Benemerito De Las Americas Quotes

"The pattern established at the outset has remained to this day, and the Spaniards still do nothing save tear the natives to shreds, murder them and inflict upon them untold misery, suffering and distress, tormenting, harrying and persecuting them mercilessly." According to Las Casas, atrocities continued unabated in the Americas, even half a century after the discovery. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

I love movies, of course. 'Terminator 3' and 'Bad Boys II' - lots of action. Sports movies, action movies, comedies - I'll go to those, but not 'las de amor.' Not romance. It's not that I don't like love, but on the screen it bores me. ~ Sergio Garcia

Nocturnă

Uitarea venea... a venit.
O lacrimă cade jos, totul tace,
Lampa obosită a clipit,
Orice obiect atins şopteşte: lasă-mă-n pace...

De-acum...
Auzi, ploaia plânge pe drum
Pe un adânc tumult,
Pe urma unui mic pantof într-un parc
de demult...

Adorm... ascult...
Afară, la fereastră, toamna a spus:
- Of!

Nocturne

Oblivion comes . . . came.
A tear falls; total silence,
The tired lamp twinkles,
Every touched thing whispers, let me alone.

Now...
Listen, outside the rain sheds its tears ―
A serious dispute centers on
A scrap of a small shoe in an old park . . .

I sleep . . . I listen . . .
Outside a window, autumn says:
Oh! ~ George Bacovia

Ana had experienced reactions like Ramon's in the mirrored salons of Sevilla society, in the waxed halls of the Convento de las Buenas Madres, on the streets of Cadiz and San Juan. It was a look that said, "I see you, but I deign not to speak to you." It said, "I see you but I do not share the high opinion you have of yourself." It said, "I see you but you're not who I want to see." It said, "To me, you don't exist. ~ Esmeralda Santiago

There was a muchacha who lived near my house. La gente del pueblo talked about her being una de las otras, "of the Others." They said that for six months she was a woman who had a vagina that bled once a month, and that for the other six months she was a man, had a penis and she peed standing up. they called her half and half, mita' y mita', neither one nor the other but a strange doubling, a deviation of nature that horrified, a work of nature inverted. But there is a magic aspect in abnormality and so-called deformity. Maimed, mad, and sexually different people were believed to posess supernatural powers by primal cultures' magico-religious thinking. For them, abnormality was the price a person had to pay for her or his inborn extraordinary gift.

There is something compelling about being both male and female, about having an entry into both worlds. Contrary to some psychiatric tenets, half and halfs are not suffering from a confusion of sexual identity, or even from a confusion of gender. What we are suffering from is an absolute despot duality that says we are able to be only one or the other. It claims that human nature is limited and cannot evolve into something better. But I, like other queer people, am two in one body, both male and female. I am the embodiment of the heiros gamos: the coming together of opposite qualities within. ~ Gloria E Anzaldua

It clearly appears that there are no races in the world, however rude, uncultivated, barbarous, gross, or almost brutal they may be, who cannot be persuaded and brought to a good order and way of life, and made domestic, mild and tractable, provided ... the method that is proper and natural to men is used; that is, love and gentleness and kindness. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

Saturday evening, on a quiet lazy afternoon, I went to watch a bullfight in Las Ventas, one of Madrid's most famous bullrings. I went there out of curiosity. I had long been haunted by the image of the matador with its custom made torero suit, embroidered with golden threads, looking spectacular in his "suit of light" or traje de luces as they call it in Spain. I was curious to see the dance of death unfold in front of me, to test my humanity in the midst of blood and gold, and to see in which state my soul will come out of the arena, whether it will be shaken and stirred, furious and angry, or a little bit aware of the life embedded in every death. Being an avid fan of Hemingway, and a proponent of his famous sentence "About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after," I went there willingly to test myself. I had heard atrocities about bullfighting yet I had this immense desire to be part of what I partially had an inclination to call a bloody piece of cultural experience. As I sat there, in front of the empty arena, I felt a grandiose feeling of belonging to something bigger than anything I experienced during my stay in Spain. Few minutes and I'll be witnessing a painting being carefully drawn in front of me, few minutes and I will be part of an art form deeply entrenched in the Spanish cultural heritage: the art of defying death. But to sit there, and to watch the bull enter the arena… To watch one bull ~ Malak El Halabi

Island of Hispaniola once so populous (having a population that I estimated to be more than three million), has now a population of barely two hundred persons. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

The most ominous of modern perversions is the shame of appearing naïve if we do not flirt with evil.
(La más ominosa de las perversiones modernas es la vergüenza de parecer ingenuos si no coqueteamos con el mal.) ~ Nicolas Gomez Davila

Eres es la explosión de rosas en un cuarto oscuro.
O el sabor inesperado y dulce en el té que tomamos en Starbucks
You are the moon that gives midnight its meaning.
And the explanation of water for all living things.
You are my compass,
A sapphire,
A bookmark,
A rare coin,
Un trompo,
Un canica,
De mi juventud.
Eres miel y canela
chocolate y jamoncillo.
You are rare spices
lost from a boat
That was once sailed by Cortez.
Eres un rosa, prensado en un libro
un anillo de perla de herencia
y un frasco de perfume rojo
que se encuentran cerca de las orillas del Nilo.

You are an old soul from an ancient place,
A thousand years and centuries and milleniums ago.
And you have traveld all this way…
Just so that I could love you…
And,
I do. ~ Jose N Harris

The reason the Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

The one and only method of teaching men the true religion was established by Divine Providence for the whole world, and for all times: that is, by persuading the understanding through reasons, and by gently attracting or exhorting the will. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

And why have you burnt our Gods, when others are brought from other Regions by the Spaniards? Are the Gods of other Provinces more sacred than ours? ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

Later, a large band of Christians mounted an attack on this native lord, butchering him along with vast numbers of his people and taking all the survivors into slavery, where they duly perished, so that today not a trace remains of what was previously a community with dominion over an area of some thirty leagues. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

They had found out.

Before I could panic, I made myself stretch my fingers wide and take a calming breath. You already knew this was bound to happen. At least that's what I told myself.

The more I thought about it, the more I should have been appreciative that the people at the chapel in Las Vegas hadn't recognized him. Or that people on the street had been oblivious and hadn't seen us going in and out of there. Or that the receptionist at the acupuncturist hadn't snapped a picture on her phone and posted it online.

Because I might not understand all people, much less most of them, but I understood nosey folks. And nosey folks would do something like that without a second thought. Yet, I reminded myself that there was nothing to be embarrassed about.

It would be fine. So, one gossip site posted about us getting married. Whoop-de-do. There was probably a thousand sites just like it.

I briefly thought about Diana hearing about it, but I'd deal with that later. There was no use in getting scared now. She was the only one whose reaction I cared about. My mom and sisters' opinions and feelings weren't exactly registering at the top of my list now… or ever. I made myself shove them to the back of my thoughts. I was tired of being mad and upset; it affected my work. Plus, they'd made me sad and mad enough times in my life. I wasn't going to let them ruin another day.

Picking my phone up again, I quickly texted Aiden b ~ Mariana Zapata

When history textbooks leave out the Arawaks, they offend Native Americans. When they omit the possibility of African and Phoenician precursors to Columbus, they offend African Americans. When they glamorize explorers such as de Soto just because they were white, our histories offend all people of color. When they leave out Las Casas, they omit an interesting idealist with whom we all might identify. When they glorify Columbus, our textbooks prod us toward identifying with the oppressor. When textbook authors omit the causes and process of European world domination, they offer us a history whose purpose must be to keep us unaware of the important questions. Perhaps worst of all, when textbooks paint simplistic portraits of a pious, heroic Columbus, they provide feel-good history that bores everyone. ~ James W. Loewen

What we committed in the Indies stands out among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind and this trade [in Indian slaves] as one of the most unjust, evil, and cruel among them. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

Las Vegas is the expression, in glitter and concrete, of America's brittle and mutating id. ~ John Burdett

El verbo leer, como el verbo amar y el verbo soñar, no soporta 'el modo imperativo'. Yo siempre les aconsejé a mis estudiantes que si un libro los aburre lo dejen; que no lo lean porque es famoso, que no lean un libro porque es moderno, que no lean un libro porque es antiguo. La lectura debe ser una de las formas de la felicidad y no se puede obligar a nadie a ser feliz.


The verb reading, like the verb to love and the verb dreaming, doesn't bear the imperative mode. I always advised to my students that if a book bores them leave it; That they don't read it because it's famous, that they don't read a book because it's modern, that they don't read a book because it's antique. The reading should be one of the ways of happiness and nobody can be obliged to be happy. ~ Jorge Luis Borges

Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in Las Vegas yesterday. She said she wants citizenship for undocumented immigrants. But after seeing Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo yesterday, immigrants said, 'You know what, we're good. We're gonna head back now. We had enough.' ~ Jimmy Fallon

God is the one who always remembers those whom history has forgotten. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

The Christians seized all the maize the locals of Nicaragua had grown for themselves and their own families and, as a consequence, some twenty or thirty thousand natives died of hunger, some mothers even killing their own children and eating them. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

Every vocation becomes more agreeable when united with devotion. ~ Saint Francis De Sales

Source: http://pijamasurf.com/2013/02/y-tu-de... ~ Anonymous

I said to de Lord, 'I'm goin' to hold steady on to you, an' I know you'll see me through.' ~ Harriet Tubman

Thy enterprises speed, Didst thou the light mid Libya's sands Or Jaca's rocks first see? ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I've been in so many funeral scenes from The Sopranos, and I think I've even been in one on Sons of Anarchy. Those scenes, as a human being, are the most tedious scenes, of all time. You're waiting, all day, in the blistering hot heat. So, I didn't need to be there. ~ Drea De Matteo

Critics are always complaining about the materialism of hip-hop and accusing the artists of living way above their means. But this ostentatious sort of spending isn't strictly the province of hip-hop. It's almost like a continuation of the American Dream. ~ Simon De Pury

Persistent, Mike thought. Mark of those who succeed. Indeed, it was the mark of something, but not success. It was refusing to hear "no," a clear signal of trouble in any context. Forty ~ Gavin De Becker

Is evolution a theory, a system, or a hypothesis? It is much more it is a general postulate to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must henceforward bow and which they must satisfy in order to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light which illuminates all facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow this is what evolution is. ~ Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

Esprit de l'escalier: spirit of the staircase, wishing you'd said, wishing you'd done. Yet how much more indelible it was when the staircase was the staircase that led to the bedroom. ~ Martin Amis

The duty of the moment is what you should be doing at any given time, in whatever place God has put you.
You may not have Christ in a homeless person at your door, but you may have a little child.
If you have a child, your duty of the moment may be to change a dirty diaper.
So you do it.
But you don't just change that diaper, you change it to the best of your ability, with great love for both God and that child ...
There are all kinds of good Catholic things you can do, but whatever they are, you have to realize that there is always the duty of the moment to be done.
And it must be done, because the duty of the moment is the duty of God. ~ Catherine De Hueck Doherty

The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel. ~ Harry S. Truman

Within speech, words are subject to a kind of relation that is independent of the first and based on their linkage: these are syntagmatic relations, of which I have spoken. ~ Ferdinand De Saussure

To will what God doth will, that is the only science that gives us any rest. ~ Francois De Malherbe

Why were there far more species of domesticated animals in Eurasia than in the Americas? The Americas harbor over a thousand native wild mammal species, so you might initially suppose that the Americas offered plenty of starting material for domestication. ~ Jared Diamond

It's difficult to be honorable at your worst moment and to forgive those who do you wrong, to have to battle what comes naturally to you. But that's what it takes to be a monster living among mortals. ~ Melissa De La Cruz

He that had never seen a river, imagined the first he met with to be the sea. ~ Michel De Montaigne

I was a young, & had deep loves, & my heart would overflow with enthusiasm! And I mingled with the crowd, I mixed with my fellow men, speaking my thought out loud! And they gaped back at me, without understanding. And I withdrew from them, & they said to me: Arrogant one! And from time to time in my solitude, my loves, my repressed enthusiasms broke out into odes, conversation; & my companions laughed and used to point at me as a madman. So I suffered, doubted, cursed, & no one believed me sincere. It's as if this heart, once so full of strength & love were annihilated. ~ Comte De Lautreamont

If I could, I would stop the passage of time. But hour follows on hour, minute on minute, each second robbing me of a morsel of myself for the nothing of tomorrow. I shall never experience this moment again. ~ Guy De Maupassant

It seems to me if an anointed king can be set aside, a serf-born woman can marry a baron's son. As rebellions against God's lawful order go, ours will be a small one.
Addis de Valence ~ Madeline Hunter

She closed her eyes; and in the sweet slumber lying
her spirit tiptoed from its lodging place.
It's folly to shrink in fear, if this is dying;
for death looked lovely in her face. ~ Francesco Petrarca

The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld