Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 21
indefatigable dreamer, smart enough to lure a great patron for the greatest enterprise of
the time. He did this in a period where the darkness of dogmatic ignorance pervaded all
decision-making. Like Marco Polo before him, he was one of the great predecessors of
today’s entrepreneurs.
Much is said about how wrong Columbus was in his calculations to figure the size of the
earth and determine where he really went. It is necessary to remember that in that
epoch most people still believed the earth was flat. There was absolutely no
navigational data west of the Azores. Worse yet, the only way to measure time was by
sand clocks. They measure the passage of time but are incapable of telling the hour.
Thus, it was impossible to accurately measure longitude. It was a time when everyone
exploring the Ocean Sea made what later turned out to be navigational mistakes. The
Pilgrims who arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620 missed their destination by half the
length of America’s Atlantic coast. They were Virginia bound, where they had
permission to settle, but they wound up in Massachusetts. And this was 128 years after
Columbus found the New World.
The quest for freedom-for-all in the long road of history cast another benchmark one
generation after the passing of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea. As the Spanish Empire
became the first truly global organization in history, Emperor Charles V (Carlos Quinto)
ruled over a domain in whose land there was always sunlight. The Hapsburg grandson
of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, both of whom carried in
their genomes genes from the Galindo kings of Cerdagne, Aragon, and Castile,
became, in the eyes of most of Europe, the historical heir of 9 th Century Charlemagne.
When in 1519 the pope crowned him Holy Roman Emperor, this vision was validated for
the last time in history.
Young as he was when he took over Spain (16), and distantly removed by language
and customs from his subjects, the youthful king experienced the winds of individual
freedom from the beginning. At his coronation in 1516 as King of Spain, the Aragonese
noblemen, following their well-established tradition, advised him that he was no better
than them and that they accepted him as king and would be loyal to him, only as long as
he proved faithful to their laws and customs. Charles did that and much more. He
learned some of the various Spanish dialects and the traditions of many areas of his
vast domain. He accepted their laws and customs and, due to his natural athletic
abilities, even became a skilled bullfighter. As opposed to the Pope who conferred
power on a king in the name of God, the Aragonese noblemen ceded some of their selfowned
powers to their leaders as an act of calculated mutual convenience.
Carlos Quinto completed the unification of “the Spains” and wound up ruling most of
Europe and all of New Spain (the American colonies). Holding on to the power he
acquired cost him so much money that not even the riches from the New World were
enough to satisfy all the demands he accepted. During his 40-year reign he had to
contend with schisms in the church in Germany, Switzerland and England, with war and
Autobiography.doc 21 of 239