Long before the Medellin Conference (1968), where a group of Latin American bishops laid the foundations for what we know today as "Liberation Theology ”, there was a group of Dominican friars settled on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola who sowed the seed of said theology denouncing the encomienda regime in which the Spanish colonizers had subjected the indigenous people of the island. This group of religious who landed on Hispaniola in the year 1510 and who were led by Fray Pedro de Córdoba They soon became aware of the mistreatment caused by the Spaniards to the native population of the place. For this reason, a year after their arrival on the island and taking advantage of the beginning of Advent, they signed a sermon, which would be given by Fray Antonio Montesinos , thus beginning the fight for justice in America.
Ego vox clamanti in deserto (…). I have come up here to tell you, to speak to you, I who am the voice of Christ in the desert of this island (...) this voice, he said, that you are all in mortal sin and in it you live and die, because of cruelty and tyranny that you use with these poor people.
Say, by what right and with what justice do you hold these Indians in such cruel and horrible servitude? With what authority have you waged such detestable wars against these people who were in their meek and peaceful lands, where so many of them, with deaths and havoc never heard of, have you consumed? How do you have them so oppressed and fatigued, without feeding them or treating their illnesses, that from the excessive work you give them, they die, and to put it better, you kill them to extract and acquire gold every day? And what care do you have of those who indoctrinate them and know their God and Creator, are baptized, hear mass, keep the feasts and Sundays?
Are these not men? Don't they have rational souls? Are you not obliged to love them as yourselves? Do these not feel? How are you in such a deep sleep so lethargic asleep? Be certain that in the state you are in, you can save yourselves only the Moors or Turks who lack or do not want the faith of Jesus Christ
Not content with what was said in the first sermon, the following Sunday the community of Dominicans on the island with Fray Antonio Montesinos as spokesperson warned the inhabitants of the Island of Hispaniola that if they continued with their claims and continued with the exploitation of the Indians They would not be confessed or acquitted. These sermons, as the events that occurred later showed us, were not well received by the encomendero colonizers, much less by one who assimilated Montesinos' message as if it were his own. His name Bartolomé de las Casas and he will soon be ordained a priest, thus becoming the first defender and official voice of the indigenous peoples of Latin America.
Collaboration of Francisco José Serrano Araujo
Sources:Altas, cultures and bases of Spanish colonization – María Dolores Pérez Murillo, History of the Indies – Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Memory of Fire:Births – Eduardo Galeano.