My ancestors from Spain came over to Mexico and intermarried with other ancestors who were Indians-Aztecs or whatever tribe.
I’d chose not to have the Spanish ancestors, myself-the Indians may have been bloodthirsty, but they weren’t any worse than the 16th century Spaniards, if you could ask the British, French, or the indigenous people of the Caribbean Islands in that time-the Inquisition wasn’t known to be gentle or kind, either...
If someone came over the ocean to where I lived and slaughtered or enslaved everybody in sight, I can see how they would end up being the special of the day as revenge...
I have no problem with trying to protect my family (tribe.) I agree completely about the Inquisition, and I often feel that the invasion of the Americas by the Spaniards was genocide. Period.
But I don’t like the idea of eating my enemies.
So we crossed the Channel, under less than legal circumstance, and with a little cutting and slicing found the promised land.
We got bored with that and went with some discord to the Western Shores.
Now Talking about the Spanish and their faults, First University in Mexico, first Hospitals, first Legal System.
In Mexico there were Indians and then there were the Aztecs. Most Indian tribes practiced limited human sacrifice, but the Aztecs used human sacrifice as a political tool to instill terror and fear in the competing tribes. The Aztecs were known for celebrations that led to the sacrifice of thousands of captives, and they used cannibalism for the sake of terror alone. Other Indians referred to the Aztecs as the “Sons of Dogs.” Cortes conquered 300,000 Aztecs with just six hundred Spanish soldiers, a few dozen horses and war dogs, and hundreds of thousands of Indian allies who absolutely hated the Aztecs. The Spaniards were not gentle with the native people, but they never came close to the kind of brutality the Aztecs had inflicted on the other Indians. European disease was the biggest destroyer of the people, and that was unintended.