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The Aztecs and other Indian cultures practised cannibalism before the Catholics showed up in the New World to preach the Gospel. Missions were sanctuaries which is alot more than the warring amerindians offerred each other. The Indians were always at war with each other, not some peaceful idyllic peoples, that's revisionist history.
That does not make the horrendous acts of the Conquistadors acceptable. They came for gold and not to offer anyone sanctuary. Read the history. Columbus landed in the Caribbean and there he encountered a peaceful people...
By “discovering” the Caribbean’s inhabitants, Columbus had stumbled into a civilization that was about 1500 years old. Española was the center of that island civilization, and a people known today as the Taino dominated it. They had migrated from South America, along the archipelago of Caribbean islands at about the time Jesus lived, gradually absorbing/displacing a hunter-gatherer culture. The Taino were Arawakan people. There were other ethnic groups in the Caribbean, like the Caribs, Guanahatabey and Ciguayo, though the Taino were by far the largest group and they occupied the greatest portion of Caribbean land. The Taino’s material and spiritual culture was what all other Caribbean groups also based their culture on. The Taino were settled in agricultural communities and possessed a rich and diverse food supply. Life was easy in the pre-Columbian Caribbean, and if there could be any generalizations made of the Taino, particularly if we could view them today, it would be their happiness and gentleness.Their world was about as close to earthly paradise as human existence has ever come, a fact that was not lost on Columbus, as he often remarked upon it in his log. He remarked often that the natives did not seem to be capable of dishonesty.
Obviously, their gentle nature did nothing to deter the horrible treatment that they received at the hands of the invaders.
On that first epic voyage, Columbus began the unfounded myth that the Caribbean natives practiced cannibalism. About the only evidence there ever was for Caribbean cannibalism came from Columbus’ imagination while he interpreted native gestures. His misunderstandings correlated with European mythology. Columbus wrote of savage cannibals, people with an eye in the middle of their forehead (log entries of November 4th and 23rd, 1492), and noses like dogs that drink the blood of their victims after cutting their throats and castrating them (log entry of November 4th, 1492). Columbus found from the native gestures what he expected to find. For all the writing of what a Renaissance man Columbus was, he had many medieval fantasies. Late in his life he worked on an apocalyptic work that was eventually titled the Book of Prophecies, which Kirkpatrick Sale says has been “an acute embarrassment to most Columbus hagiographers, since it is so at odds with the scientific Renaissance rationalist they like to depict as the forerunner of European conquest…”
Columbus designed a tribute system. Spaniards would not deign to dig any gold for themselves, so the natives had to dig it. Every Taino over 14 years of age was to give a hawk’s bell (about the size of a thimble) of gold to the rulers (Columbus and his men) every three months. Upon receipt of the gold, the natives were given tokens to wear around their necks as proof of payment. It was a simple system. When the Spaniards found Tainos without the appropriate tokens, they chopped their hands off, leaving them to bleed to death and making examples of them.
You do not have to teach kids the gorey details as even I feel sick after reading the full text, but don't proliferate the lie of this mercenary being a hero. Let the false legend die and be buried...where it belongs.
Gentle nature......blah blah blah......have you read what it says about Indians in the US Declaration of Independence? What about cannibalism? scalping (do you think that only started when whites showed up)?? Let's get real here. The amerindians were warriors, just like any other people, past, present and future.
People have to understand where the Spanish were coming from. They had just finished up a brutal centuries long war to OUST MUSLIMS out of the Iberian peninsula. They didn't live in a peaceful time or neighborhood, and their culture was based on frontier wars (Arcos de Frontera etc.). THOSE WERE THE TIMES. So big deal.
I wonder how many other amerindian villages were wiped out by other amerindians? Nobody is crying over that. The entire anti-Columbus thing just provides cover to racists and White-haters, America haters and Western Civ haters, it's a joke.
Cannabilism sure as hell did take place among those savage peoples. Look it up.
Gentle nature......blah blah blah......have you read what it says about Indians in the US Declaration of Independence? What about cannibalism? scalping (do you think that only started when whites showed up)?? Let's get real here. The amerindians were warriors, just like any other people, past, present and future.
People have to understand where the Spanish were coming from. They had just finished up a brutal centuries long war to OUST MUSLIMS out of the Iberian peninsula. They didn't live in a peaceful time or neighborhood, and their culture was based on frontier wars (Arcos de Frontera etc.). THOSE WERE THE TIMES. So big deal.
I wonder how many other amerindian villages were wiped out by other amerindians? Nobody is crying over that. The entire anti-Columbus thing just provides cover to racists and White-haters, America haters and Western Civ haters, it's a joke.
Cannabilism sure as hell did take place among those savage peoples. Look it up.
...and you are basing your knowledge on what historian or work of literatrue? What would you do to defend your land if you were invaded? Why don't some people have the capacity for empathy? Pity! If your post was a bit more cohesive and based on fact, it might be worth responding to with intelligent repartee or debate, but frankly, NOT!
Gentle nature......blah blah blah......have you read what it says about Indians in the US Declaration of Independence? What about cannibalism? scalping (do you think that only started when whites showed up)?? Let's get real here. The amerindians were warriors, just like any other people, past, present and future.
People have to understand where the Spanish were coming from. They had just finished up a brutal centuries long war to OUST MUSLIMS out of the Iberian peninsula. They didn't live in a peaceful time or neighborhood, and their culture was based on frontier wars (Arcos de Frontera etc.). THOSE WERE THE TIMES. So big deal.
I wonder how many other amerindian villages were wiped out by other amerindians? Nobody is crying over that. The entire anti-Columbus thing just provides cover to racists and White-haters, America haters and Western Civ haters, it's a joke.
Cannabilism sure as hell did take place among those savage peoples. Look it up.
Sickofnyc pointed out the whole Cannabilism issue quite well. Why the hell do you have to turn this into a white-hater American-hater western civ hater mantra? Of course it isn't about any of that. Its about factual information, and the fact that the myths often portrayed about Columbus were false and there was indeed a dark side. Of course times are different, civilization is different and perhaps some of the things that went on which we deem as unacceptable now, may have been viewed as acceptable then. That doesn't mean we should ignore it, or pretend it didn't happen.
...and you are basing your knowledge on what historian or work of literatrue? What would you do to defend your land if you were invaded? Why don't some people have the capacity for empathy? Pity! If your post was a bit more cohesive and based on fact, it might be worth responding to with intelligent repartee or debate, but frankly, NOT!
Bullcrap, you can't refute what I say, so you just dance-around it hurling insults. Anyway, do you think White people should be defending their land today? It sounds like you support an immigration restriction. Hey, at least the Indians put up a fight, and a noble one at that, that's more that can be said for today's liberal whites, LOL!!!
[quote=DontH8Me;11154215]Yesterday I spoke to a mom in another school district and she told me that they are observing Columbus Day today in their district. Found out from my son that his HS is not observing it, and as a matter of fact, his English teacher of Nicaraguan descent formally informed his class that Columbus only brought disease and war to the Americas and that there is nothing to celebrate about Columbus. Mind you, the student population is Hispanic majority (about 70%) at my son's school.
I tend to agree that columbus was not a hero and did not discover anything since the americas already existed. he is a holdover of a white racist history. he did nothing but bring destruction and disease to the americas just like your son's teacher said.
My minister once put on a skit that enacted for the sunday school kids an analogy of Columbus discovering America. She went out into the congregation and took a purse! The kids all saw her do it. Then a lady returned to her pew and announced....someone took my purse and asked if anyone knew who did it. The kids with varying degrees of enthusiasm fingered the minister. When the lady said, "Did you steal my purse?" The minister said, "No! I discovered it." "No one was using it or watching it."
In the ensueing dialogue the arguements of you werent using it.....I had a holy right to take it....etc were all offered...the kids in their sunday school classes learned about the genocide, enslavement, forced conversion and colonialization of America as the legacy of Columbus and discussed the concepts of the golden rule and "even so much as you have done unto the least of these you have done it unto me" from the Bible and similar morality lessons.
(My minister was not of Latin or Native American heritage.)
Me, too. I am originally from NY and YES they celebrate Columbus Day as a day of Italian pride.
The political correct crowd gets a MONTH for Hispanic American month (shoved in our faces on tv) but one day for Italian Americans is not allowed due to 'racism."
There were plenty of nasty Spanish explorers who wiped out the Aztecs and Incas cultures...
why would an italian american be proud of what columbus did to the new world? there are plenty of other high profile italian americans to be proud of? why be stuck on columbus?
why would an italian american be proud of what columbus did to the new world? there are plenty of other high profile italian americans to be proud of? why be stuck on columbus?
That is what I asked in a previous post. The Italians have so many greats. Artists, musicians, food, wine and such a rich history. Is it something about being the first? Well, we know that Columbus was not the first to reach these shores. Beats me.
The "English" teacher of Hispanic heritage has outed herself as a racist, an anti-White racist, and she should crawl back under the rock she wiggled out from under. Good grief!! Get real buddy. I am very happy that nobody that I know is being taught by a bigot like that.
And how exactly did she do that? By mentioning the darker side of the history about Columbus rather than just mentioning the rosy-eyed feel good myth?
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