One of the things
I find particularly surprising
About the way we perceive
History
Is that we tend to overlook
The importance
Of European resistance
To Islam.
Charles the Hammer
Drew the line
At Tours,
Even though
Most of Spain
Fell.
We celebrate Charles
But forget Spain.
And Spain resisted
For centuries
Until at last it drove out
Its Moorish occupiers.
This is the backdrop
Against which
Cervantes wrote
And Ferdinand and Isabella
Commissioned Columbus
On his fateful voyage.
Today there’s a musical Quixote
About the Spanish Inquisition
And yet in Cervantes
There are Muslims
Still literally
Just wandering about.
Today we condemn Columbus
And dismiss the Spanish
In the New World
As butchers,
And yet this is the actual foundation
Of the modern world.
This is history.
There’s a pernicious
Instinct
To rewrite the past
To label wrongs
And ignore achievements,
To pretend
The past isn’t the past,
That there isn’t
An inescapable
Chain of events
That in some respects
Began with Spain’s liberation
From conquerors.
Well, a long time ago…
As they say.
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