do you think Latin America will/should do something about it..?[it being images of christopher columbus in their countries]

thanks for your question. this is bianca answering, the other team members may respond and have other comments so i’ll also make this a rebloggable response.

i think spain has a different connection to columbus than other central and south american countries including those in the caribbean. i think the difference is since spain commissioned/paid columbus to “search” for them, their allegiance to him bridging a path towards exploration, conquest, and colonization in the Americas is completely different than actually in those spaces.

as a puerto rican who sees similar statues of him erected in her homeland it reeks of more than just irony. it’s that attempt to hold onto a history of modernization, moving from a more primitive to less primitive society b/c of his existence and ‘work’. it is also an attempt to erase, tarnish, and continue to classify indigenous people living in those spaces as less than human (as many people’s testimonios have written was/is the belief), maintain their status as other, and attempt to have the masses embrace these ideologies as well. its’ also clearly connected to whiteness and upholding white supremacy (columbus is claimed as italian, not spanish yet the portuguese have been claiming him too… so he not only represents a specific way whiteness is constructed but also a royal approval of that whiteness by the spanish) and its connections to imperialism, especially cultural imperialism and ethnocentrism. “if we hold on to this image of whiteness and spanish identity we then get to ignore indigenous and african ancestry and be closer to what is considered ‘better’, ‘purer’, and more decent”.

it is also a way to attempt to rewrite history. assuming history begins when columbus did something (like arrive) versus recognizing the vast histories that existed prior to his.

now in PR, this ish along with other images were used during spanish colonization AND during US colonization. my father remembers very vividly the changing of his school textbooks by the US and those changes being things such as “PR is such a small island” to connect that being small means powerless, esp in comparison to other countries and nations. this is just one example i’m sure there are millions of others.

to remind us to be “grateful” for having a white savior who ‘found’ us, that there is a privilege in being saved, that the privilege of having a white person guide you and mentor you towards modernization is a gift we must treasure. i mean we see this acted out in so many different ways: at school, employment, in our communities.

i have yet to hear that these images of him remain b/c of an attempt to “not forget the imperialist history our country has survived and deconstructed, etc. etc.” yet, even in places such as Cuba statues of him exist.

so, i think it also becomes a question of art, the role, its purpose, and who gets to decide.

i’m all about each country having their own independence (and as someone whose homeland doesnt, you know where i’m coming from). id like to hope that each country would do something that not only honors the existence and legacy of their own african and indigenous populations, but the reality is they dont. we know this. we see this. so when countries in latin america, central america, the caribbean begin to actually value their people and seek to end oppressions of all sorts for all of their people (which means anti-black and native racism, transmisogyny, ableism, xenophobia, etc.) then they will do what is right and just for their communities with his image and those similar.

what do others think?