Time to set the record straight on Columbus
“In 1492, the natives discovered they were Indians, discovered they lived in America, discovered they were naked, discovered that the Sin existed, discovered they owed allegiance to a King and Kingdom from another world and a God from another sky, and that this God had invented the guilty and the dress, and had sent to be burnt alive who worships the Sun the Moon the Earth and the Rain that wets it.” Eduardo Galeano -Uruguayan Writer/Novelist
Sofia was off from school Monday, giving her a much needed breather for her from a full slate of activities.
That was a good thing. In addition to having my princess around, it was also a welcome break not getting the mail, as it is always just an onslaught of bills and junk mail that goes right into the recycling bin.
The reason she had off, and the mail not delivered, was not so good.
It was in honor of Columbus Day, which is basically feting someone for “discovering” something that already existed (and even that narrative is false, since the Vikings – led by Leif Erikson, no Kirk Cousins — beat him to the punch by, oh, only a few centuries).
She recently learned about the Columbus at school, and quickly came to the same independent conclusion that it was all more fantastical than one of her beloved Star Trek episodes.
Her understanding of it far exceeded that of my own at that age.
I remember the schoolmarms from Solis-Cohen Elementary in Northeast Philly leading us through a hop, skip and a jump around the inconvenient truths of the Columbus cover story.
I could name the ships – Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria – and Queen Isabella. I learned he was testing a theory that the earth was round when everyone else thought it was flat (not true).
Slowly but surely, history is not being kind to Christopher Columbus.
I say, let’s continue with the fullcourt press and set the record straight.
For starters, it needs to be viewed in context of his four total voyages to the New World, and not just the first.
With his consent, the behavior of his crew was such that it equated a home invasion.
Columbus and his Conquistadors were not much different than the dreaded MS-13, in terms of behavior.
They didn’t even have the courtesy to ring the bell, but kicked in the door, and took whatever – and whoever – they wanted.
This included enslaving and torturing people and forcing them to turn over what little they had in natural resources – cotton and gold – to the Spanish empire.
Scholars estimate that the misery caused by Columbus and his men resulted in the mass suicide of the natives who did not want to be under his rule.
Subsequent Spanish settlers were not treated much better, as Columbus – as governor — reportedly ordered cruel and unusual punishment including ordering death by hanging for stealing bread.
While a lot of these were chronicled first-hand by likes of Bartolomé de Las Casas, a slave owner who went on to became a reformer and Roman Catholic priest, Columbus admitted to selling Spanish girls as young as 9 or 10 into slavery.
“There are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand, and for all ages a good price must be paid,” he wrote in a letter to a friend of the queen.
It should be noted that he was acting more on his own accord, as the Spanish crown did not give such behavior its blessing.
For lack of a better term, he was essentially fired from his job and he sued for his lack of pension. This is another factoid dropped from the old-school textbooks.
We can’t go back in time and undo what was done all those centuries ago, but we can work to rewrite the narrative enough that our children learn the story a bit differently than we did.
I would suggest a more positive approach, just like Martin Luther King Day becomes less a day for 20 percent off sales and more for days of service, is a chance to appreciate and understand those who were here before someone knocked on their doors and said “we live here now.”
I would suggest teaching the history we should learn from, so as not to repeat it.