True Left

Mexico's indigenous Purepecha tear down statues of Spaniards

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Activists from Mexico’s Purepecha people used axes and sledgehammers Monday to knock down statues of their ancestors being forced to haul and work stones by a colonial-era Spanish priest.
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The life-size statues depict Spanish priest Fray Antonio de San Miguel ordering one nearly naked Purepecha to cut a stone block, while another is depicted hauling a stone away on his back.

A fourth figure in the group, known as the “Statue of the Builders,” represents an anonymous Spanish town planner standing nearby holding papers.

The Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacan said the statues glorified the brutal exploitation of their ancestors, who continued to resist the Spanish after the rival Aztec empire to the east fell to the conquistadores in 1521.

“2022 marks 500 years since the conquest and invasion of Michoacan that occurred in June 1522,” the council said in a statement. “During the invasion of what is today Michoacan, the Spanish enslaved thousands of Indigenous people.”

“Five hundred years after the invasion of Michoacan, the indigenous people continue to resist and fight as our grandfathers did.”

The council distributed photos of some of the statues knocked to the ground, with activists smashing them to bits.