The news reporters at the White House were a bit confused on Friday, when press secretary Jen Psaki juggled some questions about the second Monday in October. Which is today.
The reporters wanted to know what, exactly, the President was trying to say about October 11.
President Biden had issued a proclamation, marking October 11 as Indigenous People’s Day. The President had also issued a proclamation, marking October 11 as Columbus Day. Press secretary Jen Psaki characterized Biden as “happy to be the first president to celebrate [Indigenous People’s Day] and to make it… uh… er… the history, moving forward.”
So today is officially Columbus Day. And it’s also officially Indigenous People’s Day.
Or, for convenience, we might call it “Indigenous Columbus People’s Day”. Or maybe, “Indigenous People’s Columbus Day”.
I’m not quite as confused about this change as the reporters questioning Ms. Psaki. I think holiday proclamations are mostly nonsense.
Columbus Day, as a state and federal holiday, has a curious history, and apparently came about as the result of lobbying efforts by various Italian-American organizations, such as the Knights of Columbus, in response to anti-Italian and anti-Catholic violence during the first half of the 20th century. Italian-Americans were seeking acceptance and recognition — by reminding Americans of European descent that they wouldn’t even be here, if not for an Italian explorer named Christopher Columbus.
Funny thing, though. When Columbus discovered America, the Europeans who followed him were Spanish, Dutch, French, English, German, Swedish, Portuguese… pretty much the whole dang European continent, except the Italians. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were fewer than 25,000 Italian immigrants living in the U.S. in 1870.
And strictly speaking, they weren’t necessarily “Italians”. Up until 1861, there was no such country as “Italy”. The country we now know as Italy historically consisted of a lot of smaller kingdoms and republics and duchies — more than a dozen, by my count — each with its own government, its own capital city, and its own army. Especially, its own army.
And each with its own forms of oppression and poverty. Here’s an Italian map showing the political situation in 1492.
While other Europeans were occupying more and more of the Western Hemisphere, and driving the indigenous peoples out of their traditional homelands, the people of the Italian peninsula were slowly cobbling together a unified country. Once they finally got their act together and stopped fighting, and officially picked the name “Italy” — and moved the capital from Florence to Rome, where it belonged — they immediately started leaving, and moving to America. Where they could live oppressed and impoverished, but in a foreign language.
So, although the creation of Columbus Day was an apparent attempt by a certain ethnic group to assert their national pride in a country where they were facing racial discrimination, it has come to pose a problem. Because it turns out that Columbus was, himself, a racist oppressor.
And for the most part, the Europeans who followed him to the so-called New World were also racists. In fact, the Europeans didn’t even like each another. The English thought they were better than the French and the Irish. The Prussians felt superior to the Czechs and the Austrians. The Spanish thought they were better than everybody else.
One of the most popular activities in Europe was invading another country and oppressing the inhabitants, making them into feudal slaves or paying starvation wages.
So we needn’t be surprised that an Genovese explorer enslaved of the inhabitants he “discovered” in the New World… or when the Spanish did the same… and then, all the other Europeans followed suit by driving the indigenous people of New World onto reservations in the middle of nowhere.
I refer to Christopher Columbus as a “Genovese explorer” because, when he was born in Genova in 1451, there was no such place as “Italy”. Genova was an independent republic, soon to be overrun and claimed as part of France, and then later overrun and claimed by Spain. Some light research into his biography suggests, however, that Columbus probably lived most of his life in Portugal. So maybe he was a “Portuguese explorer”. And I guess his real name was Cristoforo Colombo.
If anyone struggled with confusion, it was Cristoforo Colombo. When he sailed from Spain in 1492, he didn’t know where he was going. When he got there, he didn’t know where he was. And when he returned to Spain, he didn’t know where he’d been.
Now, 529 years later, many of us would rather not celebrate the death and destruction wrought on the North American continent following Columbus’ exploratory visit in 1492. Our President has thoughtfully provided a choice. What do you want to celebrate? Take your pick. Columbus? Indigenous People?
But I refuse to be confused. I’d rather assert that ‘truth’ is ephemeral, as it was for Columbus.
That all versions of the truth are equally valid.
Is today “Columbus Day”… or is it “Indigenous People’s Day”… or is it “Indigenous Columbus People’s Day”?
Yes. All of the above.