The forgiveness that Spain has not yet asked for

Barcelona"Forgiveness magnifies both the one who offers it and the one who grants it." These were the words of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in February of this year. She was referring to the pardon that Mexico has formally demanded from Spain since 2019 for its colonial past and for the excesses committed during the conquest of the Americas. This request for an apology sparked a clash with the Spanish royal family and government a year ago, when Sheinbaum failed to invite King Felipe VI to her inauguration after the monarch failed to respond. a letter from his predecessorAndrés Manuel López Obrador, asking for this pardon. The Spanish government dodged this request and, considering it "inexplicable" that the monarch was not invited, did not attend the event despite having been invited. A year later, and after the Mexican president reiterated several times that an apology was needed, the Spanish government, when questioned by the ARA on the matter, avoided commenting, and Sumar, the minority partner, limited itself to showing "the utmost respect and sensitivity to the demands for historical memory" of Latin American states.

Forgiveness is a topic that frequently appears on the media agenda in Mexico, explains Mexican political scientist Palmira Tapia. This is especially true since the left came to power seven years ago. In the rest of Latin America, calls for Spain to recognize and repair its colonial past have also been on the agenda when left-wing parties have been in power, explains Jordi Guixé, historian and director of the European Observatory of Memories at the UB. For example, this July, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the Spanish conquistadors "genocidal" and demanded that Europe apologize.

Outside of institutional politics, Guixé also points out that there are several civil society organizations calling for an apology. However, Tapia clarifies that it is difficult to know what support this demand has among the population because it is an issue that polls generally don't ask about. In any case, Federico Navarrete, a historian at the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), portrays Latin American nationalisms as "constructed against Spanish colonialism," and one of the foundations of these nationalisms is precisely that there is "an original Spanish guilt that must be overcome."

Beyond Forgiveness

"Such a pardon would mean that Spain would explicitly acknowledge the excesses committed in the name of faith and religion by plundering our wealth," explains Tapia, who points out that it would also help overcome "very present" problems in Mexican culture related to racism. So far, some European countries, such as Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, have apologized for "very specific incidents," recalls Guixé, who explains that in Europe there is beginning to be a "timid and slow" recognition of the continent's dark past.

In this sense, and after the clash with Felipe VI, the Mexican president has interpreted the fact that the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico will receive the 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord this year as "a gesture on the part of the Spanish crown." "They have already taken Spain's first small step." June Sheinbaum.

Recognition, Tapia points out, would require "more steps," such as Spain explaining history also "from the perspective of the defeated" and making visible "the role of the victims." Navarrete also warns that both López Obrador and Sheinbaum "are not only interested in forgiveness itself," but in "a change in relations" that involves "questioning the role that Spanish investments have played politically" on the continent.