Actor John Leguizamo has claimed that European colonizers stole 500,000 tons of gold from Latin people despite evidence showing that only 220,000 tons have been mined in human history.
Leguizamo, who will be starring in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic The Odyssey, revealed his thoughts about European colonization during an appearance on the One Nightstand podcast.
“The cultural annihilation that happened to Latin people is the worst in the history of the world,” he claimed. “The theft of all our wealth and gold. And our gold funded the second half of the Renaissance … 500,000 tons of gold that was taken from us.”
“You wonder, like, here we are, Latin people, 500 years after the conquest, and where are we? Why aren’t we further up in the food chain? And then you start to understand all the practices and oppression that goes into keeping people down. It makes you angry,” he added.
Despite Leguizamo’s impassioned plea, the historical record shows that only 220,000 tons of gold have been mined in all of human history, most of which after 1950. Per World Gold Council:
Gold mining dates back to ancient civilizations. The best estimates currently available suggest that around 219,890 tonnes of gold has been mined throughout history, of which around two-thirds has been mined since 1950. And since gold is virtually indestructible, this means that almost all of this metal is still around in one form or another.
If every single ounce of this gold were placed next to each other, the resulting cube of pure gold would only measure around 22 metres on each side. That’s a surprisingly small volume for such a valuable and historically significant metal. And since gold is virtually indestructible, meaning almost all the gold ever mined still exists in some form.
Leguizamo made headlines last year when he called Hollywood Jim Crow for Latinos due to him having to fight being typecast at the beginning of his career.