Heroes and Legends Documentary Channel Podcast
Heroes and Legends is a channel dedicated to exploring the lives and stories of great and inspiring individuals that have made an impact on history, culture or our way of life. Some of these may be little known to the wider world, even though they impacted significantly on the destinies of their own people. Others may have been condemned unfairly by history and deserve to have their contributions reviewed. We hope that by bringing their stories to light, we can all learn from their experiences, be inspired by them and enrich the tapestry of knowledge that exists outside the narrative of our own culture.
Heroes and Legends Documentary Channel Podcast
Ep. 11. Bartolomé de Las Casas: The Conscience of Christian Europe and its first Social Justice Warrior
In today’s episode, we will look at the life of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Dominican Priest who, during the 1500’s at the time of Spanish conquest in the Americas, has been called the “world’s first Social Justice Warrior”. But his isn’t a cosy story of messianic devotion to a cause held firmly in his breast from the outset. He was, in the beginning, one of the bad guys, up to his elbows in it. But then something happened that would transform him into a relentless champion of human rights at a time when the phrase didn’t even exist; taking part in the legendary Valladolid debate; pushing the Pope to issue a Human Rights Bull on behalf of indigenous people; hustling an audience with Charles V, Habsburg King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor; and then going on to publish what is considered the first anthropology textbook on the Americas. His tireless campaigning would lead to changes in attitudes and law, that provided a foundation for the European enlightenment centuries later. And yet, today in the West, he and compatriots such as Fray Antonio Montesinos largely remains one of the unknown heroes of history, being overshadowed by conquistadors such as Pizarro, Cortez and Columbus.
#lascasas, #socialjusticewarrior, #humanrights, #spanishhero