In some sense, history is about imagination, how we see ourselves as existing it world.
Some people see Columbus as an Italian hero. And with that, a focus of Italian-American pride. In truth, without Italian-Americans lobbying, we wouldn't have this Columbus day thing.
Some people see Columbus as bringing Christ to North America. So for them, it is the beginning of Christianizing the Americas. I'll niggle and point out the first Christian church in the Americas was built hundreds of years earlier by Norse Vikings converted to Christianity.
Some people see Columbus day as the extension of European culture and economy. The extension of those ideals of progress, growth, economy. All that good stuff. Developing the blank slate of the New World.
Some people see Columbus as the beginning of the American experiment. I am not sure why. But the spirit is that he began the discovery that would bring people to Jamestown and Plymouth Rock.
Some people see Columbus as the destroyer of their indigenous culture. Either directly or symbolically as marking the beginning of a way of discovery that literally killed, raped, displaced, exploited, enslaved indigenous peoples to contemporary times.
It's all the same history. We just lift out pieces that fit our dream.
I choose to look to the Norse Vikings as the first Europeans in the Americas. Living in what was Spanish Florida I look to Columbus as the one who brought Ponce de Leon. I look to the founder of Jamestown and Plymouth Rock as the first founders of this thing called America.
