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And the Europeans came, "Tzitzimes, terrifying black birds…in disguise, enemies of all happiness," seeking to build an empire of money and things where once lived people, animals and land. And it was the friars, and their baptisms, that were so sinisterly murderous.

The military might of the conquistadors, the economic slavery of the silver mines, and exploration expeditions, these were despicable acts, decimating. But the baptism strikes at the root of the people. Baptism beckons, "the last days of an era and the proximity of a year to end all years…Tzitzimes…would descend from the sky and eat everyone who had not washed off the mark of the priests."

Christiantity gave tepid validity to the slaughter of the new world. Christianity, the religion forced upon the people of Europe. The religion that executed thousands of communal, earth loving peoples in Europe, either through war, hangings, or fire. Christianity, the religion of the kings, emperors, and land owners. Christianity masked the naked viciousness of the emerging capitalist empire of greed that has now "advanced" into american "civilization."

The native peoples could have survived slavery and warfare, but with the toxicity of christianity, they were ensured to never live again. So what is to be said of these genocidal priests? "They must have something terribly wrong with them. They are men without any sense. They seek neither pleasure nor happiness, but sadness and loneliness."

And so all those who spoke this truth, were "captured and beaten, dispossessed and banished." Now, the year to end all years is upon us. Without a language, without a history, without a land, there is no people.

In this "new world," none of us may ever live again.

- Taylor Sparrow

All quotes taken from Eduardo Galeano's "Memory of Fire: Genisis."