Journal for Columbus

Gregory Alcala
English 48A
Lankford
Journal for Columbus

Quote:
“And since there was neither towns nor villages on the seashore, but only small hamlets, with the people of which I could not have speech because they all fled immediately.” Christopher Columbus, from Letter to Luis de Santangel regarding the First Voyage
Summary:
Columbus was righting to his supporter, Luis de Santangel, so he would have to write about the good. Columbus was shockingly honest about the lack of ‘great towns and cities’ on the new islands. Columbus also re named these chain of islands even though the native people had a name for their homeland. Seems like an pushy thing to do, thinking that the new name will stick. It does not shock me that the native people would run from Columbus. I have read in history texts that show the good and the bad that Columbus did oppress the native Americas so I am sure he did the same to these native people. How could he expect anything less from them? Columbus does not seem to really take in the fact that he has missed his target the Asian continent. He did discover land and when reading this I could hear a bragging tone in his voice. The only other options were returning to Spain without finding anything but sea water or dying at sea. So finding land, be it any land mass was a win.

Quote:
“Even those who loved him[Columbus] had to admit the atrocities that had taken place.” -Consuelo Varela
Summary: Columbus does have this shining reputation in some people eye’s that have not taken the time to read more into his history. Yet, when the truth of Columbus’s treatment of the Indians had come into the light, even his fans had to admit to the horrible acts that Columbus had done. I have read how Columbus would cut off Indians’ noses, a non lethal form of punishment to instill fear in the population.

Overall Summary:
I have heard the good part of Columbus’s story when in grade school. How he discovered the new world by mistake but it was a far better discovery then a new route to Asia. However, now I am hearing the crushing tales to his reputation. I did not want to use the classic image of Columbus. The one that was first on Google image search. It seems to be part of that false history told to me in elementary school. Yet I did want to pick something from the past, the image I decided to use was a imagined version of Columbus asking the King and Queen of Spain for money for his voyage. I wish I could have found something a little more mocking of the man and his deeds. It seems that his transgressions are only mentions in high school and college classes. And too many people want to not work on his holiday.