The Colonial Matrix of Power 
To understand history, Walter Mignolo builds upon the model developed by Aníbal Quijano. The colonial matrix of power refers to a complex system of control and dominance that has been established and perpetuated by colonial forces, particularly from the West, over centuries. It is a framework that covers various interrelated domains and spheres of influence: economy, authority, gender and sexuality, knowledge, and subjectivity. First of all, the historical foundation of the colonial matrix - and hence of Western civilization - lies in theology, which will be replaced by philosophy and secular science. Christian theology initially associated the distinction among Christians, Moors, and Jews with “blood”, a concept later evolving by the eighteenth century into the marker of race/racism, ultimately shifting to skin. Secondly, the economic nature of the matrix resides in the economy of brutal resource extraction from the Global South and accumulation - dynamics that are today are associated to the capitalist economic system. This dimension involves economic structures and practices, set up during colonialism to exploit resources and labor in colonized regions for the benefit of colonial powers. Thirdly, cultural hegemony refers to the imposition of Western cultural norms, languages, and values on colonized societies, leading to the marginalization of indigenous knowledge, languages, and cultural practices. Mignolo clarifies thatre are six vernacular modern imperial European languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Italian) that are at the roots of the fragmented world disorder and destitute any other form of practices of living and knowing. In this view, colonial powers also constructed subjectivities and identities, imposing hierarchies based on race, gender, and class. This process shapes perceptions of self and others within colonized societies. Finally, epistemic control refers to the dominance of Western knowledge systems and epistemologies, which establishd criteria for what constitutes valid knowledge, often devaluing alternative ways of knowing and understanding the world. Epistemology covers somehow all aspects of the matrix, underscoring the epistemic imposition of the West in all domains and urging epistemic disobedience to challenge the hierarchies of knowledge imposed by colonialism.

The end of the Western control on the Colonial Matrix of Power: a critique to neo-liberalism 
With the fall of the Soviet Union, there has been the presumption that would oreder could have become polycentric. Mignolo (2011a) underlines how the future world is destined to be shaped by the struggles, negotiations, collaborations, and interactions between five different and coexisting trajectories, underlining how none of them will prevail over one another. Their possible co-existence mirrors the abovementioned polycentrism. Alternatives to liberalism’s unequal and unjust structure of power have always existed, but for a long time they have been eclipsed by Western epistemology. These five trajectories are: Rewesternization, Dewesternization, Reorientation of the left, Decoloniality, and, finally, the spiritual option. 
Re-westernization consists in the attempt to re-affirm Western hegemony of knowledge by regaining control on all the components of the colonial matrix of power. This attempt is a response to the erosion of the American leadership (and its legitimacy) and has been enshrined in President Obama’s effort to “rebuild the confidence the world had in the United States”, also through the relaunch of the so-called “American knowledge of development”. 
Dewesternization develops as a critique to the West and neo-liberalism, seeking to confront and challenge Western hegemony. It calls for a re-evaluation of an alternative knowledge system that does not proceed from the liberalist structures of power and subsequent processes of racialization. Henceforth, it does not stand in antagonism with Re-westernization yet but criticizes Eurocentric systems of knowledge and their universalistic assumptions. The expression “reorientation of the left'' denotes the attempt of the leftist groups to reorganize – after the fall of the Soviet Union – at a global level. By undertaking different directions and, therefore, constituting different sub-trajectories, it can be noticed how differently from African countries (that can boast to have “non-contaminated” local histories), South American’s leftist parties or governments, whose indigenous populations were influenced by European colonizers, are re-orienting towards re-westernization or de-westernization. 
Whereas the abovementioned trajectories professed a radical detachment from liberal capitalism, responsible for economic exploitation and inequalities, decoloniality undertakes such a move of delinking from and subverting the the colonial matrix of power, and for this reason it can only be pursued by the civil society and therefore in the public sphere.

Giacomo: “In undertaking our project, we have dealt with your work The Darker Side of Western Modernity, in which the term “Global South” seems to be used as an alternative expression to refer to countries generally associated with the Third World. What we have thought is that nowadays it can be difficult to talk about the Global South in relation to the old conception of the Third World, since it could potentially represent an independent element from what you call the re-westernization of knowledge. For example, we have thought about the evolution of BRICS countries, such as the emergence of South Africa or Brazil. For this reason, our first question revolves around this issue: what is your position about the re-emergence of developing countries in recent times?” 
Giulia: “Coming back to the discourse of the trajectories, could you briefly recap the four main sub-trajectories of the “re-orientation toward the left”, focusing in particular on South America’s “turn to the left” and the conditions in Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador?”. 
Francesco: “In the current society, is there a major acknowledgement of a non-western culture? Could you provide an example of an indigenous revolution in Latin America that can be associated with the Zapatista one in recent years? 
Francesco: “Could you explain the position of China, in particular the role of the indigenous community in the society?” 
Links to the Interview: 
The first question and its answer
The second question and answer
The third question and answer
The fourth question and answer