There is no doubt that this country of ours has many colonial obstacles. Apologizing for the misdeeds carried out during the conquest would not be bad, but perhaps we can start with simpler things. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is, by far, the most obvious and savage example that things have to change
Spain is not able to address its colonial debt. It is not so in almost any context, but neither is it in the academic and research framework, where it should be something simpler. Let me tell you a “case study” to put metrics to this institutional lack of courage to resolve a historical mistreatment of our extended citizenship on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Diego Armijos is an Ecuadorian herpetologist who works at a university in the south of his country. With the support of his institution and within the framework of a long collaboration with a Spanish group, he decided to do his doctoral thesis with us, in our research group. He is a senior researcher. He has published on numerous occasions and is recognized in his geographical setting as an expert on anurans, frogs for the layman, in an ecological context of wild diversity. Even the white researchers of the great north know him. They consult him. It is in all the scientific networks in that field. His doctoral thesis is on neotropical herpetofauna, of course.
Despite the difficulties of combining his teaching and institutional work, plus his active social commitment to issues of biodiversity conservation in his tropical world, he has managed to reach the end of his predoctoral journey. Brilliant! He has done it in a timely manner. Nothing to object.
He presents all his documentation and the doctoral school of his Spanish public university gives him approval. Everything flows perfectly. He contacts the court that has been approved and, together, they look for a date to defend the thesis. Plenty of time is left to get to the event. We want there to be time to resolve the issues that any citizen of a country like Ecuador has to face when coming to the motherland. That’s it. It is delayed by just over two months which seems more than enough. For us, Spanish researchers, it is also a source of pride to have reached this point. Working with Diego is having the opportunity to learn first-hand about the diversity of the Neotropics.
Up to this point, everything has been perfect.
Diego has to get a normal visa to come to Spain. There is no academic route that will ease the process. Of course he has to go from Loja, where he lives, to Guayaquil to do the paperwork. It is an expensive and long trip. The procedure is rocky in that sense. It cannot be alleviated in any way, there is no online option, letters from your rector or from your Spanish directors are not valid, nothing. There is also no way to know how long the process may take. A cohort of flies that live linked to the embassy offer you much faster alternative routes. He doesn’t want to use them. They are very expensive. What he wants to do, defend his doctoral thesis, does not seem to require the use of alternative routes. You have already booked your plane ticket to Spain. You can’t wait any longer because prices will skyrocket as we get closer to the flight date. Call again and again the embassy, the consulate in Guayaquil. They do not answer the emails sent. Days before the flight date, he still has no answer. Travel to try to resolve the delay from there. He hasn’t even managed to make the appointment to process the visa there. How is it possible? This is a rhetorical question, of course. Helplessness is the norm. He can’t go to Spain. He cannot defend his doctoral thesis. The academic journey has been perfect. He has paid everything that was pertinent to the Spanish university and has carried out the entire training plan. He is blocked on his land.
To do?
Someone suggests that you try to enter the European Fortress through Portugal. How? Apply to the consulate for a tourist visa. Okay. There isn’t much time, but he can’t think of any alternative.
The surprise is great when someone tells him that the procedures are done through the Spanish embassy because Portugal does not have an embassy there. From an agency responsible for processing visas to Spain – after payment – he sends everything back to the embassy that had not allowed him entry, but to another instance. On this occasion it is the delegated visa office that processes it.
Fantastic!!! Diego has a visa to enter. Now you just have to get another ticket with just a few days left until the defense date. Of course it has to arrive in Lisbon instead of Madrid. A fortune as you can imagine. Diego has to ask for financial help. Come on, a credit. The bill, which was already well above its possibilities in the previous (“normal”) framework, has become impossible.
Exhausted, humiliated, hurt, he manages to arrive at his director’s office a couple of days before the defense of his thesis. To rehearse. To prepare the defense a little. To cry.
There is no doubt that this country of ours has many colonial obstacles. Apologizing for the misdeeds carried out during the conquest would not be bad, but perhaps we can start with simpler things. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is, by far, the most obvious and savage example that things have to change if we aspire to a healthier and more decent relationship with the rest of the planet.
#Scientific #colonialism #purest #form
