WEBVTT FILE

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On September 17, 2020, in Popayán, in the
territory occupied by the Colombian state,

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indigenous Mizak people tore down
the statue of Sebastián de Belalcázar,

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a symbol of colonization and slavery that has
haunted those lands since the 16th century.

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Recently, the image of Christopher Columbus
was torn down in Barranquilla.

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The ecstasy of the population in the euphoria
of the toppling went viral on the internet.

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In the early days of the uprisings in
response to the racist murder of George Floyd

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by police in the United States, dozens of
statues of Confederate leaders were

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destroyed or torn down by protesters.

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On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in
Bristol, United Kingdom, a statue of

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slave trader Edward Colston was toppled,
dragged through the city streets,

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and thrown into a river.

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Recently, in the stolen lands of Canada,

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hundreds of bones of Indigenous children

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were discovered buried in the grounds
of so-called "residential schools".

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These schools, created by the Canadian state
and run by Christian churches,

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were intended to isolate indigenous children

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from the cultural influence
of their families.

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The discovery of the bodies was the spark
for outrage and counterattacks.

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Eight churches have already been burned down
in the region of so-called British Columbia,

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in addition to various attacks
in the rest of the country.

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The images are straightforward,

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where the symbol of the institution
that for five centuries

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has been silently and institutionally
burning down native languages, cultures

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and spiritualities burns.

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On July 1, the national independence holiday,

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the image of Queen Victoria was torn down in
the city of Winnipeg, province of Manitoba.

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There are similar claims against Salesian
and nun boarding schools in

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lands now occupied by the Chilean state,
where children of native peoples

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like Yaganes, Kawésqar and Selk'nam were
kidnapped, tortured and murdered.

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Throughout the cordillera, forests
and deserts of the entire continent,

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there are countless accounts
of Catholic colonial institutions

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committing atrocities like these.

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What is really at stake when oppression
is fought through the destruction

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of a symbolic heritage?

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And what, in fact, keeps these racist,
colonial, genocidal symbols

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standing in many cities
across the continent?

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Who really benefits from
this colonial history occupying

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the public space until today?

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We pay a high price for keeping
the images of colonizers,

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torturers, and symbols of
oppression intact today.

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While memorials were erected in neighboring
countries after amnesty processes,

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in Brazil we still see the state defending
torture and forced acculturation,

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along with the kidnapping of indigenous
children even in the 21st century.

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With the escalation of the military and
religious state, the discourse of missionaries

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"saving" children from indigenous
cultural practices reinforces

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prejudice and violence
against native cultures.

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This game of cultural distortions makes it
clear that diversity is only accepted in the

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current Brazilian inquisition
when connected to productivist,

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liberal, capitalist logics.

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Columbus, Cabral, Vasco da Gama,
Anchieta or Americo:

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all traitors in the service
of the colonial patriarchy.

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Bento Gonçalves, Duque de Caxias,
Marquês do Pombal:

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cowardly slaveholding generals.

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Dom Pedro, Princess Isabel, Bandeirantes:
impostors of a false independence.

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As long as these symbols stand,
and we fail to recognize the cruelty

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and racism behind them, we will not be
free of their legacy of injustices.

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If monuments still honor slavers,
murderers and rapists,

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it is because the system they built
is still standing.

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In Chile, the constant interventions and
attacks on the statue of Manuel Baquedano,

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led the government to remove it.

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In La Paz, Bolivia, the old image of the
Spanish Queen Isabel the Catholic

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received the intervention
of Mujeres Creando,

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renaming the space to
Plaza de la Chola Globalizada

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as a vindication of the identity
of the many women who built

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the communities of the region.

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In São Paulo, images of the cowardly
Bandeirantes and of Father Anchieta are

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constantly attacked.

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There was no "discovery",
it was invasion and genocide.

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Colonial history is the origin of most
inequalities and injustices in these lands.

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The higher the church,
the deeper the wound

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and the blood stains left by it.

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The supposed foreign debt is reversed.

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It is the so-called "rich countries" that
owe the colonized peoples and territories.

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Their wealth is the result
of the looting of these lands,

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of the genocide of native
and enslaved peoples.

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We want the immediate reparations for
these cultures and territories.

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The colonizers are in debt.

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They owe every life,
every ounce of gold stolen,

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every botanical knowledge appropriated,

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every river polluted,
every language silenced.

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Today it is statues and churches.

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Tomorrow it will be the ideals, values,
institutions and structures

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that these symbols represent
that will be on fire.

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And their ashes will feed the seeds
of more just and free worlds.