_{THE IMMIGRATION OF EUROPEANS TO SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA TAINTED WITH VIOLENCE IN THE CONQUEST AND IN THE COLONIAL REGIME}

The main motivations of Spanish migrants in the conquest and in the colonial regime implemented by the crown of Castile were fundamentally to appropriate the great mining offers, natural resources and labor, through extractivist systems, to turn the territories into economic emporiums of colonial power and a source of personal enrichment for migrants.

Spanish migration to South and Central America, around the colony, is recorded in three periods: - From 1492 to 1519, centered on the Antilles and the Caribbean; - From 1519 to 1540, during which the expansion extended to the rest of the American continent; and the last, from 1540 to 1565, which marked the end of the Spanish colonization of America and its extension to the Philippines, considered a province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

The conquest of America carried out by the Crown of Castile, which stimulated an important migration of Europeans to America, has its antecedents, in its experience of the reconquest and repopulation of the Iberian Peninsula and is considered as a strategy of continuation of the first expansion and expansionist experience of the Kingdom of Castile in the Canary Islands. in which he tried for the first time on a certain scale the experience of conquering, populating and administering a new territory, inhabited by unknown peoples, assimilating and Christianizing them in the process. In this sense, the last three large islands of the Canary Islands were completely subdued: “Gran Canaria” in the years 1478-1483; “La Palma” from 1492-1493 and “Tenerife” from 1494-1496. 

"This experience and the existence of formulas developed to solve the problems of founding new cities, pacts and confrontations with the natives of the country, designation and attributions of the military Adelantados, cogs of the administrative apparatuses: religious, civil and military, were later widely used in America."

On Columbus' first voyage, between 110 and 120 people arrived in America (according to various opinions). The Santa María brought 41 crew members, "La Pinta", 26 and "La Niña", 20, which added to the expedition members who embarked on this adventure, add up to that total consigned. Between 1493 and 1540, 19,000 Spaniards came to the New World, not counting clerics, children, women and those who were shipped illegally.

Photo 1. The Discovery of America. Work of the artist Dióscoro Puebla, 1862.

_{VIOLENCE AND EXPLOITATION PRESENT IN THE HISTORY OF MIGRATION, YESTERDAY AND TODAY}

"It is estimated that during imperial Spain (1492-1832), a total of 1.86 million Spaniards settled in the Americas and another 3.5 million immigrated during the post-vice regal era (1850-1950); the estimate is 250,000 in the sixteenth century, and most during the eighteenth century, as immigration was encouraged by the new Bourbon dynasty. On the contrary, it is estimated that the indigenous population was reduced by 80% in the first century and a half after Columbus' voyages, mainly due to the spread of diseases. It has been said that the migration of Spaniards to America in the conquest and colony led to the first act of large-scale genocide of the modern era." Source

The arrival of Spanish migrants around the conquest and the colonial regime brought with it drastic changes for the indigenous peoples who inhabited these lands. The Spaniards sought riches, mainly gold, and began to subjugate the indigenous people through violence, exploitation and submission to the Catholic religion. Additionally, diseases brought by the Spaniards, such as smallpox, also had a devastating impact on the indigenous population, causing their numbers to decrease significantly.

In the conquest and in the colonial regime implanted by Spain in South and Central America, there was the presence of many criminal migrants. Although, in theory, there were rigid controls to come to America, in practice, the “Casa de Contratación” sold permits to those who requested them and since the first conquistadors asked that the coming of enlightened people be prohibited, most of the Spaniards who asked to embark were young and illiterate. The ages ranged from 15 to 50 years old, many times they did not have a known trade and it is pointed out that many criminals took refuge clandestinely in America.

Very few were enlightened, one or another doctor, healer and "physicist". No more than 10 and 15 were the doctors who arrived in America, at the beginning of the exploration and conquest of the New World. Many priests also arrived, most of them Franciscans and Dominicans, as well as Jews, Arabs and Gypsies, in search of a better life.
In addition, many unemployed soldiers saw in the supposed Indians, which were really the “Abya Yala”, their great opportunity. From the unemployed soldiers came the leaders of the Conquest: Hernán Cortés, was the son of a poor and humble infantry captain. Pizarro, illiterate, raised pigs before coming to conquer Peru. Jiménez de Quesada, founder of Bogotá, had a degree in Law. Source

_{THE SPLENDID EXPLOSION OF MULTICULTURAL AND MULTI-ETHNIC LIFE RESULTING FROM MIGRATIONS}

The biological and cultural encounter of different ethnicities, often tinged with blood and violence, has given birth to new ethnicities and new phenotypes, and has constituted an explosion of multicultural and multiethnic life that in America occurred due to the Spanish and Portuguese colonization and the subsequent immigrations mainly of Europeans, Americans and Canadians in Central America and in Colombia as well. with the biological and cultural contribution of (enslaved) Africans, Arabs, Turks, Jews, Germans, Italians and English, among others.

_{Photo 2. Miscegenation in America. From the series The Pictures of the Miscegenation of Viceroy Amat between 1771 and 1776}

Despite the violence exercised by the colonial regime of mainly Spanish and Portuguese immigrants, who from attempts at acculturation, assimilation and unilateral imposition, wanted to change language, religion and systems of social and political organization in the American colonies, there were processes of resistance, persistence and cultural syncretism, in which the native peoples, as well as the enslaved African people, With their millenary cultures and worldviews, they defended their own at all costs, but they also appropriated European elements and from syncretism and the defense of their own spiritual and material life, they created new forms of expression and ways of life.

The indigenous peoples managed to preserve and transmit their traditions, languages, religious practices and forms of social organization, which although they were intertwined with the contributions of other cultures and constituted this beautiful prodigy of miscegenation, also managed to preserve themselves in the midst of syncretism and cultural and cosmogonic resistance, configuring the IDENTITY of what we are today. continent and multiethnic and multicultural countries.

The African presence in Latin America, a product of the slave trade during the Colony, also left an indelible mark on the formation of identities. Afro-descendant cultural manifestations, such as music, dance, gastronomy and religious beliefs, merged with indigenous and European elements, giving rise to unique and diverse expressions that are also a constituent part of the IDENTITY that we are today multiethnic and pluricultural.

THE MISCEGENATION CONSIDERED BY SOME, A KEY FACTOR IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN AMERICA, IS TODAY QUESTIONED BY SEVERAL VOICES

Although several voices consider that beyond local and regional identities, miscegenation has been a key factor in the construction of national identities in Latin America, various intellectual and political movements, such as indigenism and negrismo, highlight the importance of incorporating and valuing the contributions of indigenous and Afro-descendant cultures in the formation of national identities. Likewise, critical visions have been put forward that question the idea of a homogeneous national identity based on miscegenation and propose multiethnic and multicultural identities. Fuente

_{Photo 3. We are an expression of multi-ethnic and multicultural Colombia}

Some currents of thought have advocated the recognition and appreciation of ethnic and cultural diversity within nation-states, promoting respect for indigenous and Afro-descendant identities and advocating for continental identity and multi-ethnic and multicultural states.