Josep Borrell and the Jesuit missions to teach the indigenous people of the jungle how to play the violin

MadridJosep Borrell has been criticized more than once for his Europeanism having Eurocentric, colonialist and racist tendencies. This is what he was criticized for when in 2018, as Foreign Minister in Pedro Sánchez's first government, he said that the United States has "very little history" because the only thing they had done before their independence was "kill four Indians" or when in 2022, as head of diplomacy of the European Union, He called "most of the world" a "jungle" as opposed to the European "garden". The Catalan politician has once again displayed his vision of history and the world in a speech at the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid. The Jesuit institution has named him an honorary doctor this Wednesday and some of the examples he has given to thank him could grate on some of his detractors.

Borrell has praised the Jesuits in their "exploration of remote countries have discovered other civilizations" and have been "capable of integrating faith as an instrument of progress and well-being of the people." "In the Bolivian Chiquitania, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, you discover with surprise how indigenous tribes are capable of playing baroque music with violins that they make themselves. And who taught them? The Jesuit missions," he said. the current president of Cidob (Barcelona Center for International Affairs). Borrell has claimed that these missions, in an attempt to attract the Indians to Christianity and European civilization, taught them to play, sing and dance so that they would get rid of their "primitive customs," in the words of the evangelizers of the time. Missions that were a "guarantee for these people" because "they received an education that they have passed on from generation to generation," defended the former head of European diplomacy, who stressed that in the case cited "they still surprise the visitor in the most remote part of the jungle" with interpretations of melodies from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Dressed in the academic attire typical of these ceremonies and accompanied by a choir that performed a baroque repertoire in Latin, Borrell noted that today "history is an imported product for Europe" unlike what happened "500 years ago" when "history moved forward with the keels of our ships." The former European leader called for "mobilizing" again the "enormous intellectual, political and economic resources" that the Old Continent has. According to Borrell, a "united" and "mature" EU can be a "great stabilizing element" in a "hard" world, now dominated by "neo-imperialists" such as Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin. "The rest of the world needs Europe," he said.

"How long did it take Hitler to dismantle the Weimar Republic? Exactly 55 days. How long can it take to dismantle the international order by means of presidential decrees from the White House? The echo of the 1930s resonates because of the monsters that led to the terrible tragedy of the students and teachers of the private university. A peace that in Europe may seem like "the natural order of things," but that is "an exception," he warned.