What I find most troubling about the myths surrounding Christopher Columbus is how enduring they remain, despite the fact that both evidence and common sense can swiftly debunk most of what I was taught. Most historical figures will be twisted to suit a present narrative, either by omitting failures or capitalizing on faults, but Columbus is special in that his crimes are so evident, and the tales surrounding him so evidently absurd, that I cannot fathom how they persist to this day. I distinctly remember learning about Columbus’ “discovery of America” in the first grade, and I have to assume that this is still what is being taught in many parts of the country. My education on Columbus was brief, uncritical, fully patriotic, and perhaps worst of all it was never questioned or reassessed in later years. There was no backpedaling, or further explanation. Columbus was simply a hero with a holiday in his honor. I can’t even remember if we got to skip school because of it.
Obviously, Columbus did not “discover” the Americas, because there were already people living there when he arrived. This fact was obvious, even to me as a grade-school student, and yet it is not the narrative I was taught. By teaching that Columbus discovered America, you not only omit the factual truth, but you also reinforce the narrative that the Indigenous peoples were somehow unfit to “discover” anything themselves; that they had no claim to the land. Indeed, Columbus viewed the peoples he met during his initial voyage with the same general attitudes he carried in regard to natural resources. In his own journal, Columbus recounts that he “caused to be taken” seven of the Native Americans, literally taking the Indigenous peoples back with him as slaves, alongside everything else the land had to offer. There is a chilling effect to seeing these events not through accusation, but through the proud writings of the man himself. In an ironic twist, Columbus was fully willing to admit what many in this country will not. The Spanish Casta paintings further expanded upon the racial hierarchy that Columbus had helped to establish, literally dividing people into categories based upon their racial purity. These paintings aided in codifying the purity of one’s blood, during a period where interracial marriage was common.
Hi Rhys!
You raise many key points relating to the history surrounding Columbus, Spanish colonization, and the myth-making that followed and then justified such violent systems. I also remember learning about Columbus at an early age–probably first grade too– and the celebratory narrative of his “discovery.” There are so many simple truths– like the fact that Columbus misrepresented this “discovery,” or the prevalence of violence and enslavement that he wrote about in his own words– that radically change the mythology and uncover the history behind his voyages. In preparing for this week, I was especially struck by the fact that it was nearly 10 years before anyone realized that they landed on a completely different continent!