PooshandClusp

I would recommend reading Aníbal Quijano as a starting point to find the answer to your question. But you could go back much further to the 1600s with the writings of “El Inca” Garcilaso, or you could move to more recent times with Alberto Acosta, Esperanza Martínez, and Mignolo. There are just so many though: Fernández Retamar, Galeano, Zapata Olivella, Mariátegui, etc. Even Cien años de soledad by García Márquez (What were the 100 years of silence? “Independence” from Spain and a question of identity in regards to the issue of la decolonialidad del ser.)

This is all to say that this question has been asked for a while. Yet it’s critical to continue asking it --just as you’re doing. It’s also fundamental to learn how it has been asked in the past. I would kindly suggest reading any of the works you study in the original language(s) as much as you can, so that you can be a part of a solution based around the concept of thinking with.

I know I didn’t answer your question directly, but I do hope it contributes some to the conversation.

John Coltrane’s versions of Afro Blue. Very different from Mongo Santamaría’s original. I like both approaches, but Coltrane’s recordings of it were all just so powerful.

It also sounds like something Catherine Walsh would write. Great quote!

If I recall correctly (and it’s been over a decade since I read that one), Zinn is quite clear from the onset about his stance. (Even the title makes it evident that his perspective isn’t going to follow the traditional USA history narrative.) He sustains his points with empirical evidence, so I would hesitate to call it prejudiced. But there are some issues with some of his sources. (I think Matthew Restall may address some of those.)

How about trying out James Loewen’s Lies My Teachers Told Me? That book explains what I think Zinn was attempting to problematize: the blind acceptance of the biases within historical texts. Loewen aims directly at the USA secondary educational system in particular. You will learn a lot about USA history and why it has been written from a specific angle.