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<div class="entry-date">Weekend Edition October 4-6, 2013<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/04/the-rancid-myth-of-columbus/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/04/the-rancid-myth-of-columbus/</a><br>
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<div class="subheadlinestyle">What Happened to the Indigenous Race?</div>
<h1 class="article-title">The Rancid Myth of Columbus</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by RODOLFO ACUÑA</div>
<div class="main-text"><big> </big>
<p><big><big>When César Chávez was asked what he thought about the term
la raza, he answered the question with a question, asking, what was
wrong with the indigenous race?</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The word raza was popularized by José Vasconselos who in
1925 wrote an essay titled “La Raza Cósmica” (The Cosmic Race).
Vasconcelos was an intellectual and intellectuals at the time took it
to mean that Latin American was comprised of races from all over the
world, and that the mixture had produced a new people who would
transcend the “old world”.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>But, as in the case of all words, meanings are distorted
when they are not defined or put into context. In the case of la raza,
it was given a bad name by some Latin Americans and Spaniards who
wanted to play down the animosity of many Latin Americans toward Spain
and the conquest. These leaders took to celebrating Columbus Day,
October 12, as the day of the “discovery” of the Americas and the
mixing of the races that included Spaniards.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Without any context, El Día de la Raza validates and
accepts the argument that the indigenous peoples were fortunate to have
been “discovered”, and receiving the blessing of Jesus Christ.
Moreover, they argued the Indian benefitted from Spanish culture. But,
history is about the truth, and the celebration of a manufactured
holiday doesn’t make it so.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>It is offensive to mark Columbus Day as a federal holiday.
It is also offensive when classroom teachers try to impress their
students with stories of the Nina, Pinta and the Santa María.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Some cities will even hold Columbus Day parades with
Italians, Jews and Spaniards fighting for a piece of Columbus. For some
of us, it is as offensive as celebrating Hitler’s birthday, which as
far as I know, no sane group in the United States wants to claim.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Debunking the Columbus Myth is difficult because it has
become legend, and it is part of our shared memory. Moreover, people
want to believe it. They want the holiday, and the manufactured truth
that makes Columbus an American hero. It is part of a Eurocentric
worldview that reinforces feelings of American and European
exceptionalism.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The truth be told, Columbus was not a great man. In his
early career, he was conversant with the African slave trade of the
Mediterranean and Atlantic Islands off the shores of Spain and North
Africa that made huge profits. Columbus took these memories and their
lessons with him to the Caribbean.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>His voyages were for profit ventures; by contract he was
entitled to 10 percent of the profits. Upon first encountering the
indigenous peoples, Columbus wrote in his journal on October 12, 1492:
“They should be good servants …. I, our Lord being pleased, will take
hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses.”
When he arrived in Spain, the natives were paraded through the streets
of Barcelona and Seville.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>On his second voyage, Columbus sent back Indians to be
sold as slaves. In 1493 Columbus wrote to the Spanish Crowns: “”their
Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they need ….
and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped.” Indeed, hundreds
of Indians were shipped during Columbus’ voyages, and in 1505 Columbus’
son Diego became an African slave trader.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Quoting from Whitney DeWitt, “The Indians that were not
exported were put into slavery on the island. There was literally no
way to escape some form of enslavement. Columbus would let the settlers
of his establishment choose whomever they wanted for their own. One
account claims that each settler had slaves to work for them, dogs to
hunt for them, and beautiful women to warm their beds. This degradation
of an entire group of people seemed not to bother Columbus or the
Spaniards in any way. They appeared to consider it their right as
superiors.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The devastation was horrific. In 1492, the population on
the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) was
estimated at above 3 million. Within 20 years it was reduced to only
60,000, and within 50 years, not a single original native inhabitant
was left.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>This opened the door for the African slave trade. The
great majority of African slaves went to sugar colonies in the
Caribbean and Brazil. It is estimated that 12.5 million Africans were
shipped to the New World, with about 10.7 million surviving the
voyages. About 600,000 slaves were imported into the U.S., and at least
200,000 African slaves were imported to Mexico, which is significant
considering that by the 17th century, the population of New Spain once
25/28 million, dropped to less than a million natives, and no more than
250,000 Spaniards migrated to what is now Mexico during the entire
colonial period.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>African slaves did not compromise the major source of
forced labor in New Spain; the Indians were also made slaves and
performed most of the forced labor in the fields, mines and other
projects.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Columbus set in place a system based on race that was
expanded in New Spain (Mexico), perpetuating <a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYyc6Po1XhI"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.youtube.com']);">a
caste system based on color</a>. The rule of thumb was the more
Spanish blood or the more Spanish a person looked the more privileges
he or she had.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The truth be told, Mexicans are still suffering the
devastation and the racism caused by Columbus. The legacy of Columbus’
“discovery” can today be seen in the streets of Mexico City where
little children sell gum for handouts, and poverty is almost solely
represented by los de abajo of the castas.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Anyone who has any sense of justice or history knows that
the ancestors of these children built great civilizations with cities
larger than those of contemporary Europe. They had books that the sons
of Columbus destroyed; they had an advanced mathematical system,
calendars, architecture, agriculture, and a defined cosmology. They
were destroyed by the children of Columbus, who reduced the natives to
selling gum.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Celebrating El Día de la Raza is not an innocuous act.
Holidays are important in forming approved memories. Identity is formed
by culture that in turn shapes our behavior, beliefs and cultural
narratives. Holidays are part of our memory and form our narratives.
Popular events such as holidays are sanctioned by society, and they act
as a form of social control that help maintain a social order and a
popular consensus. It is in this context that terms such as el día de
la raza are important because they avoid the need for providing a
historical context, and thus absolve the Europeans for their sins.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>I have been criticized for referring to what happened to
the indigenous peoples as genocide. Critics say that I am engaging in
hyperbole. Many repeat the cliché that after all it happened in the
past. It the process it short circuits our long-term memory.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The reality is that Columbus Day denies and minimizes the
brutality of the Spanish Conquest, and the violent deaths of tens of
millions of natives throughout the Americas. Some experts estimate that
there were 100 million Indians in the Americas; this number fell to
about 10 million. It denies the brutality and inhumanity of the African
slave trade.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The acceptance of Columbus Day elevates Columbus to a
position of honor. And that is offensive. Whether we like it or not el
día de la raza imputes meanings, and gives credibility to the myth that
Columbus discovered the Americas when the reality is as Jalil
Sued-Badillo says, “Christopher Columbus has the distinction of being
the first to introduce that new order to America.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>I am not a proponent of collective guilt. But, at the same
time, it is important to answer César’s question, what was wrong with
the indigenous race?</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big><em><strong>RODOLFO ACUÑA</strong>, a professor emeritus
at California State University Northridge, has published 20 books and
over 200 public and scholarly articles. He is the founding chair of the
first Chicano Studies Dept which today offers 166 sections per semester
in Chicano Studies. His history book <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0205786189/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">Occupied
America</a> has been banned in Arizona. In solidarity with Mexican
Americans in Tucson, he has organized fundraisers and support groups to
ground zero and written over two dozen articles exposing efforts there
to nullify the U.S. Constitution.</em></big></big></p>
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