ClashDaily Contributor
Julio Rivera
Who are American Hispanics? It’s not something that people generally spend a lot of time thinking about. Very few Americans actually have an idea about the culture of the fastest growing demographic in the United States. In many ways, the history of the expansion of the Spanish Empire is most of the early history of the New World.
We all know that the Spanish arrived in the Americas in 1492 under the command of Admiral Christopher Columbus. It is taught to all public-school students in the United States. The Spanish beat the Portuguese, French, and English to the Western Hemisphere. This is all extensively documented in history books.
This hasn’t stopped many self-hating white liberals from framing English Explorers as brutal settlers and enslavers in the New World. They, along with Hispanic/Latino and Black social justice warriors have painted a false narrative of what exactly happened and who exactly was responsible for it.
First off, the Native American tribes that inhabited what is now known as North and South America fought a seemingly never-ending series of wars that established their tribal borders at the time of Spanish discovery. Although they are often portrayed as peaceful, these tribes would regularly execute raiding parties focused on the theft and plunder of the weapons, supplies and women of rival groups.
When these raids resulted in the death of an enemy, opposing groups such as the Navajo would avenge every clan member killed by a rival tribe. This blood-feud warfare was a self-perpetuating and never-ending endeavor.
When Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the coast of Florida in 1513, he was in search of gold as well as an island known as Bimini. It was rumored to be home to a magical fountain whose waters had the power to rejuvenate those who drank from it. Ponce de Leon eventually would be murdered during his 2nd expedition to Florida when in early July 1521, local Indians attacked the party of settlers leaving Ponce de Leon fatally wounded by an arrow in his thigh.
The truth is the settling of the New World that led to the creation of the greatest nation in the history of the world would not have happened if the ancestors of Hispanic/Latino Americans had not bravely chartered dangerous waters in search of the Indies.
All Modern-day Americans owe a debt of gratitude to the Colonial-Era Spanish. One group that this fact seems to be lost on unfortunately, is a large majority of Hispanic/Latino Americans educated in the United States who do not know or understand their own history.
I am not referring to the millions of illegal invaders that currently are inhabiting our country. They should feel like unwanted outsiders. I am referring to law abiding, legal citizens of the US of Hispanic/Latino descent who have forgotten that their roots are firmly planted in American soil.
They have forgotten that their ancestors were Catholic and Conservative traditionalists that were believers in what was known as La Hispanidad or Hispanicity. That they are descendants of an undeniably right-leaning culture.
As voters, many have allowed themselves to be lumped into the group of handout seeking victims that liberal Americans manipulated into voting for Hillary Clinton over President Donald Trump, according to 2016 national exit polling, by more than 2 to 1.
It is time for a clarification of the historical significance of the Hispanic/Latino in American culture. The ramifications have the potential to strongly influence the 2018 Midterm, as well as the outcome of elections for generations to come.
Julio Rivera is editorial director of ReactionaryTimes.com. He’s also a small business consultant and a featured columnist at Newsmax.com, and is based in New York City.
