Fernando Rosales Naya teaches classes in History no CPI Luís Díaz Moreno of Baralla. And it was that way of teaching that led him, in a certain way, to undertake a task that he knew was impossible from the start, that of writing the history of the world. Fleeing the West it’s the name he gave to five books with which he wants to stretch an arc that goes from the dawn of humanity to today’s time. Right now, the third volume is about to be released, by the publisher Bululu.
The title, in a certain way, is provocative, “because I myself am a Westerner, and I cannot escape this perspective completely”, but at least it serves to draw attention to the place from which history is written, and to the research effort to move a single point of view. “Europa I thought I ruled the world, and I still do,” he says.
That challenge of moving the frames motivated a Rosales since the university days, when he left to Sevilla to study the specialty that was not in Compostelato of History of America. It was precisely the America pre-Columbian that most interested him, although the university, at that time, was much more focused on the Spanish colonization of the continent.
When he finished his studies, he prepared the opposition, and continued to order, completing notes on one subject and another, filling gaps in one place and another, “because the university education does not give us all the tools”. This is how, year after year, Fernando he became one of those people who dedicate his life to the study. On the other hand, he had the support of his partner, who urged him to publish.
Thus, the first volume came out in the year 2012with the first books – from hunting and gathering societies to the appearance of agriculture – and second – from agricultural and livestock societies to the appearance of cities -. The second volume followed soon after, no 2013because it was already prepared beforehand, and covers from urban culture to the colonization of America. Now the next one is about to come out, from that colonization to the industrial revolution. “The fifth book, if I manage to write it, would reach our times,” he comments.
A materialist and relational approach
The work’s approach is materialistic, which assumes that economic relations and the struggle for control of the means of production determine the course of history. However, rather than focusing on national histories, which are often presented as watertight compartments, he focuses precisely on the relationships, on the movements that make him see Mesopotamian and Egyptian culture in Greekalready christian or in Jewish.
“From there we can also question and reevaluate the influences that have been privileged, such as the Greek one, to its extent, because it had a lot of myth to distance Europa of the Semitic peoples and of the north of Africa“. Also, on the other hand, it focuses on the processes, giving importance “to those who changed the course of life for all humanity”, he comments.
Comment Fernando that “the more you know, the more complex the knowledge is reordered”, and that this is also where the urge to write came from, to learn to tell the story again. That is also something to teach your students, the realization that the same story does not correspond to the narrative scheme to which textbooks are accustomed, with a beginning, a middle, an end, a hero. Telling everything and telling it well is impossible, but it’s not bad as a horizon.