Ask Questions.

When I was a kid I would read accounts of how Catholic colonists had exterminated the indigenous peoples of South America. But when I looked at the population numbers of indigenous tribes in South America I discovered that there are twenty-four million of them still there to this day. And that there are over one hundred and twenty-five million people who are mestizo (that is, people who are genetically of indigenous origin, but who have lost the native culture--language, customs, religion, art, etc) and were absorbed into the Spanish language and Catholic religion. These are hardly what I would call "extermination" numbers.

So all the stories of how the Catholics committed wholesale genocide against the native peoples are...well...bullshit.

And, yet, here in North America, where the Protestants held sway (north of Mexico)--that's where the mass murder and acts of genocide and human extermination of the indigenous peoples actually did take place. Today, in the USA and Canada, there are only a few millions of indigenous people. Only 4% of Canadians and 1% of USA citizens are of the First Nations.

Now, I am neither a Protestant nor a Catholic. I'm not defending one, nor am I attacking the other. All I am saying is that you shouldn't take things as stated, or written. Investigate. Look for evidence. Seek as much of the truth as you can. Because a whole lot of the so-called history I read as a kid has turned out to be lies, bullshit, and pure propaganda.

Evo Morales, President of Bolivia and member of the Aymara indigenous nation (and a Catholic--at least for social purposes). Photo from Latino Life, UK.