Remember who you are

Where did we come from? This is one of the questions that perhaps characterize the LDS culture when we talk about the Plan of Salvation and the search for answers to the questions of the soul. They are answers to the question that help us recognize who we are and the role that we have in life. The difference between this eternal principle of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the search for the identity of Latin America is that there simply is no answer to this question.  

There have been many theories that have been formed about this question. One of them we have studied in class and is probably the most popular is the proposal by Octavio Paz who theorizes that the conception of the Latin American essence came about through a rape, through the abuse and disillusion of the union between Cortes and Malinche.  Another theory was planted by José de Alencar in his work Iracema.  In this work he expresses with detail the history of the love between a beautiful indian girl and a soldier. These are said to have given origin to the Brazilian identity. 

Because of so many theories and given that they are all subject to each individual country’s history, it is really quite difficult to identify which would be the most adequate, the one whose truth is more absolute, or the one that is capable of explaining what has been the burning question of all Latin Americans, “What is my origin?” Even though it can be confusing to try and find out whose theory is correct, it is an essential question to be able to understand who we are and what the purpose is in our lives. This reminds me a lot of the Disney movie “The Lion King”.  We see perhaps the connection of the Latin American people the search for their identity to when Simba is lost and trying to find his place in the circle of life and at the same time we can see that after talking with his father, he understands his place and purpose and knows exactly where he belongs.  I believe as Latin Americans we will just have to continue researching and looking for the theory, a Mufasa, that best explains who we are and where we come from to learn our true identities.