Ayuso Speech Praising Conquistador Causes Furore

Madrid´s right wing regional premier, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has caused a furore in Mexico over her comments praising the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.

During an event in Mexico City, titled ‘Celebration of Evangelization and Mestizaje in Mexico: Malinche and Cortés,’ Ayuso paid tribute to the succeeding “five centuries of mestizaje” between Spain and Mexico, characterized by “hope, joy, and alliances” in contrast to the “divisive rhetoric of hate.”

Ayuso went on to to praise La Malinche who was a native and deeply controversial figure in Mexico where she is associated with helping Cortes conquer the land.

““I come from that Madrid which today has many Malinche figures in the Metro, in the streets, in the schools, and I feel deeply proud to see Mexico and the rest of the Latin American countries that are part of this great project in those small corners of Madrid, a crossroads, the home of all of us who are here,” she said.

She mentioned Isabella I of Castile whose decision with her husband Ferdinand of Aragon to agree to Christopher Columbus´s expedition in 1492, describing her as a “free and principled woman who, from her faith and deep love for Spain and for the Hispanic world, changed the history of the West,” and celebrated that, five centuries later, the Spanish language “has spread throughout the American continent, is the most universal mother tongue that exists, and the one that has grown furthest from its borders.” “That is why all of us here share surnames; you would have to be a real fool to hate each other and share surnames.”

However, many in Mexico took offence at her words and tone.

The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum hit back saying that to those who revive the Conquest as salvation, we say: you are destined for defeat. To those who believe the people are foolish: you are destined for defeat. Those who seek to vindicate Hernán Cortés and his atrocities: you are destined for defeat,” she stated.

“We are free, like the Indigenous people who fled to the mountains during the Conquest to preserve their right to organize themselves as they saw fit. We are a people who love their freedom, their independence, their sovereignty, and we are always ready to defend it. Freedom and independence are justice and sovereignty,” she added.

Ayuso later accused Sheinbaum of having used her presence in Mexico “to divide and create conflict.” “The president has tried throughout these days to use my presence to divide, to create conflict, when I have never spoken about her,” she complained.

“Mexico and Spain are part of the same family, with shared values ​​dating back five centuries.”