AUTHOR R. ANN SIRACUSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It isn't the destination that matters -- It's the journey that counts!
Contact me!
  • HOME
  • BLOG
  • BOOKS
    • All For A Dead Man's Leg
    • All For A Fist Full Of Ashes
    • Destruction Of The Great Wall
    • All For Spilled Blood
    • First Date
    • Halloween In The Catacombs
    • All In The Game
    • Family Secrets: A Vengeance of Tears
  • ABOUT ME
    • Resume
  • PHOTO ALBUMS
  • RESOURCES
  • MY ORGANIZATONS
  • BLOGS ABOUT ANN
  • Blog

history rewritten: the Columbus Day Controversy

10/11/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
​IT IS WHAT IT IS
Throughout the history of the world, human beings have committed acts of war and perpetrated atrocities on other human beings for all manner of reasons. Political and military leaders and their armies have been responsible, over the millennia, for torturing, killing, and enslaving of millions.

The fact that many famous figures in history are deemed responsible for such acts of mayhem does not change history nor lessen the historical importance of other things these people may have accomplished or change their roles in the development of world history. Many of the acts are deemed atrocities by 21st century standards, but they happened. Right or wrong, good or evil, it is what it is.
​
Over the centuries human beings have become more civilized, educated, and empathetic to the rights and dignity of others. Standards of behavior and values have changed over time – for the better, I believe, although we still have a long way to go.

Picture
​ORIGINS OF COLUMBUS DAY
Stories have it that Christopher Columbus died broke and in jail, but for the most part, the history books still give Christopher Columbus the credit for “discovering” the new world and opening up the Americas to European colonization.

October 12 is supposedly the day Columbus landed on what is now part of the Bahamas. [He never actually set foot on the North American mainland.] The day is celebrated in many countries in the Western hemisphere as well as Spain and Italy under various names, including "Día de la Raza" [Day of the Race], “Día de la Hispanidad” [Day of the Hispanic], Day of the Americas and Discovery Day. It was first celebrated in the US in 1792, the 300th anniversary of the discovery, by the Tammany Society.

Subsequently, there were celebrations of the day in various locations all over the US. In 1866, Italian Americans in New York began celebrating Columbus Day as recognition of their Italian heritage, with which this holiday has been connected ever since. As a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus and New York City Italian leader Generoso Pope, October 12 was proclaimed by Congress as a federal holiday in April 1937. [Note: several references said 1934]. In 1971, the US Congress officially designated the date of the annual federal holiday as the second Monday in October.

According to a Senate report to Congress from the year Columbus Day was proclaimed [not clear this means 1934, 1937, or 1971], it is an "annual reaffirmation by the American people of their faith in the future, a declaration of willingness to face with confidence the imponderables of unknown tomorrows.” www.latimes.com/columbus-day

Based on that statement, it appears Congress intended to celebrate the event of the discovery and the introduction of the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere, not specifically Columbus himself.


THE COLUMBUS DAY CONTROVERSY
The earliest opposition to celebrating Columbus Day dates back to the 19th century, before the holiday had any kind of legal status, when anti-immigrant activists attempted to eliminate it because of its association with immigrants from the Catholic countries of Ireland and Italy. Notably, the holiday was opposed by the Ku-Klux-Klan because they believed it increased Catholic influence in the United States.

Picture
Photo Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/columbus-confusion-about-the-new-world-140132422/
By Edmund S. Morgan - The Gallery Collection / Corbis

More recently, there is a growing movement in the US to replace “Columbus Day” with “Indigenous Peoples Day” because the proponents consider Columbus’ “discovery” of the new world a tragedy. According to Nadra Kareen Nittle’s article in www.thoughtco.com, March, 2017, “Native American groups argue that the Italian explorer’s arrival in the New World ushered in genocide against indigenous peoples as well as the transatlantic slave trade. Much like Thanksgiving, it highlights Western imperialism and the conquest of people of color.”

They argue that Columbus Day and other memorializations of Columbus “whitewash the brutal history of of native enslavement and genocide that represent his true legacy … Millions of indigenous people were displaced by Columbus, and between his arrival and the Pilgrims’ arrival in 1620, 90% of the native population died, mostly from diseases brought over from Europe. The remaining natives saw their land and culture destroyed by the violence of white Western colonization.”  www.theyucatantimes.com/2018/columbus-day/

It is true that as Governor of the Indies, subsequent to his voyages, Columbus enslaved and mistreated the native populace and even colonists who objected to his policies and methods.

Was he a racist and a rotten, brutal person? Evidence indicates he was. Although his beliefs were not much different than anyone else at the time, he was held accountable for his atrocities by his peers, the Spanish.

Did he introduce slavery and other European injustices to the Americas? No. Slavery and human sacrifice had existed among some of the indigenous peoples of the Americas for hundreds of years before the Europeans got there.
He did come uninvited, invade their territory and conquer the inhabitants? Yes, but isn’t that the pattern of history throughout the world?

Should Columbus bear the responsibility for the European beliefs of the time, including slavery, and for what happened centuries afterward? I supposed that’s what the debate is about.


​

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY
In my opinion, it is futile to try to assign “blame” for the consequences of any historic event. Understand the motivations and consequences, yes, but not blame. Columbus Day does not have to commemorate the person nor does it celebrate the ultimate outcome of the voyages. It does mark an important event in world history.


Highlighting an event that changed the world, or much of it, is neither a positive or negative comment on the value of the event or what happened subsequently. Remember, nearly all events commemorated by any culture, have their positive and negative impacts.

While the United Nations declared August 9 as International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in late 1994, Berkeley, Calif., had already become the first city in the U.S. to replace Columbus Day itself.
​
It would take an act of Congress to do away with Columbus Day at the national level, but at least 6 states and 130 cities have officially renamed the holiday as Indigenous Peoples Day, and more are proposing legislation to do the same. Many cities, including Columbus, Ohio, have cancelled the traditional Columbus Day parade. These movement to rebrand Columbus Day and/or eliminate the parades are typically resisted by cities’ Italian-American communities, the original promoters of the holiday.
Picture
Picture
                      Italian flags Columbus Day parade Fifth Avenue                                                 NY Columbus Day Parade on 5th Avenue
                        Photo Credit: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters                                                           Photo Credit: (Andrew Burton / Getty Images)
                        Photo Source: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/no-apologies                                   Photo Sourcewww.latimes.com/nation/columbus-day


It would take an act of Congress to do away with Columbus Day at the national level, but at least 6 states and 130 cities have officially renamed the holiday as Indigenous Peoples Day, and more are proposing legislation to do the same. Many cities, including Columbus, Ohio, have cancelled the traditional Columbus Day parade. These movement to rebrand Columbus Day and/or eliminate the parades are typically resisted by cities’ Italian-American communities, the original promoters of the holiday.
​​
Picture
Picture
     Idigenous Peoples' Day celebration in Berkeley, California in 2012                       Idigenous Peoples' Day celebration in Berkeley, California in 2017
     Photo source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Peoples%27_Day        Photo source:  berkeleyside.com/2017/dump-columbus-day

​Perhaps we could should rename the holiday for October 12 as Italian-American Heritage Day, since that’s what it has become to many in the US, and add another holiday on August 9 to celebrate Indigenous Peoples.
I can’t imagine most Americans opposing another national holiday with a day off work.

Sources:
​
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/10/09/berkeley-became-1st-city-dump-columbus-day-indigenous-peoples-day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day
https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-columbus-day-why-do-we-still-celebrate-20151012-htmlstory.html
https://www.freetheslaves.net/about-slavery/slavery-in-history/
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac41
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Christopher-Columbus-Trivia
https://badgerherald.com/opinion/2017/10/11/if-you-apply-a-21st-century-standard-to-columbus-then-you-should-to-the-natives-as-well/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/why-i-proudly-celebrate-columbus-day
https://www.thoughtco.com/columbus-day-104712
https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/columbus-day
https://www.thoughtco.com/case-against-celebrating-columbus-day-2834598
https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/at-parade-no-apologies-for-columbus/
https://www.theyucatantimes.com/2018/10/why-are-people-celebrating-indigenous-peoples-day-instead-of-columbus-day/
https://sokokisojourn.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/vermont-senate-house-bills-introduced-for-statewide-indigenous-peoples-day/
https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/10/why-cities-turned-against-columbus-day/572338/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/us/columbus-day-indigenous-peoples.html

https://www.thoughtco.com/case-against-celebrating-columbus-day-2834598
 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author R. Ann Siracusa

    Novelist, retired architect and urban planner, world traveler, quilter, owl collector, devoted wife-mother-grandmother, great-grandmother, and, according to some, wild-assed liberal.

    Archives

    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    November 2015
    February 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Baboons
    Bagpipes
    Halloween
    Mopane-Mopani Worms
    Saint Patrick
    Samhain
    Shamrock
    Snakes
    Travel
    Veterans Day

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.