The Descendants of the Latin American Greats

Over time, you realize how similar Latin America is to the US in many ways.

We have our differences.

But there’s plenty of similarities too.

One of those similarities realized today was how you have folks down here who like to claim that they are descendants of famous Latin Americans of the past.

According to this article here shared by a reader known as Dazza, the descendants Cortes and Moctezuma had a meeting in Mexico!

They even “shared a hug at the exact same spot where their forebears met on November 8, 1519 in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán.”

Where the descendant of Cortes asked for forgiveness from the descendant of Moctezuma.

And, for those who don’t know, Mexican President AMLO has even asked the King of Spain before to apologize for the actions of the Spaniards historically.

Does the descendant of Moctezume want that?

According to the article cited, he doesn’t think it’s necessary.

With his words being the following:

“. . . We are the fusion of two cultures, the European and ours. We are the result of that meeting, the vast majority of us have Spanish and Mexican blood . . .” he said.

Asked if Mexico needs an apology from Spain, Acosta said no. “In the end, we are all family now,” he said.”

All around, seemed like a cool story to read.

 Did the descendants of Melinche show up too?

The article didn’t clarify.

For those curious, here’s a video of the event here.

Still, it’s not an unusual thing to hear about in any part of the world as I hinted at before.

You always have folks claiming heritage – real or not – to historical figures.

Like these folks claiming heritage to the Founding Fathers for us Americans here.

At any rate, it’s a topic that comes up in Latin America also.

That topic being of those who claim some heritage to the greats of their respective countries in this region.

Let’s come up with some cool examples for this article.

Emiliano Zapata Was Not Gay!

Before we look at other countries, let’s bring up another Mexican example that I find to be a bit funny.

You know, it’s common for gringos to say that Latin America doesn’t have any of the craziness that happens back home.

Craziness meaning stuff like companies trying to pander to audiences by changing their characters to be gay or redoing a movie with only a female cast.

However, stuff like that can happen here!

Well over a year ago, there was some controversy in Mexico City at the Bellas Artes Museum.

The issue stemming from this painting that you can see here showing the famous Mexican Emiliano Zapata to be a bit effeminate looking.

Pretty gay as fuck.

Funny enough, a lot of descendants of Emiliano Zapata found this to be annoying and disrespectful to their ancestor as you can see here.

And plenty of people protested!

A battle soon began between rural “campesinos” and people of the LGBT from what I heard.

The only question I had in my mind was where were the descendants of Porfirio Diaz?

I’m sure they could’ve organized a counter protest in support of the painting!

I could hear their chants already…

“Si si! Zapata era un maricon! Zapata EL Maricon! Viva Porfirio Diaz!”

With some punches soon thrown.

A revival of the tensions between the two.

Let’s carry on…

The Last Inca of South America!

While doing some research, I found out that some South American politicians like to claim that they are the descendants of the “Last Inca.”

The first example that I could find is apparently the current 39^th Vice-President of Bolivia, David Choquehuanca, claims to be “the Last Inca” as you can see here.

“El canciller David Choquehuanca aseveró que "de verdad" él es el "último inca" e invitó al periodismo a investigar su afirmación.

"Yo soy el último inca, de verdad, investiguen. Yo soy descendiente", sostuvo el Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores durante un desayuno trabajo con reporteros de diferentes medios de comunicación. Aseguró que en las bibliotecas en Perú lo "quieren harto" porque sus orígenes están allá.”

But he’s not the only one!

According to this video here, you even have the current Chilean President, Sebastián Piñera, claiming to have some significant Incan heritage as you can see here.

Of course, it might be a little bit silly for anyone to claim to be descended from “the last Incan.”

Though I imagine any claims to Incan heritage in general is not necessarily wrong for plenty of folks in certain parts of South America given how extensive their empire was.

Still, it’s funny to see politicians trying to win points by claiming to be descended from “the last guy in the empire.”

But what else can we find on this topic?

The False Descendants of Miguel Hidalgo

For those who don’t know, Miguel Hidalgo is a very important figure in Mexican history.

He is best remembered for his speech known as “Grito de Dolores” that called for the end of Spanish colonization of Mexico.

Funny enough, you’ve had numerous people try to claim that they were descendants of Miguel Hidalgo with falsified documentation.

From what I understand in this source here, apparently some of these folks even managed to get some form of pension after fooling folks into believing that they were descended from Miguel Hidalgo.

It’s definitely worth a good reason.

Here’s a few paragraphs from the source.

“No existe documentación fidedigna que avale ninguna solicitud de las cursadas como descendientes del cura Miguel Hidalgo. Las pruebas genealógicas presentadas nos permiten concluir que se pueden considerar todas ellas fraudulentas. Existieron, sí, solicitudes de descendientes de sus hermanos, pero maquilladas asimismo como de descendientes de don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, y aquellos del grupo familiar que disfrutaron de una pensión lo hicieron a pesar de la legislación que excluía el derecho a percibirla a los descendientes por líneas transversales.

Respecto de las cuatro mujeres de Hidalgo, hubo fraude documental en el caso de Mariana Ramos Pichardo. No hay soporte documental en el de Josefa Quintana Castañón. Hubo utilización de homonimia en el de Bibiana Lucero y falsedad histórica con la Fernandita. Demostrada la usurpación de identidad de Guadalupe Hidalgo y Costilla, y de todos los a ella vinculados, sobra decir que quedan en entredicho una retahíla de objetos dizque pertenecientes al Padre de la Patria que se conservan en varios museos, procedentes del legado familiar de la señorita Hidalgo y Costilla, nacida Reyes Aboytes, quien con aspecto de venerable anciana acompañó numerosos escenarios en los que se trataba de exaltar a don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.

Si bien por un lado los falsarios genealógicos se beneficiaron de una pensión, por otro al discurso oficial le convino no profundizar en ello y contar con la presencia simbólica de descendientes del Padre de la Patria a lo largo de dos centurias, para revestir las ceremonias patrias con sangre "viva" de los héroes muertos. En el trasfondo de todo ello, articulistas de periódico, licenciados y gestores administrativos encontraron asimismo una fuente de ingresos extraordinarios, en la confección de este injerto histórico. Hay otro elemento en todo este asunto que es importante considerar: el hecho de que para los gobernantes y el discurso oficial (sobre todo en el caso de los liberales) se afirmara la existencia de hijos de Miguel Hidalgo implicaba restarle sacralidad en su figura como sacerdote, buscando con ello demostrar que su vocación estuvo errada.”

The Descendant of the Brazilian Imperial Family

Next, let’s bring up an example of someone actually being descended from a famous person in Latin American history.

Similar to what I could tell about the initial folks mentioned who claim to be related to Moctezuma and Cortes, not everyone is full of shit on this topic.

In which there is a man in Brazil known as Luiz Philippe de Orléans e Bragança that you can read here in Portuguese.

With the help of Google Translate for this one given my shit Portuguese, the source apparently claims the following:

“Luiz Philippe Maria José Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Orleans and Bragança GOMN (Rio de Janeiro, April 3, 1969) is a Brazilian politician, activist and businessman. He is a descendant of the Emperors of Brazil Pedro I and Pedro II, and therefore of the Brazilian imperial family, and pretender to the title of Prince of Orleans and Bragança.

He is the only descendant of the Brazilian imperial family to hold a relevant political office since the Proclamation of the Republic, on November 15, 1889.”

Good to know!

For those curious, here’s a video showing what the dude looks like here.

Final Thoughts

So, as you can see, there’s various examples of people claiming to be descendants of famous folks in Latin America.

Some of them are true, like that Brazilian guy or the family of Emiliano Zapata, while others are full of shit.

On top of that, you have funny examples too of politicians trying to pander for political points on the claims of being “the last Inca.”

That was more amusing.

At any rate, I’m sure there are other examples out there.

As I got into this, I found out some folks claim to be descendants of the Aztecs even in Mexico.

Perhaps similar to the last Inca idea?

Though I never did find any politician pandering like that in Mexico but maybe it’s out there somewhere.

At any rate, if you have anything to contribute, drop a comment below in the comment section.

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Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt