I recall being fed the whitewash in elementary school, and as long as you knew he was a sailor who accidentally put a Spanish boat on the American East Coast (no need to differentiate: North or South America, Caribbean, whatever was close enough) rather than in and Indian port, it just never came up again. When folks started harping a few years ago about what a monster he was I just gave it a “Meh: European Christian victimizes swarthy natives? Wake me up when the news comes on.” Of course he was a prick. Yawn city, that was like 500+ years ago, and it’s not like he’s some great hero, right? RIGHT?
So what have you seen? And when did you see it? I mean Buggs Bunny seemed pretty impressed by him, but you never really knew when Buggs was being serious or just playing for laughs. But has anyone actually seen/heard, firsthand, a live human being crowing about what a non-savage, genuinely adventurous genius CC was? Or is he just a gigantic strawman?
As a person, no interest. However, it marked a huge turning point that produced globalism as it is today. Obviously, it would have happened anyway, (and, indeed, already did a couple of times previously) but the manner of it might have been very different. What if it was a ship full of indiginous Americans landing in Spain? What if it was Arabs who made first contact with the new world? Or the French?
Some dude talks the Spanish into paying for his boats/trip West to the Far East; yet he fails miserably as he doesn’t make it, instead discovering the Bahamas…& he’s celebrated by Italians in the US?
Funny, two people asked me that same question today. I know the Italian Catholic Federation is pretty darn incensed that some unpatriotic folks want to trade it in for Indigenous People’s Day, but they’re the only ones who even seem to care.
Not firsthand or live, and not exactly crowing about his virtues, but my Italian aunt emailed me this NYT article today with a somewhat different take on the holiday: How Italians Became ‘White’ Opinion | How Italians Became ‘White’ - The New York Times
“Well, if it’s the Captain’s Mess, let him clean it up.”
That’s all I can remember from a classic cartoon, that is unfairly withheld from public view because it gives Columbus a broad Italian accent, and King Ferdinand a broad Mexican accent.
Political correctness in squelching comedy is one of the few things I lean right on.
I can hear the teacher man talking about Columbus
He nothing but an old dead fuck with a compass
Ran up on a beach and threw everybody off
And then he claimed discovery and now we all applaud
I’m liberal but this is one of the days I’m very light on social media on Columbus Day. Admittedly today hasn’t had as much virtue signaling on social media where everyone tries to outdo each other by expressing their hatred for Columbus and making sure they blame him for everything evil that has ever occurred since.
My feeling: Columbus isn’t a god but Pocahontas isn’t a documentary either.
“The Sopranos” has put the idea into my head that Italian Americans have some reverence for Christopher Columbus. But I have no idea if that’s based on reality.
CC parades are certainly not unheard of in NYC and NJ. I didn’t know it was an actual school-closing holiday in some places until I moved to NJ.
I believe in Chicago it is now called Italian American Heritage Day. There was a parade last year, don’t know if there was anything today as I was sick in bed all day.
