10. Hispanic, Columbus or Indigenous Day?
In Spanish: ™DIA HISPANO, DE COLON O INDIGENA?
To respect one community,
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Photo: Miguel Pérez
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Many of us still recognize him as that gutsy explorer who brought Europe to a New World and became one of history's greatest figures. But unfortunately, for some people throughout the hemisphere, Oct. 12 has become a day to malign the memory of Columbus, and to disrespect those who still honor his accomplishments!
On any other day of the year, an Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a wonderful idea. But to do it with bitter protests against Columbus, on the day when so many other people are rejoicing and expressing pride in their Spanish or Italian heritage, is divisive and in very poor taste – to say the least! American politicians know very well that, for Hispanics, Oct. 12 is much more than “Columbus Day.” They know it is our "Dia de la Hispanidad.” |
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They also know that for Italian-Americans, Columbus Day is about much more than one Italian navigator who sailed for Spain in the 15th century. It’s about pride in their identity.
Yet Biden issued a proclamation officially commemorating Indigenous Peoples' Day on the same day as Columbus Day. And then he issued another proclamation recognizing Columbus Day on the same day as Indigenous People’s Day. It was a two-faced, hypocritical maneuver to cover his back. But in effect, he has turned a resentful “counter celebration” into a federal holiday. |
Christopher Columbus statue being removed in Saint Paul, Minnesota./Image from Youtube
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This is the guy who has been preaching that we must get along with each other. And yet now he is pitting Hispanics and Italians against U.S. Native Americans, to argue over one same official holiday.
All over this country, as documented by my photos, we still have beautiful monuments honoring Columbus, Native Americans and many Spanish explorers, missionaries and war heroes who have made tremendous contributions to this country. I fear that Biden's dual proclamations put them all in jeopardy. After creating considerable confusion about whether the Biden Administration was replacing one holiday with the other, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tried to back-peddle. "Well, today is both Columbus Day, as of now ... as well as Indigenous Peoples' Day," Psaki told reporters. "I'm not aware of any discussion of ending that either, ending the prior federal holiday at this point, but I know that recognizing today as Indigenous Peoples' Day is something that the President felt strongly about personally, he's happy to be the first president to celebrate and to make it, the history of moving forward." |
"The Indian" in San Diego, Calif., Pocahontas in Jamestown, Va., and Chief Oriba, of the Tumucuan Indians, in St. Augustine, Fl. / / / / / / / / Photos: Miguel Pérez
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Of course, because it was a “first,” the media reported on one proclamation and buried the other, making it seem as if Indigenous People’s Day was totally replacing Columbus Day as a federal holiday, as has happened in many cities and states.
Instead, what we have from the federal government “moving forward,” is confusion and self-inflicted conflict. Biden’s two proclamations officially set up an unnecessary rivalry that has been brewing for years. "The contributions that Indigenous peoples have made throughout history — in public service, entrepreneurship, scholarship, the arts, and countless other fields — are integral to our Nation, our culture, and our society," Biden wrote in his proclamation. "Today, we acknowledge the significant sacrifices made by Native peoples to this country — and recognize their many ongoing contributions to our Nation." That’s terrific! Long-overdue recognition! But does it have to be on Columbus Day? Several states already celebrate "Native American Day" on various days in September, October or November. Why couldn't they pick one of those days? Why would Biden and other politicians choose to ditch our Hispanic/Italian day and replace it with a day for indigenous people? Could it be because Hispanics and Italians are not demanding respect? Could it be because they believe our Spanish ancestors were responsible for the genocide of Native Americans in what is now the United States? Don’t they know that, after the Spanish were long-gone, it was their own white ancestors who nearly exterminated U.S. Native Americans? |
Clockwise from top left: Hernando de Soto in St. Augustine, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in San Diego, Francisco Vazquez de Coronado in Kansas, Pedro Menendez de Aviles in St. Augustine and Tristan de Luna in Pensacola. . . . . . . . . . . Photos: Miguel Pérez
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So, to make themselves feel good about what their ancestors did to Native Americans in this country, they try to shift the blame to Hispanics? Is that what’s happening here? ™Could this be another chapter in that centuries-old anti-Hispanic smear campaign known as “The Black Legend”?
All over the country, by replacing the Hispanic and Italian festivities with indigenous celebrations, politicians are rewarding one group and insulting two others – all without accepting responsibility for the genocide conducted by British-American settlers. In the White House, there is now one very powerful Native American in the Biden Cabinet, which is great. But what happened to the four Hispanics in the Biden cabinet? ™Se tragaron la lengua? (Did they swallow their tongues?) Did they argue for a separate holiday, so that both Hispanic and Indigenous people could have their own celebrations without competing with each other? Did any of them advise the president that many Hispanics would be offended? And what about the Italian-Americans in the Biden Administration? Did they ask the president not to disrespect their community? |
Clockwise from top left: Sakakawea, from North Dakota, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, at the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol; Chief Saturiwa, of the Timucuan Indians of northeast Florida, at the Museum of Florida History, Tallahassee; Po'pay, the Tewa leader from New Mexico, at the National Statuary Hall; and "Aztec Woman of Tehuantepec" in Balboa Park, San Diego. / / / / / / / / / / Photos: Miguel Pérez
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Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great that this country is rewriting its history, to uncover the many lessons that have been hidden by the British and New England historians who wrote it. But let’s not replace one distorted history with another!
Granted, there are those self-loathing Hispanics who reject their Spanish heritage and play right into the hands of those who seek to erase our Spanish ancestors from American history. But for most of us, who value our Spanish heritage, this day is precious. This is the day when many of us take time to recognize the many Spanish explorers who trekked across this country for 100 years before the British arrived. This is the day we feel our Spanish and Italian blood running through our veins! It’s the day when we express pride in who we are! How dare you try to take it from us? Amazingly, today’s liberal media seems to have no problem distorting history to report on Native Americans at the expense of Hispanics and Italians. A CNN article describes the new holiday as “a holiday to recognize the native populations that were displaced and decimated after Christopher Columbus and other European explorers reached the continent.” |
Juan Ortiz, Ana Mendez and Estevanico at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee. Ortiz and Estevanico were survivors of the ill-fated 1528 Pánfilo the Narváez expedition. Mendez was one of the women in the 1539-42 Hernando de Soto expedition. Ortiz lived with Florida natives for more than a decade, until he joined De Soto. Photos: Miguel Pérez
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And yet most Native Americans in what is now the United States were “displaced and decimated” by white Americans as the country expanded to the west, more than 300 years after Columbus landed in the Caribbean (and never came to what is now the United States).
To make matters worse, Biden’s Columbus Day proclamation mentions Italian-Americans four times, but Hispanics were not even mentioned. Columbus discovered the New World for Spain, with three ships full of Spanish sailors, but the Biden Administration clearly associates Columbus only with Italians. Is this ignorance or neglect? In his Indigenous People’s Day proclamation, Biden noted that, “Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities.” But he makes no mention of the American settlers’ atrocities in the 19th century. “It is a measure of our greatness as a nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly,” Biden wrote. I wonder when he plans to start! American politicians need to learn that to defend the rights of Native Americans, they don’t need to be disrespectful to Hispanics and/or Italians – especially when they don’t even consider the genocide complicity of their own white ancestors. Of course, Columbus haters are having a great time. Apparently, they feel very courageous when they vandalize and knock down his statues. Because Columbus opened the gate to the New World, some people make it seem as if he personally ordered the slaughter of millions of indigenous people. Some extremists have compared him to Hitler; others have called him "America's first terrorist,” making their arguments laughable -- always bordering somewhere between ridiculous and ignorant. Surely, Columbus was no angel. The men under his command were terribly abusive to the natives of the Caribbean. But the haters want us to judge 15th and 16th century explorers by 21st century human rights standards. They blame Columbus for the genocide and enslavement of indigenous and African people, even if most of it occurred long after he was dead. They hold him responsible for the European viruses that killed thousands of natives, as if this was something he could have controlled. It’s absurd! Blaming Columbus for a holocaust is a terrible distortion of history, especially because, throughout the Americas, most of the killing was conducted, first and foremost, by deceases, followed by Spanish, English, French, Italian and Dutch explorers, and, in the United States, by settlers of the American West. Columbus haters refuse to see that if it had not been Columbus that opened the gate to the New World, someone else would have brought the same illnesses and explorers. The question is: Would they have all these prejudices if a British navigator had discovered the New World? They tell you that Columbus didn’t discover anything because there were people already living here, as if lands must be uninhabited to be discovered. They refuse to see that Spain discovered the New World – and its people! If Native Americans had crossed the Atlantic and discovered Europe – and its people – they would deserve credit and admiration too. |
INDIAN HERITAGE TABLEAU HONORING THREE FLORIDA NATIVE AMERICAN GROUPS, MUSEUM OF FLORIDA HISTORY, TALLAHASSEE. / / / Photos: Miguel Pérez
"American Royalty," a group of indigenous people of the European Contact Era (mid-16th century) shows a King, servant and Queen.
"Seminole Family" depicts a Seminole Indian family of the 1830s.
"Movin' On" shows a Miccosukee family of the 1930s.
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“We have systematically (but unconsciously) been taught that if it's not white, it's not right,” one of my Hispanic American history students wrote in our class discussion board recently. “If I discovered a bakery with great cookies, this would be new to me, and my new discovery. The bakery could have existed for years and be a very well-known place to the people in that community. But would that take away from it being my new discovery? Would that not be a new discovery for me and my "people" (friends) because it had existed for years, and many people knew about it?”
Some people even tell you that Columbus never discovered America because he never came to what is now the United States, as if they don’t know that America is the entire continent, and that all he needed to do to discover the continent was set foot in the Bahamas. And some even cling to the myth that Vikings came from Greenland to New England, because white folks had to be first! Sometimes the debate over Columbus gets nasty. Because Hispanics are mostly descendants of indigenous Americans, Africans and Spanish settlers, some people use the anniversary of his 1492 voyage to spark identity and racial feuds among Hispanics, as well as to promote leftist political agendas in Latin America. |
Father Junípero Serra, founder of the California missions, at Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá; "The Padre" monument at Presidio Park in San Diego; and Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, second president of the California missions, at Mission Basilica San Buenaventura, in Ventura, Calif. / / / / / / / / / Photos: Miguel Pérez
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These are people who live in the 21st century but insist on fighting 15th and 16th centuries' battles. Some 530 years after Columbus' historic feat, some people are still arguing about whether to recognize a man who obviously changed the course of history.
In the United States, when Native Americans, and many others, protest against Columbus, who never even set foot in North America, history is clearly being distorted. And when U.S. Hispanics protest against Columbus, they are doing a terrible disservice to own community. Over the years, it has been mostly Italian-American community leaders who have stood up in defense of their beloved Colombo. Hispanics, conflicted by anti-Spanish propaganda, have stood on the sidelines. And that has led to the audacity of taking away the holiday of two ethnic groups and replacing it with another’s. Of course, Native Americans deserve their day! And so does Columbus! Two separate days! The time has come for Hispanics to demand respect for our Día de la Hispanidad. Perhaps our leaders could learn how to do this from Native Americans. 
From the movie Conquest of Paradise
One of the most important events in human history: 
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Clockwise from top left: Father Pedro Camps, "kept alive the Catholic faith in Florida during the British occupation which ended in 1784;" Father Felix Varela, Catholic priest, philosopher, teacher, writer, legislator, newspaperman, social reformer, patriot and vicar general of the New York Diocese; Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, who was an advocate for the natives of Arizona, at Tumacacori National Historical Park, Ariz.; and Fray Luis Cáncer de Barbastro, who advocated humane treatment of the natives of Florida, at the Museum of Florida History, Tallahassee. / / / / / / / Photos: Miguel Pérez
The anti-Columbus movement:
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