Black and Latino Unity Is Biblical
Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to erase the heritage of Latinos nor does it apply to ALL Latinos. This an attempt to create unity between two of the most oppressed groups in America. Throughout this article other words like Indians and Native Americans, will be used synonymously with Latinos. Latinos descend from the indigenous people of the Americas. Some indigenous people migrated to North America, while others inhabited Central and South America. Latinos are the descendants of the indigenous people who were conquered by Europeans from Spain and had the spanish language forced on them during colonialism. Latinos and Native Americans may have different cultures or speak different languages but they are still of the same race,blood, and are the indigenous people of the Americas.
Claim:
The bible states that African Americans and Native Americans/Latinos would both be oppressed together in America and would then unite together to get out of their captivity and return to their homeland.
“Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.” (Hosea 1:11)
What is my proof for such a claim?
In the bible there was the ancient Kingdom of Israel. The Kingdom of Israel split into two kingdom. The Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom (called Israel) is the kingdom that Native Americans/Latinos are from. The Southern Kingdom (called Judah) is the kingdom that Black descendants of the Slave Trade come from.
Due to the fact that people are aware or have atleast heard that Black people are the Israelites, this article will focus more on showing how Native Americans/Latinos are Israelites. For those that need evidence that Black people are Israelites and from the Kingdom of Judah, one can read these articles, whenever one gets a chance.
Side note: Not all Latinos/Native Americans are Israelites. The ones that fit Deuteronomy 28 are.
This is not saying Latinos are not Latinos, I am simply saying that before colonialism and genocide, the ancestors of Latinos went by a different name/tribe.
How do I know Native Americans/Latinos descend from the the Northern Kingdom?
The bible states that the Northern Kingdom(Native Americans/Latinos)would migrate to a land that “mankind never inhabited” and would be living here during the current days.
Below is the passage from the Bible that discusses how the Northern Kingdom would migrate to America.
“But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt” (2nd Esdras 13:41)
The country mentioned above that “mankind never dwelt” is called Arzareth. It is Hebrew for “another land”
The passage continues:
“Their long journey through that region, which is named Arzareth, took a year and a half,and they have lived there ever since.”( 2nd Esdras 13:45)
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Christopher Columbus said that America was this place known as “Arzareth”, or another land. He used 2nd Esdras as a source for navigating to America . Columbus even said that the Bible is what helped lead him on the journey.
“I pointed out that for the execution of the journey to the Indies I was not aided by intelligence, by mathematics or by maps. It was simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied.”
- Christopher Columbus
Columbus also believed he was going to encounter the lost tribes of Israel, which is why he brought a Hebrew interpreter on his voyage.
It is worth mentioning that at the time Columbus sailed for America, the Americas were not even on the world map, as shown below. That is why they called it “The New World.” This is relevant because it goes in line with a land that “never mankind dwelt.”
If Arzareth is America like Columbus says, that means the Native Americans/Latinos are the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The ancestors of Native Americans/Latinos were the first to inhabitant the Americas making them the only people that fit the prophecy of the people migrating to the land Arzareth, “that never mankind dwelt.”
The story of the Northern Kingdom migrating to the Americas matches up with the oral story of the Mayans. Here is how.
In 2nd Esdras it states that “For the most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over.”
Friar Diego de Landa was a spanish priest who wrote about his role in the destruction of the Mayan Civilization during the 150o’s. He wrote the book, Yucatan Before and After the Conquest.
In it he writes, “Some old men of Yucatan say that they have heard from their ancestors that this country was peopled by a certain race who came from the East, whom God delivered by opening for them twelve roads through the sea. If this is true, all the inhabitants of the Indies must be of Jewish Descent.” (page 8 or 28).
DNA evidence backs this up as well. The DNA of 1/3 of Native Americans migrated from the “Middle East”, the region in which the Northern Kingdom migrated from to Arzareth(America)
The belief that Native Americans were the Israelites is nothing new.
During the 1700’s,a historian named James Adair lived around Native Americans for 40 years. He wrote a book about them called: The History of the American Indians.
In the letter to John Adams, Thomas Jefferson quotes the beliefs of Adair, which were,
“all the Indians of America to be descended from the hebrews: the same laws, usages; rites and ceremonies, the same sacrifices, priests, prophets, fasts and festivals, almost the same religion, and that they all spoke Hebrew.”
-Thomas Jefferson (American President speaking on James Adair’s belief that Native Americans are the Israelites, 1803)
Elias Boudinot, who helped America gain independence from Britain and was later a member of Jefferson’s administration, believed Native Americans were the Israelites.
After reading about the evidence from James Adair’s History of the American Indians (mentioned above ) that the Indians were Jews, Boudinot wrote a book called A Star in the West.
This book was about how the Native Americans were the 10 lost tribes of Israel. The 10 lost tribes of Israel is another name for the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Between 1641–1642, a Portuguese traveler named, Antonio Montezinos wrote about his time in South America. He said this:
“ It was a thrilling journey I took in South America. Now that I am back in Amsterdam, I must share with you some incredible news. There is a Jewish Indian tribe living beyond the mountain passes of the Andes. Indeed, I myself heard them recite the She’ma and saw them observe the Jewish rituals.”
The She’ma that he heard the Native Americans say was “Shema, Yisroel, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ehod”, which means “Here, O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
The Shema is one of the main prayers of the Ancient Israelites.
Montezinos would then tell a Portuguese rabbi named Menasseh Ben Israel (below) about his findings.
In 1650 the Portuguese Rabbi, Menasseh Ben Israel, published a book, called “The Hope of Israel.” ( See the image above)
In the book Menasseh Ben Israel wrote about the the countries he thought the ten lost tribes were in. He stated:
“I shall speak somewhat I this discourse of the divers opinions which have been, and shall declare in what countries it is thought the Ten Tribes are: Hispaniola (Dominican Republic)… the island of Cuba; the continent of America, Panama, New Spain (Mexico) and Peru.”
- Menasseh Ben Israel: The Hope of Israel (translated to English in 1652)
Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi wrote in their 1857 book Peruvian Antiquities, (see image above):
“Like the Jews, the Indians offer their firstfruits, they keep their new moons, and the feast of expiations at the end of September or in the beginning of October; they divide the year into four seasons, corresponding with the Jewish festivals. . . . In some parts of North America circumcision is practised . . . There is also much analogy between the Hebrews and Indians in that which concerns various rites and customs; such as the ceremonies of purification, the use of the bath . . . fasting, and the manner of prayer. The Indians likewise abstain from the blood of animals, as also from fish without scales; they consider divers quadrupeds unclean, also certain birds and reptiles, and they are accustomed to offer as a holocaust the firstlings of the flock.”
Mariano Edward Rivero, John James von Tschudi: Peruvian Antiquities (1857)
It is also worth noting that before centuries of racial mixing, the Native Americans had a similar skin complexion to the Ancient Israelites.
Deuteronomy 28: The Curses
Deuteronomy 28, is one of the most crucial books in the bible, in terms of helping us identify who the Israelites are. Deuteronomy 28 proves that Latinos are the Israelites.
“So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you” (Deuteronomy 28:46).
“They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever” (Deuteronomy 28:47).
This passage shows that the curses would be a sign and a way to identify the Israelites.
Lets start with the curse from Deuteronomy, that applies to the border crisis.
“ Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes, shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and ( there shall be) no might in thine hand” (Deuteronomy 28:47).
This is the curse that is affecting Latinos right now, in which the children of Latinos are being kept in concentration camps. This has plagued the indigenous people of America through out history. In the 1870’s the American government began separating Native American children from their families, by sending them to boarding schools that were designed to remove the children from the knowledge of their culture and language. Many children were beat by teachers.
Boarding school for Native American children
The founder of the American boarding schools said the goal was to, “Kill the Indian in him and save the man.” The late performer and Indian activist Floyd Red Crow Westerman talked about the trauma of being separated as a child from his mother in South Dakota, in order to be sent to the Wahpeton Indian Boarding School in North Dakota.
At first, he thought he was being sent away because his mother didn’t want him anymore.
“It was hurting her, too. It was hurting me to see that,” Westerman says. “I’ll never forget. All the mothers were crying.”
Today Native American children are still being separated from their families. In South Dakota, Native American children are 11 times more likely to be placed in foster care than white children.
Another curse from Deuteronomy 28 was having their buffalo slaughtered.
“Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.” ( Deuteronomy 28:31)
The Buffalo was extremely valuable to Native Americans. The American government decided to create a plan to kill off the buffalo in hopes of exterminating Native Americans.
Another curse was going into slavery by ships.
“And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you (28:68).”
Egypt is a Greek word. The Hebrew name for Egypt is Mitzraim. Mitzraim means bondage or slavery. The passage above is saying that the Israelites will go into slavery by ships, and will be sold to their enemies. The indigenous people of the Americas fit this curse. It is a fact that many were kidnapped and shipped to Europe.
Christopher Columbus helped round up around 1500 Natives from Hispaniola, (Present day) Dominican Republic and Haiti and shipped them to Europe to be slaves. Only 500 made it and were sold in the Mediterranean. Native Americans from North America were shipped to be slaves in Europe as well. They were also sent on ships to be slaves in Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, the Azores, Spain, and Tangier in North Africa.
“21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.”
This verse matches up with how the Native Americans were forced off their land by American government.
“22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.”
“59 Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.”
“60 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.”
These three verses, 22,59, and 60, describes how around 90 percent of the Native American population were killed by diseases. Millions were killed by measles, influenza, whooping cough, diphtheria, typhus, bubonic plague, cholera, scarlet fever and syphilis. Sometimes the Europeans intentionally gave the Native Americans, small pox. Jeffrey Amherst, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet at Fort Pitt:
“You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians [with smallpox] by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method, that can serve to extirpate this execrable race.”
These curses of diseases still apply today. Coronavirus is dispporportinately affecting Native Americans/latinos.
“48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.”
“49 The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;”
“50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
These verses like most of Deuteronomy 28 describes how the Israelites would be enslaved and suffer oppression. The indigenous people of the Americas have been enslaved by European nations, who spoke a language the natives did not know, and oppressed children and the elderly.
“66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:”
This applies historically but also today. Many Latino families and children are living in fear of being deported.
Another curse was not being able to grow crops.
Deuteronomy 28: 38–39,
“Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.
“Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.”
Guatemala is one of the main countries in which asylum seeking migrants in Latin America are coming from. A big reason as to why they are migrating is the failed crops.
It has been proven that the ancestors of Latinos and Native Americans shared the same customs as the Israelites, originate from the region near Israel, and fit the curses that God said would identify who the Israelites are. Now let’s get into the main purpose of this article.
Black and Latino Unity
As mentioned earlier, the prophecy states that in the last days, Native Americans/Latinos would unite with African Americans to get out of their land of captivity.
This event of unity is is so important in the Bible, that God references this event more than one time. As we know Judah is the kingdom African Americans are from and Israel is the kingdom Latinos come from. The passage is in reference to both kingdoms uniting to get out if their oppression.
“In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.” (Jeremiah (3:18)
“In those days and in that time,’ says the LORD, ‘the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; with continual weeping they shall come, and seek the LORD their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, “Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten” (Jeremiah 50:4–5)
In order for that to happen Native Americans/Latinos and Black Americans must not only advocate unity amongst between each other, but must also:
Reclaim their heritage and return to the covenant God made with our ancestors. This means keeping God’s commandments.
Deuteronomy 30:1 KJV
“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,
2 And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;
3 That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.
4 If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
5 And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
7 And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
9 And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:
10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.”
For those who would like to learn more in depth about the oppression Native Americans and Latinos faced/ still face,and how it matches up with the curses of Deuteronomy 28, I recommend these two documentaries, Red Cry and Harvest the Empire. The link for the trailers can be viewed below. Harvest the Empire focuses more on recent history, in terms of how the American Government has helped create wars and the current chaos in Latin America. This is a main reason millions of Latinos have had to flee and migrate to America for their safety and to live a better life.