In the last year, PBS aired a special on the Spanish colonization of Florida called “Secrets of Spanish Florida.” The program explores the 1565 founding of the St. Augustine settlement by Spanish conquistadors. However, the historical account they present is saturated by a cultural marxism – focusing on the conflict between society’s privileged and its victims. Hammering home a point made often in this program, historian Jane Landers asserted “If you really wanted to look at the founding fathers [of the United States], you’d look a lot earlier, and you’d look south.”
The true story of history can easily empower Latin American pride in the United States, but big media and big education just won’t let the truth be heard.
Early in the program, the narrator asks, “How does it change our thinking about race and immigration in this country to know what really happened?” Through this statement, the filmmakers motives become clear. They seek to create some new story and allegory for modern Latin American immigrants. The reimagining of Florida’s place in the founding of the United States is yet another sign of the historical revisionist trend, both in media and education! Instead of pursuing countless “what ifs”, future documentaries should share Hispanic America’s real contributions to our founding. How about the Spaniards who stormed British holdings in the aid of the fledgling United States. Or the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans for General Washington late in the war.
The true story of history can easily empower Latin American pride in the United States, but big media and big education just won’t let the truth be heard. The truth just doesn’t fit their cultural marxist mold of victimhood. Phyllis Schlafly knew that America’s marvelous history — our rapid westward expansion, our vast technological advances, our industrial leaps and prosperity — did not come about through a battle of haves vs. have-nots. America leapt forward to exceptionalism because of her can-do attitude that saw all men as equal, and hard work as the great lifter of men.
It’s time for liberal Hollywood and big media to learn that Americans want to be inspired by our real roots, not marxist fairytales. We are excited to see more Americans every day rise up and rebuke the demoralizing revisionism of our awesome American story.
