America’s Discoverer or a Killer? Another Two US Cities Stop Celebrating Columbus Day

It started at the famous university city of Berkeley, which did not want to commemorate the Genoese discoverer. Columbus — if you take into consideration today’s human rights standards — was a bandit, thief, rapist and killer on a massive scale.

The second Monday in October is Columbus Day in the United States. All state workers — of course, excluding police and similar necessary services — have a day off, and Americans of Italian descent organize street parades.

The first outcry against this nice federal holiday, established in 1937 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came [in 1992,] exactly 500 years after the discovery of America. Then, the California city of Berkeley, known mainly for its university, decided that it would stop celebrating the Genoese explorer. The Resistance 500 Association was against celebrating the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America because Columbus, if you take into consideration today’s human rights standards, was a bandit, thief, rapist and a killer on a massive scale. The city council backed this opinion and changed Columbus Day into Indigenous People’s Day.

On the 500th anniversary, a huge quarrel took also place in San Francisco, where a performance of Columbus’ arrival on Oct. 12, 1492 in the Bahamas was planned. Around 4,000 demonstrators prevented the ships, with actors dressed as discoverers and their crew, from reaching the coast by throwing eggs and screaming, “Mass murdering pig!” “This is a victory for us!” Judy Talaugon from the American Indian Movement said joyfully.

Unfortunately, her ancestors did not achieve such a victory 500 years ago. Actually, in the first 100 years after the discovery of America, billions of indigenous people (whom Columbus called Indians, because he thought that he discovered India) died. Only some of them were murdered; the majority died of contagious diseases that the Europeans had brought, including smallpox and measles. As the keenest critics of Columbus and the next Spanish conquistadors point out, it was “the biggest genocide in the history of humanity.”* And also the biggest land pillage in history. The Spaniards and Portuguese conquered all of Latin America, and in the 19th century the United States finished it off by displacing Indians more and more to the West, finally confining them on reservations.

How Did Columbus Discover the Occupied Land?

Just the affirmation itself that Columbus discovered America is offensive to Indians. How can one talk about the discovery of a continent that in 1492 was occupied, according to various estimates, by 50 to 100 million people? Not to mention that the Genoese explorer was actually completely disoriented. He reached America by accident, when looking for Asia, and to the end of his life did not realize that he discovered a new continent.

Taking it all into account, one should not be surprised that other cities and states followed Berkeley. South Dakota celebrates Native Americans’ Day on the second Monday of October, and Hawaii celebrates Discoverer’s Day — not regarding European discoverers but the Polynesians, who came to the islands and populated them more than 1,000 years ago. This year cities such as Seattle and Minneapolis celebrated Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day.

Last week, the Seattle City Council voted that one should celebrate “the thriving cultures and values of Indigenous Peoples in our region.” The Minneapolis City Council decided in April that the second Monday in October would “reflect upon the ongoing struggles of indigenous people on this land, and celebrate the thriving culture and value that Dakota, Ojibwa and other indigenous nations add to our city.”

Today, a parade of 29 Indian tribes from parts of the city will march on the streets of Seattle, singing and beating drums.

Two groups are protesting these events. The first one is the conservative right, which favors Fox News television. “Columbus brought Western ideas, technology and the future to North America. He is worth celebrating,” Jonathan Hoening, owner of the investment fund Capitalist Pig, said on the station.

Italians Are Protesting

The second group protesting Indigenous People’s Day comprises the descendants of Italian immigrants. For them, Columbus Day is an opportunity to celebrate their double roots and American-Italian friendship. After the Seattle council’s decision, the Itailan ambassador in Washington, Claudio Bisogniero, wrote a letter to the mayor of that city, Ed Murray: “The critical issue at stake is that, while trying to valorize — and rightly so — the dignity of indigenous peoples, the city is poised to strip the Italian community of a celebration that has become, over time, a heartfelt expression of its identity and pride.”

“Italian-Americans are deeply offended,” Lisa Marchese, a lawyer for the Order Sons of Italy in America organization, told the Seattle Times. “By this resolution, you say to all Italian-Americans that the city of Seattle no longer deems your heritage or your community worthy of recognition.”

There is no chance for another “Italian Day” in the United States, as a congressional committee calculated in 1999, a holiday costs the American taxpayers around $200 million (or, including inflation, currently nearly $300 million). The last federal holiday — Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — was introduced in 1983. But some states in the South find it hard to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the most famous African-American civil rights leader. Mississippi and Alabama also celebrate Jan. 19 as Robert E. Lee Day, recognizing the leader of the Confederate army in the American Civil War in 1861-65 (General Lee and Dr. King were both born on the same day.)

Of course for now, Italian-Americans do not need to worry — the majority of America is keeping Columbus Day. However, private companies celebrate it — that is, give a day off to employees — only in 23 states and Washington, D.C. But the last president who spoke his mind about it, George W. Bush, did not have any doubts. In Oct. 2002, he made an appeal, in which he encouraged Americans to “celebrate Columbus’ bold expedition and recognize his pioneering achievements,” and ordered the display of national flags on all public buildings on Columbus Day.

*Editor’s Note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.