‘They were heroes and saints’: Campaign pushes back on how America was evangelized

Madrid, Spain, Oct 11, 2024 / 08:00 am

The Catholic Association of Propagandists (Advocates) (ACdP) in Spain has launched a campaign on the discovery and evangelization of America titled “1492: Neither Genocidal Nor Slave Owners — They Were Heroes and Saints.”

With more than 200 posters distributed on marquees and billboards in more than 60 Spanish cities, the campaign was created with the aim of “dismantling the stereotypes of the black legend against Hispanic heritage.”

The campaign extols the accomplishments of those who “at the risk of losing their lives, embarked on the adventure of reaching the New World with one main objective: to spread Christianity,” a statement from the organization explained.

The ACdP emphasized that with this initiative it “pays tribute to those who brought the promotion of human dignity — which has its origin in the Catholic faith — to Indigenous peoples, subjected to the oppression of bloodthirsty empires.”

The association seeks to “combat the so-called ‘black legend’ spread for centuries against the remarkable Spanish accomplishment.”

The posters and billboards show a QR code that links to a video that, in a humorous tone, simulates a television contest in which a promoter of the “black legend” and a citizen of a Latin American country participate.

The simulated TV contest dismantles one by one the main stereotypes about the arrival of the Spanish in the Americas and the spread of the Christian faith by the Catholic monarchs Queen Isabel of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragón.

Among other points, the episode points out that Spain never had “colonies” but “viceroyalties” and that on the cultural level, 100 of the 140 United Nations World Heritage sites in Latin America are of Spanish origin. It also points out that by 1538 more than 30 universities had already been founded and that by 1574 the Bible had been translated into more than 12 native languages.

The fact that Spaniards freely intermarried with the Indigenous, resulting in mixed-race societies, was contrasted with the widespread expulsion and extermination of Indigenous peoples by other European powers in North America. The episode also pointed to the enormous economic cost that Spain incurred to maintain its presence in America, much more than what was obtained from the natural resources of the new continent.

Last year, on the occasion of Hispanic Heritage Day, the ACdP also publicized a video that summarizes the history of Spain in two minutes, from the appearance of the Virgin Mary to the apostle St. James in Zaragoza to modern times.

These and other campaigns are part of a strategy developed by the ACdP in recent years to highlight the positive impact of Catholic values ​​in society.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.