In my November 4, 2004 column, I asked, “How did you observe Columbus Day? Were you one of the millions who went shopping downtown or at a mall, taking advantage of the many holiday sales? Did you attend a parade or participate in any of the scores of celebrations around the nation? Or did you join the thousands of Native Americans who protested the holiday?”
The controversy surrounding Christopher Columbus continues today. I now ask, “How will you observe Columbus Day? Will you march in or attend a Columbus Day parade? Will you take advantage of the many sales that will be associated with the holiday? Will you throw paint or trash on his image?”
There’s disagreement over the Christopher Columbus statue in Tower Grove Park that has stood there for more than 130 years, but some community members want it removed. A commission of historians and experts from local arts institutions, and representatives of Italian-American and Native American people in St. Louis, has been established to consider whether to eliminate the statue.
Italian Americans have been celebrating Columbus Day long since it became a federal holiday in 1937, and a wreath is laid on the statue in Tower Grove Park to honor their ethnicity.
Martin Gardner once wrote, “Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of ridiculous kings and queens, compulsive voyagers, and ignorant generals. The men, who radically altered history, are seldom mentioned, if at all.”
Cities have been named Columbus or Columbia in Connecticut, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, etc. We have a federal holiday informing us when we’re to celebrate Christopher Columbus’ birthday. There are statues of Christopher Columbus all over America. His portrait has been on postage stamps. There is a huge figure of Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain towering above the ground floor rotunda of the California Statehouse in Sacramento.
Our history books tell us that “in 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue.” Actually, Columbus never saw or set foot on the mainland of the New World until his third voyage six years later on August 5, 1498.
Historians note that Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola, site of present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and the native people maintain that he was responsible for the systematic murder of nearly nine million indigenous people over the course of 40 years after his arrival there in the late 15th century. They assert that in less than a normal lifetime, Columbus and his invaders destroyed a whole culture.
Moreover, 1492 was not a good year. In the spring of 1492, the Moors were banned from Granada, and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain expelled all the Jews from their lands, ending the largest and most distinguished Jewish settlement in Europe.
The United States is a nation of immigrants. During the mass emigration from Italy during the century between1876 to 1976, the U.S. was the largest single recipient of Italian immigrants in the world, so naturally Columbus is a hero to the Italian community. Every ethnic group in America is proud of its roots. Race and ethnicity are subjects of great importance today throughout the U.S. and, indeed, throughout the world, but Columbus might be the wrong idol, particularly in the eyes of indigenous peoples.
The American Indian Movement insists the divisive Columbus Day holiday be replaced by a celebration that is much more inclusive and more accurately reflective of the cultural and racial richness of the Americas. They demand that federal, state, and local authorities begin the removal of anti-Indian icons throughout the country, beginning with Columbus. They also want the elimination of statues, street names, public parks, and any other public object that seeks to celebrate or honor devastators of Indian peoples.
Perhaps it would be better to celebrate the explorations of Amerigo Vespucci, the man after whom North America and South America were named. Most native people contend that to dignify Columbus and his legacy with parades, holidays and other celebrations is intolerable.
Please watch the Bernie Hayes TV program Saturday night at 10 p.m. and Sunday evenings at 5:30 p.m. on NLEC-TV Ch. 24.2. I can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369, on e-mail at berhay@swbell.net or on Twitter @berhay.
