The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during his morning press conference Sáshenka Gutiérrez / EFE
The controversy over the conquest of Mexico, or the invasion, according to the perspective of each one, has more of politics than of citizen interest. This year marks the fifth century since that encounter between two worlds, but Mexicans seem to place that episode more in history than in current times. 62% of the population believes that the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is making political use of this chapter and more than half (55%) do not consider necessary the apology that he has demanded of Spain for colonization, as revealed a survey carried out by SIMO for EL PAÍS. The vast majority are aware that the problems that the North American country presents today are their own responsibility and they do not seek culprits in the past.
A high percentage of those consulted understand that the current relations between Mexico and Spain, with or without a request for forgiveness, will remain practically as before, which denotes the low weight that is given to the request of the Chief Executive in this matter and that has caused more than one diplomatic malaise in the past. In addition, for 72%, the fact that Spain apologizes would not help to resolve the pending issues of inequality and discrimination in Mexico. Only a quarter see potential contribution on this front.
Despite the fact that the current government has focused on this issue on numerous occasions as the cause of some of the ills that the country suffers from, an overwhelming majority of the citizenry assumes both the problems and the favorable issues of the country in which they live as their own responsibility and no one else's. Without this meaning that in the light of our days they do not see the excesses that occurred in that colonization with the native peoples, even centuries after the arrival of Cortés in America.
Maintaining this pragmatic vein, Mexican citizens themselves agree to prioritize the current relationship with Spain over past disputes, something that three-quarters of those surveyed share.
Although this diplomacy does not necessarily translate into a total renouncement of the apology that President López Obrador has been demanding from the Spanish government since the beginning of 2019, it does relativize and qualify the importance of forgiveness among Mexicans.
Opinions divided on the conquest
The skepticism around the apology connects with a multifaceted national vision about the conquest of Mexico.
The matter, five centuries later, divides Mexicans in half.
For 41%, the balance of the meeting with the Spaniards was negative, the rest consider that it brought benefits.
The consensus seems far off on this issue, cut off by the ethnic dimension. Those who identify themselves as white are the most likely to demonstrate in favor of that exchange between two worlds, while two-thirds of those who call themselves indigenous see no reason for satisfaction with that part of history. Among the mestizos, the majority of the population, the division remains. Disease and slavery are the most frequently mentioned negative consequences surrounding conquest. It is plausible that the pandemic context helps to highlight in the minds of those surveyed how smallpox was a kind of unexpected and silent ally of the colonizers, killing a third of the then populous Tenochtitlan (some 80,000 deaths).On what they consider beneficial there is greater disparity of criteria and opinions. The Spanish language is considered a good legacy, also the Catholic religion (although 5% puts it in the negative box) and agricultural techniques.
Despite this lack of consensus, in aggregate, the opinion about Spain, as well as other countries with greater or lesser ancestry of diplomatic, economic or political power over Mexico, is more positive than negative. Now, this opinion about all countries, but particularly about Spain, changes significantly according to the ethnic identification of the interviewee. The “very good” visions between mestizos (a majority of the Mexican population) and indigenous people become “good” without further ado for the most part.
These nuances in terms of ethnic self-ascription carry over particularly strongly to the opinion on the apology. Paradoxically, it is not the indigenous peoples, but the whites, who show a greater affinity with the apology. In fact, only 9% of the indigenous population and a small 11% of the mestizo population see the possible apology as necessary and effective to settle historical debts. 12% and 17% consider it necessary, but not effective. The remaining majorities in both segments believe that it is unnecessary but well received or unnecessary but irrelevant.
This apparent contradiction with the less positive opinion about Spain is perhaps explained by the perspective available to indigenous citizens, more realistic and closer to the present conflict, and not only to its historical aspect, which calls for solutions that go beyond the symbolic . From the debate that began in Mexico from the moment that López Obrador demanded an apology from the Spanish Crown, and listening to the voices of this segment with their requests that led to the president himself asking for forgiveness in May of this year, it follows that community construction in Mexico has other dimensions that do not depend on a possible postcolonial apology. Meanwhile, in the opinion of many Mexicans, forgiveness seems more a matter between whites.
Methodology and sources
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Public opinion study carried out by SIMO México for EL PAÍS between July 7 and 10, 2021, with a target population of men and women of legal age (18 years or more) at the national level, sample designed under a stratified sampling scheme and telephone survey.
Margin of error estimated at +/- 3.3%;
with a confidence level of 95%.
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