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'The Spanish conquistadors were ruthless killers in search of gold.'
'Hey,' Tulio whispered to his friend in the next seat, 'next she'll tell us they killed everyone they laid eyes on.'
'Man, I hate this teacher! If we had a Spanish teacher then she would favour the conquistadors, an English teacher would teach us without favouritism, but no. We have to have a Brazilian teacher. A very racist one at that''
'Tulio, Miguel stop talking at once!' their teacher demanded before continuing to say that the Spanish killed everyone in their path; Indians and comrades alike. Tulio nodded knowingly at Miguel and his various other Spanish friends before the bell rang and they all filled out of the classroom for break time. Tulio, Miguel and the 3 other Spanish kids in their class gathered as always in their corner of the yard to discus their predicament: a teacher who hates the Spanish and can only teach that they were ruthless, blood thirsty, traitors and greedy for gold.
'Well, I don't know about you guys,' said Pedro in Spanish, 'but over Easter I'm going to look in all the museums I can find and prove this teacher wrong! The conquistadors can't possibly have been as bad as she says. If only they were still around so we could hear their side of the story.' He added wistfully. One by one his friends all said they'd join him and they formed their own expedition; not for El-Dorado this time but for knowledge.
Finally Friday arrived, the boys were looking forward to 2 weeks of nothing but research when 'unexpectedly- the teacher gave the whole class a project to do in groups about Lope De Aguirre, the Spaniard who led an expedition down the Amazon in search of El-Dorado, the city of gold.
When the boys arrived home they asked their parents for permission to visit the museums because they had a project to do. Of course, they left out the part about proving their teacher wrong. All the parents agreed and their research began the next day.
Early in the morning Pedro packed a picnic lunch big enough for all the boys, Tulio packed 2 notebooks and 5 pens, Miguel decided which museum to visit first and the other 2 boys just managed to get out of bed on time. They met up in the park and 'each with their bus fare- they travelled to the first museum, a huge building like a treasure chest with knowledge as the prize. The first thing they did once inside was go straight to the library which had books as far as the eye could see. They made a bee-line straight for the conquistadors section.
'Hey, guys look at this!' called Tulio who was holding an ancient, leather-bound book up: 'Journey down the Amazon' by Friar Gaspar de Carvajal. Suddenly, Francisco, one of the more timid boys thrust a book under Tulio's nose.
'Book for journey on Amazon!' he told Tulio in his broken Portuguese- the official language of Brazil, 'everything need to know!' he continued excitedly. Tulio took it and headed for a corner beckoning for the other boys to follow him. They decided too look in Francisco's book first in the people section and found an article all about Lope de Aguirre.
'Of course,' Tulio exclaimed ''Lope de Aguirre' the wolf!". All the boys agreed that if not all conquistadors, this one sounded nasty, like a worm in the fruit basket. And they spent the rest of the day in this manner looking through the books and noting the most important stuff. One by one everyone checked their watches and left apart from the boys, sitting in a corner looking very unobtrusive. Now research can be very boring work and- believe it or not- one by one they all dozed off'
'Clunk, clunk, clunk'' Tulio sat bolt upright and blinked. It was dark, and silent. He shook the other boys awake and they all sat up.
'Tulio, we locked in museum' gasped Francisco horrified.
'Don't be daft!' objected Miguel, 'they wouldn't do that!' Tulio told them to be quiet because he had heard something. They listened;
'Clunk, clunk, clunk' they boys looked at each other terrified, 'footsteps' Miguel whispered, 'footsteps in a closed museum'.
'clunk, clunk, clunk' they got louder, footfalls of doom. 'clunk, clunk, clunk' they approached the library. 'clunk, clunk, clunk' the boys clung to each other. 'clunk, clunk, clunk' the hair on the back of their necks stood up. Someone coughed and all the boys looked at each other shaking their head. There was a dull thud and an 'oops'. Pedro stood up and walked slowly towards the door while the others frantically shook their heads at him.
'Ooh, me back', said a voice with a strong Spanish accent, sending Pedro dashing back to his group.
'Little boys, I know you're in here'. Tulio gulped. Francisco, his brother, Miguel and Pedro all let out girlish screams. 'Clunk, clunk, click' the door opened.
'My name is Lope de Aguirre.' Said the figure standing in the doorway, a dark silhouette straight out of a night-mare. 'I come to help you in your quest for wisdom.' The boys stared at him and then at Tulio. He stood up and walked towards Aguirre, trembling like a leaf.
'My name is Tulio' he said bravely although his voice quivered, 'I don't believe in ghosts, and I'm not fooled by your little 'hold my head under my arm' trick'
'you better believe in ghosts boy; you're talking to one. And about the head; I was executed remember?' Aguirre replied. 'you want to know the good points about the conquistadors. You want to know how to justify the killing, plundering and murdering. You and your group of friends are going to do a project on me and you're going to use it to prove the teacher wrong.' His voice sent chills down Tulio's back and made the hairs of his neck stand on end.
'S-si.' He replied, 'I-I mean y-yes'. He took several steps back. Aguirre shook his head and told the boys not to be scared. He honestly did want to help. He felt bad for murdering the leader of his expedition and trying to make himself king. At the end of their time with Aguirre they realized to their shock, horror and disbelief that their teacher was actually right for once: the conquistadors were horrible bad guys. But they also learnt why they did what they did: they thought- like the crusaders- that they were killing savage heathens and were doing god a favour. They killed the Aztecs: god didn't want peoples hearts ripped out, they killed the Incas: no child sacrifices, they killed all the tribes living in the rainforest: gold for god, not for evil witch doctors and their followers.
And after Easter the boys turned in a big A2 card with a photograph of the ghost in the middle, all the things he did in life in a spider gram around him and at the bottom in big letters why he did what he did, in fact why all the conquistadors did what they did: they were fighting in the name of god. And their teacher finally realised she was being un-fair to the Spanish, they didn't know they were doing the wrong thing (they would have but they never thought of it) and started teaching from both points of view. And the friends got A+ for their work and tried not to get mad at their teacher again.