The History that Might Have Been

Christopher Columbus couldn’t discover America: he didn’t have a visa or even a passport.
Pedro Alvares CAbral couldn’t get off the boat in Brazil: he might have been carrying smallpox, measles, the flu, or other foreign plagues.
Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro could never have begun the conquest of Mexico and Peru: they didn’t have working papers.
Pedro de Alvarado was turned away from Guatemala, and Pedro de Valdivia couldn’t enter Chile: they couldn’t prove they had no police record.
The Mayflower pilgrims were sent back to sea from the coast of Massachusetts: the immigration quotas were full.

— Eduardo Galeano’s “Voices of Time: A Life in Stories.”