Let's Make Italy Great Again, Trump says of Columbus Day, never mind he never actually set foot on what is now the U.S.A.
News and views for Florida's Left Coast
Today is Columbus Day, an American holiday commemorating the explorations of an Italian navigator, flying under the flag of Spain, who never actually set foot on what is now the United States.
To be fair, he came close. On Oct. 12, 1492, Columbus stumbled off his boat onto a small island in the Bahamas. He thought he was in India, but he hadn’t even made it to Florida.
This was the first of several voyages. Later, his travels took him to South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. But he kept missing the North American mainland, which had already been “discovered,” anyway, by a Viking named Leif Erikson nearly 500 years earlier.
But Columbus had a better marketing department than the Vikings, and his announcement that there was a “New World” across the Atlantic launched a stampede of Europeans racing across the ocean to cash in on the riches to be found on these shores.
This was terrific for the Europeans, but less so for the people already living here, which is how Indigenous Peoples’ Day has come about as a counterpoint to Columbus Day. It is also celebrated today.
One of those Europeans following Columbus was Juan Ponce de Leon, who landed on the shores of northeastern Florida near the site of what would become the first permanent European settlement.
Ponce de Leon apocryphally came searching for the Fountain of Youth, which he never found, even though it is currently located at a theme park in that aforementioned settlement, now known as St. Augustine.
Instead, he ended up on Florida’s Left Coast, where he got himself shot with a poisoned arrow by a Calusa warrior, forcing him to retreat to Cuba, where he died at the youthful age of 47.
Which was among the earlier indications that Columbus’s discovery was not universally welcomed by the people already living here who felt no need to be “discovered.” And the indigenous people certainly did not create a holiday to celebrate the arrival of these hordes of undocumented immigrants from overseas.
Neither, for that matter, did Americans until about 400 years later.
How did that happen?
Turns out, it was less about Columbus, himself, than international diplomacy.
While America is a nation settled by immigrants, they often have not received the welcome they thought they deserved (just ask Ponce de Leon and more recent arrivals being hunted by Kristi Noem and her goons from ICE).
In 1891, there was broad anti-immigrant sentiment in this country—along with rampant racism in the aftermath of the Civil War—and it reached a dreadful crescendo when 11 Italians were lynched in New Orleans.
This did not make Italy happy, so President Benjamin Harrison, in a move to restore foreign relations, ordered the commemoration of Christopher Columbus the following year as a kind of olive branch to Rome.
President Franklin Roosevelt followed up on that and proclaimed it a federal holiday in 1934. Three years later, F.D.R. declared it an annual holiday. (Four years after that, we were at war with Italy since it turned out they liked Hitler better than us, never mind the holiday we created in their honor.) And in 1968, the war long over, it was made a permanent federal holiday.
In 2021, President Joe Biden proclaimed Indigenous Peoples’ Day be celebrated concurrently with Columbus Day when historians began uncovering inconvenient truths about Columbus’s history, the slave trading, torture, genocide, and other cruelties. It is not a federal holiday, but it has been declared an official holiday in some states (but, of course, not Florida).
But now, President Donald Trump is trying to resuscitate the Italian explorer’s reputation, choosing to whitewash all the aforementioned atrocities.
Decrying the “left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory,” Trump reaffirmed in an official proclamation that today is, in fact, Columbus Day, and that “we love the Italians.”
As if acknowledging Columbus’s faults were somehow unItalian.
So now we’re going to Make Italy Great Again, I suppose.
Can’t wait for the hats.
What do you think? Share your views by clicking on the COMMENTS link at the end of this newsletter. Thanks!
Today is also…
International Kick Butt Day. This is not about assaulting anyone. Rather, it was created to encourage people to take action on bad habits, like quitting smoking, but also to get motivated about achieving goals.
Thought for the day
“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
— French writer Andre Gide (although sometimes attributed to Christopher Columbus)
Florida factual
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the United States, founded by the Spanish in 1565. The Florida city is named after St. Augustine of Hippo, a prominent early Christian theologian. It predates the founding of Jamestown by 42 years and Plymouth by 55 years. (From various online sources.)
More online
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J.C. Bruce, journalist and author, is the founder of Tropic Press. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida. Forward this email to your friends. They will love you for it.
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It’s so refreshing to read this much more accurate account of historical events! Thank you for writing a most appreciated summary of actual history in a time when history is being whitewashed.
You say, "Columbus had a better marketing department than the Vikings." A long time ago, when I was in grad school, the received wisdom was that Columbus had better weapons than the Icelanders.