Early European explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Pêro Vaz de Caminha attempt to take power over the world they encounter by mapping it (conceptually and literally). For Franco Farinelli, our maps do not represent the earth so much as the earth has come to take the form of our maps. This has the effect of smoothing over all meaningful alterity and reducing the world to what Byung-Chul Han has referred to as the “Hell of the same."

Over two decades have passed since Aníbal Quijano published “Coloniality of Power and Eurocentrism in Latin America,” but the essay still resonates. In 2009, I participated in a panel on Quijano’s essay, and my short paper is below. It shows my thinking over a decade ago (hardly where it is now, but there is at least a family resemblance between my former self and me), but it also proposes questions that continue to interest me.