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> How long was it before America's colonies (not the
> Spanish
> conquistadores who simply stole everything)

Dear Steve. This remark is highly polemic and it can
offend hispanic people from Latin America and Spain.
The reason is very simple, you are following a
stereotype treating Spaniards as thieves. In the
hispanic countries we know that in the anglosaxon
world you follow the "Black legend" dogma. However
reality is more complex and things are not quite as
you think.

These are some points in favor of the Spaniards:

* If the first wave of conquerors was cruel and
brutal, both the church and the Spanish state took
measures to calm it down.

* Spaniards were the first to consider the natives as
human beings. That happened in North America only at
the beginning of the XX century.

* Spaniards mix freely, and by love, with native
american women. They did not consider them inferior in
the same degree the anglo saxon culture has. Names as
mongrels, half breed and others does not exist in
Spanish because ours is not a culture of hate. We
don't care for the one-drop rule either. People is the
individual and we judge the behaivoir more than the
color of the skin.

* The Jesuit priests were composing barroque music
with his native associates at a time the peregrins
were starting to kill the first evil indians in the
United States.

Today Spain is considered in Latinamerica as a
friendly motherland. In the Spanish Civil War
thousands of latins were there to fight and die for
the ancient homeland. Today the Spanish king is a
close friend of the natives of Latin America.

Sorry for saying something that is not related with
the group. But sometimes one has to say way think
about certain important issues.

The "Black Legend" was an invention of the Protestant
based in real facts but exagerated to the extreme.

Regards,

Omar Vega