Dear Editor, There are so many distortions, half-truths and
outright untruths in Marty Cheek
’s Aug. 19 column on the Oholones and the Palestinians that it
would take pages to refute.
Dear Editor,
There are so many distortions, half-truths and outright untruths in Marty Cheek’s Aug. 19 column on the Oholones and the Palestinians that it would take pages to refute. But let us for the moment run with his premise that California was stolen from native Indian tribes by the Spanish conquistadors. I happen to agree. Mexico inherited California from Spain, and thus had no more legitimacy here than the U.S.
A quick look around the world reveals many examples of similar conquests which displaced earlier populations. The Celtic native population of Britain was subjugated and driven from their lands by Romans, then Anglo-Saxons and Normans. The Normans themselves were descendants of Scandinavian conquerors of northern France. Modern Finns and Hungarian Magyars are descended from invaders from outside Europe, and speak languages which are not Indo-European. The dominant population of India, except in the south, comes from the “Aryan” invasions from central Asia. Anatiolia was conquered by the Turks, also from central Asia. The Vietnamese people, originally from southern China, drove the indigenous population from the lowlands into the mountains.
As for the Middle East, we need to remember that the Arabs conquered the entire region in the seventh century and imposed their language, religion and culture on the native inhabitants. Then they invaded Spain and Sicily. This is very much as was done by the conquistadors. Some native Indian tribes migrated and displaced earlier Indian groups in pre-Columbian times.
So, if we’re looking for redress of past wrongs, we have to look way beyond California. And since Mr. Cheek feels so guilty about living on stolen land, he ought to consider giving his property back to its rightful owners, the Oholones.
Eli Taub, Los Altos
