Writing History

Maybe it’s because I’m considerably older now than I was then, so I have lived more of it. I’m talking about history. In my student years–high school, college, seminary--I had no use for history and was baffled by those who loved it. But in recent years, that has changed.

When not reading theology or fiction, I can sometimes be found reading history or biography, as I strive to gain a deeper appreciation for the past. The past, after all, shapes the present–and our choices now will shape the future. And if we learn from history, perhaps our choices will be wiser.

One of the things I’ve noticed as I pay closer attention to history is the question of "who"–who writes it? And, usually, the answer is, "History is written by the winners"–those who triumph in war, those who succeed financially, those who are revered and respected by many. The "losers’" story is seldom told in the history books or the media. We have to look especially hard to find it.

I saw two examples of history written from the perspective of the "losers" in Mexico, both of them in Mexico City.

The first was near the park I mentioned in my previous post–the park where men stood and waited, sometimes all day, for someone to hire them as a day laborer. Just outside the park, on the side of a building, there was a plaque. It had names engraved on it. The names were Irish, but the text was in Spanish. What was the plaque? It was a memorial to a company of soldiers who had changed sides during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. Apparently upset that their country (the U.S.) was fighting against a Roman Catholic country (Mexico), this group of 70-some Irish-American soldiers–aptly memorialized as "The St. Patrick’s Brigade"-- vanished in the night, and fought with the Mexican army the following day. Unfortunately for them, their new comrades lost the battle. The St. Patrick’s Brigade was captured by the U.S. Army, court-martialed, and, to a man, executed for treason against the U.S. The plaque honored those soldiers for their bravery in fighting, at the cost of their lives, in a justified war defending Mexico against U.S. aggression. (That’s the way the war was described on the plaque.) I never learned that when I studied history in my younger years–because history is usually written by the winners. But the losers found a way to tell their story.

Another example: In 1519, Hernan Cortez (the one with the Sea, also known as the Gulf of California, named after him) led an invasion of Mexico from Cuba, where he was a government official, on behalf of Spain. Two years later, he had conquered the mighty Aztec Empire. In 1523, Spain began building the massive buildings pictured here. On the left you see the National Cathedral of Mexico, and on the right the National Palace. In front is the plaza known as The Zocalo. Pretty impressive! But did you know what you would find beneath the plaza and the buildings symbolizing Spanish power? The ruins of the Aztec capital, destroyed by Cortez, which formerly existed on that very site. Oh, and on the walls of the National Palace are the spectacular, panoramic murals of Diego Rivera, depicting Mexican history up until the mid-20th Century. One of his panels notes the presence and military might of Cortez. But, in that panel, Cortez has a green face and swollen knees, clear signs of ill health. The Spanish thought they were bringing Mexico a better way of life–offered at the point of a sword–but, at least for Rivera, all that Cortez brought was disease that damaged and destroyed Mexican lives. Two different–very different--ways of writing history!

History is written from the perspective of the winners, but the losers seem to find a way to tell their version of the story as well!

Now, as Christians, we are winners. In Romans 8:37, St. Paul describes us as "more than conquerers through him who loved us"–superconquerors, I once saw it translated. We are winners not by political might (though we sometimes have claimed it, like the Spaniards in Mexico), but by virtue of the victory of Christ over the powers of sin, death, and Satan. And if we are the winners, what history will we write? What history are we writing by our choices and actions today?

The Bible seems to suggest–in fact, from cover to cover it makes this point emphatically–that the history of those who are winners in Christ is written by our actions toward and on behalf of those whom history would call the "losers". Again and again, in Old Testament and New, the people of God are called upon to give special care to the sojourner–the one passing through the land–and to the widows and orphans. Those were the most vulnerable in biblical times, people with no one to look after them.

And who are the "losers" in our day? After all, as "winners" in Christ, we are called to care for the "losers".

And that makes me wonder. That makes me wonder: what history are we writing, by our choices and our actions today?