Italian American Heritage Project
The Italian American Heritage Project (IAHP) provides educational resources about Italian American history, heritage,
and culture with a straightforward view on the roles of Italians in American history and culture.
IMMIGRATION
INTERNMENT
STEREOTYPES
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission except when published with this credit:
Excerpt from the Italian American Heritage Project, ©2018-2022 Janice Therese Mancuso.
Copyright 2018-2024 Janice Therese Mancuso
Contact: jtmancuso@earthlink.net Subject: IAHP
What is the Truth About Columbus?
Did he establish a pattern of violence under conquest or was that pattern established from the beginning of human history? Read Blaming Columbus.
Is he the cause of a blending of civilizations or the source of a clash of cultures? Read Culture of Spain and Mesoamerica.
Was he responsible for connecting European and American continents or to blame for wiping out native populations? Read Columbus and the Natives.
Was he a celebrated navigator and explorer or a notorious mass murderer?
More discussions on the above will be posted soon.
When? … How? …. Why? … What?
When did the controversy start?
Shortly
before
the
500th
anniversary
of
the
first
Columbus
landing
on
the
islands
in
the
Caribbean,
“articles
critical
of
Columbus
began
appearing
in
the
popular
press.”
Some
books
and
scholarly
articles
published
earlier
had
denounced
the
concept
of
Colonialism
in
the
Americas
and
its
affect
on
native populations, including the treatment of Native Americans in the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
How did it develop?
In
1980,
A
People’s
History
of
the
United
States
by
Howard
Zinn
was
published,
and
has
become
a
popular
alternative
to
the
traditional
history
books
used
in
schools
and
colleges.
In
Chapter
1,
“Columbus,
The
Indians,
and
Human
Progress,”
Zinn
wrote,
“My
point
is
not
that
we
must,
in
telling
history,
accuse,
judge,
condemn
Columbus
in
absentia.
It
is
too
late
for
that;
it
would
be
a
useless
scholarly
exercise
in
morality.”
However,
this
is
what
has
happened.
In
1991,
Rethinking
Columbus
was
published
by
Rethinking
Schools
“Because
the
Columbus
myth
is
a
foundation
of
children's
beliefs
about
society.”
Other
books
have
also
been
written
denigrating
Columbus,
but
Zinn’s
book
“has
changed
the
way
schools
teach
about the ‘discovery of America.’”
In
2008,
two
years
before
Zinn
died,
the
Zinn
Education
Project,
in
coordination
with
Rethinking
Schools,
was
founded
to
promote
and
support
“the
teaching
of
people’s
history
in
middle
and
high
school
classrooms
across
the
country,”
to
offer
“a
more
engaging
and
more
honest
look
at
the
past,”
and to “equip students with the analytical tools to make sense of — and improve — the world today,”
Does vilifying Columbus make sense?
Why has it continued?
Columbus
is
an
easy
mark
because
influential
Italian
organizations
and
others
of
Italian
heritage
were
not
united
or
quick
to
act
in
addressing
the
controversy.
While
there
are
numerous
websites
noting
the
merits
of
Columbus
and
a
concentrated
effort
in
now
underway,
reaching
those
who
have
been
misinformed
and
educating
younger
generations
is
a
monumental
challenge.
Those
against
Columbus
have
built
a
strong
coalition
and
are using it to their advantage. Educational institutions, politicians, businesses, and media professionals continue to yield to their demands.
Indigenous People have a designated day, (by the United Nations) and Native Americans have a day and a month (by the Federal Government) to
celebrate their culture.
Native American Heritage Month – November
Native American Heritage Day – The day after Thanksgiving
Indigenous Peoples Day – August 9
What can you do?
Learn
about
Columbus
and
the
history
of
his
voyages.
Read
the
resources
listed
below
-
books,
papers,
and
websites.
Visit
the
Italian
American
Heritage
Project
for
regular
updates
and
added
information.
Talk
to
your
children
and
grandchildren
about
their
Italian
American
heritage.
Become
involved.
Find
out
what
is
being
taught
in
your
schools.
Speak
to
teachers
and
ask
them
to
use
the
lesson
plans
about
Columbus’s
letters
to
present an unbiased view.
A
concentrated
effort
to
eliminate
Columbus
Day
has
been
taking
place
throughout
America
for
more
than
20
years.
Much
can
be
attributed
to
the
“Abolish
Columbus
Day”
campaign
by
the
Zinn
Education
Project
–
a
program
that
targets
school
children
to
judge
the
actions
that
occurred
during
the
fifteenth
century
with
twenty-first
century
values.
Additionally,
the
information
they
receive
is
one
sided,
based
on
passages
taken
out
of
context
from
abstracts
of
Columbus’s
logs.
Children
are
urged
not
only
to
act
on
their
emotions,
but
also
to
base
their
emotions
on
incomplete
and,
in
some
cases,
manipulated facts.
More
important,
though,
is
the
effect
this
has
on
children
of
Italian
American
heritage.
These
children
are
forced
to
learn
that
an
Italian
is
the
cause
of
genocide,
slave
trading,
and
other
horrific
acts
that,
even today, continue to cause irrefutable harm to Native Americans.
The
mission
of
the
Italian
American
Heritage
Project
is
to
provide
information
so
readers
can
make
informed decisions, based more on facts than emotion.
Truth or Truthiness
Truth: “the true or actual state of a matter.” dictionary.com
Truthiness: "The quality by which one purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence
or intellectual examination." Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report; 2005
CURRENT RESOURCES
Rebuttal to the Lies About Columbus
Who Was The Real Christopher Columbus?
Christopher Columbus
The Columbus Navigation Homepage
The Original Log of Christopher Columbus
Columbus: Fact vs. Fiction
Official Christopher Columbus
When Worlds Collide: Clash of Cultures During the Age of Discovery. Thomas C. Tirado, Ph.D., October 2000 (PDF Download)
Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus. Samuel Eliot Morison; Little Brown, 1942
Christopher Columbus, Mariner. Samuel Eliot Morison; Little Brown, 1955
A People's History of the United States. Howard Zinn; Harper, 1980
Columbus Before the Queen,
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1843
The four voyages of Columbus
First: 1492-1493
Second: 1493-1496
Third: 1498-1500
Fourth: 1502-1504