Translator: Clara Cogollos Reviewer: Ilse S. Úziel
I would like to talk about the history of America.
It is a very simple, easy matter.
America's history can be divided into four parts:
The first part is Spain. It lasted 300 years.
It started with Columbus
and ended October 21, 1805 at noon.
It is difficult to think that history can change in a day.
But sometimes, during the process of change,
there comes a day when the last straw is drawn and change occurs.
Spain turned America into an utter monopoly.
Non-Spaniards were not allowed to come here.
Not even all Spaniards could.
For example, Catalonians could not come here until 1800.
We spent 300 years without the possibility of becoming Indians.
What was Spain doing in America?
Utter monopoly.
Every piece of merchandise that could come in, came from Spain.
And what came out of America?
Metals.
How much? How much came out of America?
81,000 tons of silver
in 300 years.
With that money, Spain became the most powerful country in the world.
It built an empire where the sun never set.
Silver went from Spain to Genoa.
Or rather, as Quevedo states in his story:
"It was born in America, it went through Spain and was buried in Genoa."
At the time, Spain was the country with the most powerful army.
Silver from America paid for it.
At that time, Spain represented the Church.
It produced the Council of Trent.
Charles V, who was Flemish and did not even speak Spanish,
was crowned in Bologna.
He defeated the Turks at Lepanto,
fought against Protestants,
fought against Calvinists.
And Spain was protected behind the Pyrenees.
And during those 300 years, Spain said:
I'm not interested in a political revolution; it's of no use.
I'm not interested in a religious revolution either.
I'm not interested in an industrial revolution either.
And America was left on the sidelines.
America lived outside that reality for 300 years.
And when did that change?
Who was Spain fighting against?
The fight was over the seas.
And with whom?
First with the Dutch, then with the British.
The Invincible Army.
Until one day,
October 21, 1805 at noon,
a one-armed, one-eyed man named Nelson,
at the Battle of Trafalgar,
disbanded the Spanish and the French fleets.
He did something nobody thought anyone could do.
Ships were sailing ships, as we see in the movies.
They stopped next to each other, fired from the sides and boarded the ship.
No. Not this one.
He did something completely different: He sailed the ships down the middle.
And since there were no canons in the bow or stern,
he fired the canons on both sides to turn over the masts.
And when the sail ships were left floating like bathtubs,
they were hunted one by one.
They defeated 25. They destroyed the fleet.
England took over the sea,
as it already had a very strong industrial growth,
it already had Adam Smith and Locke,
it already had a democratic parliament,
it already had a coal industry
- it produced three times more coal than the rest of the world -
it already produced steam energy,
made engines move with steam,
and made looms work with steam.
So, what did it bring us?
An open world or a closed one?
The previous one was closed, a monopoly.
This was an open world.
Absolutely open.
Over 1,800 miles of railroads were built.
Drinking water was hooked up in Montevideo in 1868.
Gas was brought in. Good cattle was brought in.
Good sheep were brought in.
Refrigerators were built.
Financial organizations were created.
And we opened ourselves to the world.
And we reached any part of the world with whatever we produced.
And we grew - Argentinians, Uruguayans, Brazilians, Chileans, all of us -
throughout 100 years of economic stability and open markets.
It was indeed a world that grew up in the always-open world of the Atlantic.
And that is why they made it to Maldonado in 1806,
because they had been victorious in Trafalgar in 1805.
Otherwise, they would not have made it to Maldonado.
And that is why they made it to Colonia del Sacramento in 1680,
founded between them and the Portuguese.
The Portuguese provided the workers, the English, the ships.
They unloaded the merchandise
and that is when the only real Mercosur started to operate.
They rowed the merchandise at night from Colonia to Buenos Aires.
How did they pay for it?
With the black silver that came from Potosi,
where silver was found.
And that was an open world. Completely open.
Until when?
Until the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.
And from that day on, the world closed up again,
with World War II.
And until when was it closed?
It was closed until the century ended.
And when the century ended, first, the Berlin Wall fell,
Gorbachev said it was the end of communism in Russia,
Deng Xiaoping ended the Mao Zedong era and opened China,
and a man called Bill Gates
allowed us to manipulate time and space.
Did you hear Lacalle talk about electronic things?
Yes, I have a tablet with a panic button, too.
And in the morning, when I wake up,
I send a message to a friend who lives in New Delhi,
and he replies immediately.
So,
we manipulate time and space like human beings never did before.
Consequently, the world is totally global.
It is open.
And today's youth put on their backpacks and don't even need a passport.
They travel around the world.
The world is open again.
And it is in this open world that Uruguay has to be.
It cannot be shut in with three or four more,
no matter how linked or related they are,
because it is neither good for them nor for Uruguay.
Those decidedly different four eras:
The first was closed, the second was open,
the third was closed, the fourth was open.
They have, however, something in common,
all four of them.
When I went to a meeting where there were only lawyers and accountants,
who tried to figure out how not to pay taxes,
they came from everywhere in the world,
I asked them: "So, what do you have in common?"
Nobody knew.
What they have in common
is that America's destiny is always determined from the outside.
Because we are, since then,
since Columbus first arrived here until now,
sellers of raw materials.
We do not sell knowledge;
we sell copper, iron, meat, soy.
We sell some dairy products, cotton -
Peruvian cotton is the best in the world.
We are sellers of raw materials.
How do you change that?
With time, of course.
Nations are not happier because they are bigger or richer.
They are happier when they have more philosophers, scientists, and teachers.
The problem with Uruguay,
the number one problem,
is that 50 percent of youngsters
are not in a position to understand how the world in which they live works.
50 percent.
We need more philosophers,
more scientists,
and more and better teachers.
We need to join the world!
Because that is how we grew up.
When all the veterans like me, and I am almost 100 years old,
go out on Nostalgia Night,
what do we remember?
The good old days of our grandparents.
And we have to do that again.
With determination,
with freedom,
and a little bit of knowledge.
Have a good day.
(Applause)