Changing views of Columbus

The first recorded celebration of Columbus Day on October 12 was in New York City in 1792, though more extensive festivities began among Italian-Americans in the late nineteenth century, and the day was made a US federal holiday in 1937. The view of Columbus in these celebrations was as heroic and triumphant: Columbus was the first "modern man," who ventured into the unknown just to find out what was there and stuck to his dreams despite the ridicule and scorn of his contemporaries. In the early twentieth century, several countries in Latin America began celebrating October 12 as Dfa de la Raza ("day of the race"), commemorating the blending of European and indigenous cultures in the formation of mestizo society. Both holidays have been sharply contested in the past several decades. Edmundo O'Gorman, the Mexican historian who first coined the term "the invention of America," resigned as the director of the

Mexican Academy of History in 1987 because he objected to celebrations of cultural blending that avoided the discussion of European domination. Events in 1992 marking the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage ranged from celebratory television specials and recreations of the voyages to funerals for indigenous cultures and protests at statues of Columbus in Europe and the Americas. Some communities and states in the United States have renamed the day "Indigenous People's Day" or something similar, and in 2002 Venezuela renamed Dia de la Raza Dla de la Resistencia Indlgena (Day of Indigenous Resistance). Even those who continue to sponsor parades now tend to recognize the mixed effects of Columbus's voyages, and the less attractive qualities of his character. Neither side in this controversy disputes the enormous consequences of the connections and encounters that became more global in their scope with the European voyages.

To the west, and the maps he and his brother sketched show the coasts of Central and South America - labeled mondo novo - vaguely attached to Asia. On his fourth and final voyage, he sailed along the coast of Central America looking for the passage to China, and was then marooned for more than a year on Jamaica while the governors of nearby Spanish colonies refused to help him. He died in 1506, just two years after returning to Spain for the final time, and two years after the death of his strongest supporter, Queen Isabella.