Cortés 'The Killer'

I'm not one of those who would remove Columbus's statue from the end of La Rambla, because I love folklore. Columbus and the Asland cement factory are my two favorite monuments in the province of Barcelona. I also like the black towers of La Caixa, a lot, but for other, more romantic reasons. I'd like to get lost there...

Now, liking the statue of Columbus doesn't mean I like what he did, poor thing. And liking the bronze statue of Hernán Cortés in Medellín doesn't mean I like the massacre he caused. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, on the other hand, does.

They have her with Nacho Cano in Mexico, where she participated in a tribute to Hernán Cortés and Isabella I of Castile (take a sip from the pot). "I wish events like this could be celebrated in Spain, Mexico, and Hispanic America someday," she said. Because she finds it "incomprehensible" that "there are those who want to live off hatred," referring to those who consider (now I'm thinking of Neil Young) that Cortés is The Killer.

What actually happens is that it's only been 500 years since all this. It's very little, 500 years. My house is 200 years old, and it's one of the younger ones in the region. 200 years is two and a half generations. I've been told the names of those who lived there, and their parents and grandparents, and they are very much alive names. 500 years is a little further back, just a little. What I mean by this is that if the descendants of slaves still shudder, the descendants of those conquered (who, we know, yes, luckily weren't lambs) must also shudder.

The atrocities of Hernán Cortés's men are documented. Reading them means not being able to sleep for several days. The tragedy of all this is that the conqueror's worst torture has endured to this day: it's Nacho Cano's musical.