that the genocide we are witnessing in Palestine is like what we lived 500 years ago that we still cannot rise above it. We need to look at Palestine from a historical perspective, what is ahead for the Palestinian people, prolonged pain.

They don’t listen to us, they don’t care about us

Not even in public discourse is the war or rather the genocide that we are all witnessing acceptable. However, they still continue to manipulate us and say that this war, which is not a war, but rather a genocide, is justified. They keep telling us that there are overriding reasons to control the rebels. Increasingly, their response is cruder, more cruel and shameless.

Despite this discouraging scenario, hope emerges in different geographies across the planet. The demonstrations, marches, shouts, information forums, etc., have been a sign not only of the solidarity that exists for the Palestinian people, but also a sign that, although there are thousands, millions, of people who speak out against this genocidal war, the powerful do not care about us and are far from listening to us.

Not only across the planet, but among the Israeli people and the United States themselves, there is a rejection of the massacre being carried out on the Palestinian people and they also demand a cease fire. In those moments, the powerful once again show us that they don’t care about us at all. Our lives mean absolutely nothing. How long will we understand that they don’t care about us?

Palestine Unmasks the System of Death

Palestine unmasks the capitalist patriarchal system, and makes visible its horrible intentions against humanity and the entire planet. Ethics, respect, compassion, brotherhood, and life itself is of no importance to this system; it’s goal is to accumulate money and power, even if that means war, destruction, and the killing of life in all its dimensions. This is the spirit that inhabits us as a society.  That is why we say we are in a crisis of civilization, where probably there is no way to stop the train that has gotten off track. Some of us say that we need to struggle for life, to recuperate and dignify ourselves as humanity.

We only have ourselves

In this genocidal war against the Palestinian people, against humanity itself, we are alone. Well, not so alone. It is necessary to know that we only have ourselves. When we realize profoundly that we are important to ourselves and we only have ourselves, those from below, it will be the best weapon to out the brakes on and pull out of the system of death that is destroying us now.

We oppose this genocidal war; which means that we are part of the group of humans that chooses to survive and to put life as the center of our organizations.

* Rocio Moreno: Historian and indigenous Coca defender from Mezcala, Jalisco, interested in showing how life stories are totally linked to the projects that the resistances champion in Mexico, because what are the resistances without the infinite life stories that constitute them?

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Published by Desinformémonos on November 26, 2023 in Spanish here. Translated by the Chiapas Support Committee.

Information on the war & genocide

‘Worse than the First Nakba’ –Gaza Survivors Speak to the Palestine Chronicle

‘We Dream of Bread’ –An Urgent Appeal from Gaza

Photo: The staggering toll of Israel’s war on Gaza. Here and here.

Photographs of the Israeli destruction of Palestine cultural heritage sites in Gaza.