VOICES, CHAPTER 1: Columbus vs. de Las Casas

When discussing American history it's hard not to start from the very beginning, when Columbus first crossed the Atlantic to discover the New World. Our history books tend to depict Columbus as a heroic figure, the grand adventurer who crossed the seas not knowing what he would find on the other side. It is to Columbus the credit is given for finding "America" and letting loose an endless string of Columbus-wannabe's, who in the name of European Imperialism followed Columbus's wake to the new world. To most Americans Columbus can be seen as the Grand Entrepreneur. For some he embodies the "American Dream" of taking risk, expanding your territory and accomplishing your unthinkable goal. Few look at Columbus's life and question what cost was paid by the native Islanders and the natural resources of the islands, by his entrepreneurial spirit.

Columbus knew that his dairy would be of government record, used to justify the expenses of his voyage to the King and Queen of Spain. Knowing this he appears to have chosen his words wisely, like a student requested to keep a diary for their parents when left alone at home while the parents are away in Hawaii. The student may talk about the two friends they had over to hang out, but just happens to leave out the names of the other twenty-six students that also hung out, broke the stair railing and threw up all over the house due to binge drinking. Columbus openly describes the natives as docile and believes them easy to convert to Christianity (which would be important to the royals back home and their theocracy.) Yet Columbus' main goal was to find gold. And as it turns out would do anything to anyone to find it.

Here is the account by Las Casas of the Spaniards actions towards the Indians:
"And never have the Indians in all the Indies committed any act against the Spanish Christians, until those Christians have first and many times committed countless cruel aggressions against them or against neighboring nations. For in the beginning the Indians regarded the Spaniards as Angles from Heaven. Only after the Spaniards had used violence against them, killing, robbing, torturing, did the Indians ever rise up against them. On the Island of Hispaniola was where the Spaniards first landed, as I have said. Here those Christians perpetrated their first ravages and oppressions against the native people. This was the first land in the New World to be destroyed and depopulated by the Christians, and here they began their subjection of the women and children, taking them away from the Indians to use them and ill use them, eating the food they provided with their sweat and toil. The Spaniards did not content themselves with what the Indians gave them of their own free will, according to their ability, which was always too little to satisfy enormous appetites, for a Christian eats and consumes in one day an amount of food that would suffice to feed three houses inhabited by ten Indians for one month. And they committed other acts of force and violence and oppression that made the Indians realize that these men had not come from Heaven. And some of the Indians concealed their foods while others concealed their wives and children and still others fled to the mountains to avoid the terrible transactions of the Christians.
And the Christians attacked them with buffets and beatings, until finally they laid hands on the nobles of the villages. Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian Officer."

What a grave misrepresentation of the Gospel. What de Las Casas describes as the actions of "Christians" has nothing to do with loving message of Jesus. Here is another account by Las Casas that should, if you are a follower of Jesus, leave a painful feeling in your gut:

"When tied to the stake, the cacique Hatuey was told by a Franciscan friar who was present, an artless rascal, something about the God of the Christians and of the articles of Faith. And he was told what he could do in the brief time that remained to him, in order to be saved and go to heaven. The cacique, who had never heard any of this before, and was told he would go to Inferno where, if he did not adopt the Christian Faith, he would suffer eternal torment, asked the Franciscan friar if Christians all went to Heaven. When told that they did he said he would prefer to go to Hell. Such is the fame and honor that God and our Faith have earned through the Christians who have gone out of the Indies."

Las Casas claims that millions of Indians were brutally murdered during this time of "discovery". It doesn't matter to me that his numerical claims cannot be substantiated. The fact that any brutality and oppression is done under the name of Jesus is sickening. That Christians committed these acts is not a generality. In 1560 (only eight years after Columbus first set sail) Las Casas was summoned before the Royal Council of Spain to debate the treatment of the Indians with a priest by the name of Gines de Sepulveda. During this debate Sepulveda, a man of the clothe, a representative of the "Church", declared that the Indians were in fact "sub-human" and in being so did not deserve any rights keeping them from such mistreatment.

This country was not found on the principals of democracy and freedom. As we will see over the course of the Voices of a People's History of the Untied States, much of this nations history was built on the oppression of one people group or another. Understanding what a painful realization this may be to some, I believe it cannot compare to the pain suffered when the realization of this truth is compounded with the fact that the church at best stood by doing nothing about these transgresions and at worst supported them.

The only true way to sum up my feelings after reading this chapter is to quote a great Jewish-American comedian named Woody Allen, when he said, "If Jesus came back and saw what was being done in his name, he wouldn't be able to stop throwing up."

Voices of a People's history

Over the past four decades Howard Zinn has been an author, an activist and a scholar. The body of his work has won him numerous praise and awards. His book, A People’s History of the United States, has sold more than one million copies to date. His most recent work is unselfishly devoted to the voices of people seldom heard when the record of this nations history was written. Voices of a People’s History of the United States, is a collection of letters, speeches, poems and songs of the people mostly forgotten by mainstream historians and media outlets. In the introduction Zinn explains the premise of this book by saying, “What is common to all these voices is that they have mostly been shut out of the orthodox histories, the major media, the standard text books, the controlled culture. The result of having our history dominated by presidents and generals and other “important” people is to create a passive citizenry, not knowing it’s own powers, always waiting for some savior on high-God or the next president-to bring peace and justice. History, looked at under the surface, in the streets and on the farms, in GI barracks and trailer camps, in factories and offices, tells a different story. Whenever injustices have been remedied, wars halted, women and blacks and Native Americans given their due, it has been because “unimportant” people spoke up, organized, protested, and brought democracy alive.” This book is a study of such people, people not unlike you and I.

For fifteen years I have been working with teenagers in these United States of America, from the heartland to LA LA land, and one thing I have noticed is the lack of historical knowledge our young people receive from our public educational system. Reading, of course, is fundamental and vital to any decent education. Writing is a vital part of being able to communicate ones self to the rest of the world. Math, well don’t get me started on math. Besides being able to calculate a waitress’ tip or what the cost of a new DVD is minus the percentage off during a sale, math holds minimal value in my day-to-day life. But history and social studies affects us everyday. The structure of any belief system is built on what we know or perceive to know about history, albeit it our belief in governmental systems or our belief in a supreme being. Only history can answer the questions about social structures, where our traditions come from and what are the meanings behind the creeds we follow (religious or secular). With out history we would not know from where we came and in turn where we are going. With out studying the mistakes of the past we are doomed to repeat them. Over and over again.

Over the next couple of weeks as I read through Howard Zinn’s new collection I will attempt to give a book report on each chapter that I read. The book starts off with a selection from Christopher Columbus 1492 diary and ends with an article by Kurt Vonnegut written in May of 2004 in protest to the war in Iraq. I would encourage all that read this (the few of you still out there) to use the comments section to engage in dialog about what I write. More importantly, this is a must have on your bookshelf. I encourage everyone to read this book and share it with someone else.

The book is 624 pages long, so get ready for one huge book report.