Half the time, it’s a song I hate and by hate I mean, if it is on the radio or any streaming media service I have control over, I will bypass. Not turn down the volume or wait it out, bypass! I have no tolerance for anything by ABBA and Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing makes my eyes roll up to the back of my head. This has led me to a “discovery.” The songs I detest are singable. They are the kind you can get into a group ad suddenly everyone is belting at the top of their lungs. I have to admit, I have discovered, one of my favorite things of the week is voice class and I find my self happy and gleefully singing with others, songs I dislike.
Funny thing about discovery. I now understand the word that confused me when I was young. Nine years old, fourth grade, “how did Columbus “discover” the Americas if people were already here?” (Note: no explanation would work for me because I didn’t understand the what the word discovery meant.) Oh the perils of a distrusting adolescent; I’d go on to suggest, if he thought he was in India, which people knew was already there, why did they call it a discovery? Discovery, I later learned, to find something new unknown to you or a group of people.
Hence, the more I discovered, the more my distrust of Columbus grew. He made 4 voyages. FOUR and it did not occur to him, or any crew member that he was not in India, China, Japan or Indonesia. It was the late 1400s, early 1500s but these times were not without descriptions of the geography, the weather, the people of the countries he claimed to have landed. With each voyage he said he was on the “outskirts?” Really? Did he believe what he said or did he just have the hubris to think, if I say it enough times, people will believe me. Some historical accounts said he knew, but, to fulfill his contracts and get paid, he ah, um, lied?
Dude had 17 ships for his second voyage and not a single member of the crew had ever been to Asia? No one said, we’re not in Asia? Don’t Sailers navigate by moon and star position, had he “discovered” a new galaxy also? Oh, I get it. Columbus “discovered” a way to make money.
Then there is the rest of the story. Columbus’s cruelty to the Spanish settlers who were colonized on his so called Asian continent to mine gold. He and his brothers used torture, mutilation, whippings, executions, starvation to maintain control. Come to think of it, yes, that would be why any crew member who figured out the ships were’t in Asia, didn’t speak up.
Christopher Columbus was arrested by royal commissioner Francisco de Bobadilla due to widespread complaints of brutality, mismanagement, and tyranny against both Spanish colonists and indigenous people in August 1500 while in Hispaniola. He was returned to Spain and stripped of his governorship and titles. But, there is more. Portugal, England and France all thought Columbus a fool. Yet, he was pardoned and funded for a FOURTH voyage by Spain.
On this snowy Sunday afternoon, in the midst of the AFC Playoffs, I think, why is there a Columbus Day with all of this history AND the fact that Columbus never did land in what is now known as the United States of America. Why does this man have a United States federal holiday? A plot twist.
New Orleans, 1891, eleven Italian Americans were lynched. Eleven on one day! The police chief of New Orleans was murdered and people believed organized crime was responsible. Mayor Joseph Shakspeare told the police to “Scour the whole neighborhood. Arrest every Italian you come across.” Nineteen Italian-Americans were accused of the murder. After the acquittal of six and mistrial of three, the town grew impatient and angry. A Lynch mob, know as The Committee, burst into the jail and killed 11 of the 19. ” The Italian Government demanded criminal charges for the Lynch Mob and reparations for the victims.
Then came the familiar pattern, No evidence was found, no one could identify anyone in the mob. In the end, the grand jury would not bring any criminal charges against the Lynch Mob/The Committee.
As a way to ease tensions between the US and Italy and relations with Italian Americans…drumroll, President Benjamin Harrison declared the first nationwide celebration of Columbus Day in 1892, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Italian explorer’s landing in the New World. Well, that took a turn. Discovery! The holiday that appeared, to honor a cruel, grifter, was actually enacted to placate justifiable rage. That changes things. Discovery in the legal terms is to establish the facts and evidence relevant.
Maybe a holiday in the US honoring an Italian Catholic made some sense in 1892, but did it really? It certainly did not solve the problem of racial profiling, vigilantism and a lack of due process, immigration and judicial rights. However, part of Columbus’s mission as a Catholic was to spread Christianity. Was that the justification?
More recent DNA evidence shows a plausible different narrative. Columbus was actually a Spanish Jew who converted to Catholicism to avoid the Spanish Inquisition. Several countries are grappling with the legacy of Columbus and the establishment of Columbus Day as a holiday. Are there any conversations about Columbus and Columbus Day in context?
One survey/questionnaire technique is to ask the same question in different ways to measure the strength of conviction. This week, maybe consider history; what are the patterns and reactions? What does that tell you about conviction? What might you discover?
Christopher Columbus may have been a Spanish Jew, according to a new documentary
Balancing on Unstable Surfaces 