SARAH HOYT: Remembering the Past.

Portugal was Roman, we studied the Romans. And we studied them as “our people.”

I can’t say we ever studied the Moorish invaders as our people. Mostly the Moors got accorded the respect of the THINGS they introduced to the peninsula. Almonds, pillows (almofadas) and other things starting with al.

We did study the crusaders who freed the peninsula as our people, among them the Earl Afonso who claimed the territory, and whose son became the first Portuguese king.

Reading about these people, usually in the biographies of more important people from other countries is eye opening. They too weren’t exactly as portrayed to us.

Weirdly, the Spanish kings that took over Portugal (legally by inheritance) and ruled it for six years we were taught to revile. I remember sitting in fourth grade while the teacher solemnly instructed us to deface the pictures of the Phillips in our school book.

But other than that, perhaps because we were taught so many successive waves who then became “our people” we were taught to accept history. History is what it is. You can’t change it by shouting it at it. You certainly can’t change it by toppling statues and renaming streets.

Compared to Europe, American history has barely started — and yet already there are those who would try to erase it.

Anyway, do read the whole thing.