06/09/2021 17:55
Clarín.com
World
Updated 06/09/2021 18:46
After Alberto Fernández's confusion during the press conference he gave with the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, in which he said that "
the Mexicans came out of the Indians, the Brazilians came out of the jungle
, but we Argentines came of the ships of Europe, "the news sites of those two countries
expressed their displeasure
.
The president said he was quoting the Mexican poet
Octavio Paz
, when in fact he was mentioning a verse from a song by
Litto Nebbia.
"Octavio Paz once wrote that the Mexicans came out of the Indians, the Brazilians came out of the jungle, but we Argentines came from the ships. They were ships that came from Europe," Fernández said at the official ceremony held at the Casa Pink
Faced with this controversial phrase due to the fact that immigration occurred not only to Argentina, but to all of America, some journalistic media reflected the words of the President and
highlighted him for his "racism
.
"
One of them was the Folha de San Pablo newspaper: "The
racist phrase reveals a deep cultural trait
that minimizes or even denies the mestizo roots of the Argentine population, a thought that has been present since the 19th century among important intellectuals and leaders."
The article entitled "Fernández says that the Brazilians came from the jungle and the Argentines came by boat from Europe", makes a
historical account of different phrases
loaded with the same intention, from Domingo Faustino Sarmiento to Mauricio Macri.
In the text he mentions that the author of
El Facundo
spoke of the need to
"whiten Argentina"
for the development of the country.
He states that in his tenure, he "encouraged the immigration of Europeans for this purpose."
Folha newspaper recalls that the writer Jorge Luis Borges, for example, said that "Argentines are
Europeans born abroad
."
The media also recalled that former president Carlos Menem denied in a speech at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, in 1993,
that the country had blacks
.
At the same event, when asked about slavery in Argentina, he said that in 1813, the year of abolition, the few blacks had already died, and that, then, it
was "a Brazilian problem
.
"
Closer in time, the journalistic note recalls that during the 2018 Davos Economic Forum, former President Mauricio Macri affirmed at the opening of his speech, as a way of greeting the audience, that
"we are all descendants of Europe
.
"
In Mexico too
For its part, the
Excelsior
newspaper
of Mexico
highlighted the news as the main one of the day: "The Mexicans left the Indians ... the Argentines came from Europe," he titled that site and described: "The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, makes a
controversial comment
comparing the origins of Mexicans, Brazilians and Argentines,
and it was not a joke
.
"
"Controversial comment" and "it was not a joke", this is how the Excelsior newspaper of Mexico highlights the controversial phrase of Alberto Fernández.
The Mexican newspaper El Universal also highlighted the phrase and the president's mistake when quoting a verse from a song instead of the writer Octavio Paz.
DS
Look also
Alberto Fernández apologized for the unfortunate phrase about Brazilians and Mexicans: "I didn't want to offend anyone"
Alberto Fernández's confusion between a quote by Octavio Paz and a lyric by Litto Nebbia: "The Brazilians came out of the jungle"
