The new Spanish slavery | Opinion
In the first months of 2021, the extreme right hired spaces to exhibit in Madrid great posters warning of the real danger that stalked To the Spaniards. No infections for a deadly and invisible enemy, or a call for attention to the silent massacre that had taken place in the residences of elders during the pandemic. The number one enemy had an acronym: Mena. The posters explained that the so -called « unaccompanied minors », represented with a embed face, were a threat that each month cost public coffers 11 times what a person received from the non -contributory pension received. The Provincial Court of Madrid rejected the appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office that pointed to a possible crime of hate towards children encouraged with lies. The audience car contains a peculiar statement when referring to foreign minors: « regardless of whether or not the figures are vetoed, they represent an obvious social and political problem. »
The problem created by these minors was not referred to crimes typified by the Criminal Code. They were minor migrants, vulnerable people and, consequently, the object of protection in accordance with the laws. The age barrier is indistinct to have been born in the Royal Palace with the solved future, in Llobregat splex and dedicate yourself to football, or in Tombuctú and have arrived jumping a fence of concertinas or in Cayuco mocking the capricious fatality that sows the sea.
Migrant minors, mostly men, represent an obvious social and political problem? Samuel Johnson wrote that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. I could not imagine that there is a more remote shelter: contempt and incitement to hatred towards children and boys. Suddenly, our country has discovered that one of its biggest problems is The almost 5,800 minors received in the Canary Islands, that many of the governments of the Autonomous Communities They refuse to receive and attend. Will it be because they are children Blacks That one day they will be adults Blacks?
In another time, the preference of the Spaniards by the children and the African adolescents was so exaggerated that the Europeans did not come out of their astonishment. They did not love them at all dirty, I will not think badly the unsuspecting reader. It was for something very, very dirty, so much that it has been erased from national memory and school manuals, it will not happen that our children discover what their ancestors dedicated.
Since the 16th century, The enslaved African trade was a very lucrative activity in the Crown of Castile and in its domains in America. Sometimes the trafficking business was left in the hands of the subjects and in others the concession to foreign houses was granted, in whose ships it was not difficult to find Spanish sailors. Commercial activity classified slaves by age and sex. There were three categories: Piece of Indies He was the oldest of 16 years; It was called Mulecón who was 12 to 16 years old; and Muleque to which he was 6 to 12 years old. The Royal Treasury charged a rights scale according to these categories. Since the real licenses (trade privileges) took the partand the ships calculated their human burden in adults, the fans for including children under 16 had a double stimulus, fiscal and transport, since they could add more to the shipment. The younger children could be sold as servants and pages. Teenagers, Muleconesthey were initiated in any task and were soon at the age of being dedicated to more painful tasks, reaching their full capacity for work.
Contracts made with English houses to take slaves to America maintained the category of adults (Men, Women) And they created two others for children under 16: Men-Boys and Boys, For men; Women-Girls and Girlsfor « females », as they were called. The Spaniards did not stop requesting them Men-Boys (boys) and, to a lesser extent, Women-Girls (girls). English merchants with a house in Liverpool who worked for Spanish Caribbean clients did not leave their perplexity. On July 18, 1803, Thomas Leyland, of the Thomas Leyland house and company, wrote to Captain Caesar Lawson a letter. I informed him that the ship Enterprizewho placed under his command, was ready to be done at sea, and that he had to immediately go to Bonny, on the coast of Africa – today, Nigeria – to exchange merchandise « for first blacks, ivory and palm oil. » The petition resembles a written list of items before going to the supermarket. About the « blacks » added a condition: « We request that all be men, if possible to get them. » If it is not feasible to attend to this request, « buy the least possible number of females, since we look for a Spanish market for the sale of its load, where females are a very tedious sale. » As for men, he asked to select « those who are well formed and strong; and do not buy any over 24 years. » The ship could transport 400 slaves. Captain Caesar Lawson preferred to add some more and embarked 412. On January 9, 1804, the Enterprize He arrived in Havana and sold 392 slaves. On the journey they had died 19. A girl could not be sold for being sick. Seven out of ten slaves sold were male. There were 98 children and boys (Men-Boys) and 78 girls and girls (Women-Girls), In total, 176 children « not accompanied. » For each adult a package of goods was paid in Bonny; For minors, the proportional part. The net profit doubled the investment made and could provide up to 150%. In this case of Enteprize It amounted to 280 pesos per slave, about $ 9,000 at today’s prices.
Far from diminishing this morbid fond of the « unaccompanied minors » extracted from Africa, it was increasing. In 1830, the frigate Fast passengerfrom Catalan Jayme Tió, he transported 534 slaves in his wineries, 51% children. In 1834, the Formidable He landed 418 slaves of the 728 who had embarked on the African coast of Calabar, half children; The mortality suffered during the crossing was 42.6%, the survivors, witnesses of the drama for weeks. The schooner Minerva He carved to 490 slaves alive in 1835, being the children 59% of the human burden. In 1861, the bergantin Flight He was captured by the British when he headed to Cuba with 504 Africans, of which 60.3% were under 16. The merchants, the shipowners, the captains and most of the crews of the ships were Spanish.
With this past, Spaniards and other Europeans should be more careful with our words and our attitudes. The image of regional authorities negotiating for months the compensation for welcoming that they must receive from the central administration, in order to decongest the reception centers of the Canarian archipelago, inevitably sends the old economic transactions by human beings. Criminalize migrants and sow suspicions about minors instead of proportional protection contrasts with the benevolence that in the national memory deserved those who, who, who, who, who, who, who, moved by profit, They practiced crimes against humanity with Africans.
Forced in the past towards a worse life, volunteer migrants today In search of a hopeful future, Africa has not ceased to see how its young people They start from the land that saw them born. In our days they are received with a hostility that is again justified in the name of civilization, say today Control in the movement of people and borders.
