[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s Columbus Day, a federal holiday in celebration of a man who, as some school kids are still being taught, bravely sailed across the sea in 1492 from Spain to “discover America.” Some students are also being taught that Columbus was a murderous slaver.
The voyage across the Atlantic took Columbus five week, from the Canary Islands to San Salvador in the Bahamas. The Lucayan people who lived on the island called it Guanahani.
It was Denver resident Angelo Noce, a first-generation Italian-American, who first lobbied successfully for a Columbus holiday. In 1905, Governor Jesse McDonald proclaimed the Columbus Day holiday in Colorado, the first official Columbus Day holiday in the United States. The Knights of Columbus, looking to land a Catholic figure on the holiday list, took the idea national, successfully lobbying President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress in April 1934.
Today, not even half of the states celebrate Columbus Day. Some celebrate the date as Native American Day or Indigenous People’s Day. Colorado still celebrates Columbus Day.
Talk among yourself in the comments below or over here.
I decided (about three minutes ago) that I will begin this year what I can only hope will be a long and fruitful Colombus Day tradition of reading the first chapter of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Anyone who’d like to join me can find it here: http://www.thegoyslife.com/Documents/Books/A%20People's%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States-%20Howard%20Zinn.pdf