City Struggles With Colombus Day

Next Monday marks the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' landing in the West Indies, and recent debates over the nature of that "discovery" promise to make it the most controversial Columbus Day yet. In ethnically and racially diverse Cambridge, almost everybody seems to have a different take on the Italian sailor and the era of colonization he initiated.

Within the last few years, "decelebration" efforts have reached the mainstream in Cambridge. Nationally, this year's quincentennial has been marked by prominent protests by Blacks and Native Americans who contest the traditional image of Columbus as a heroic discoverer.

For a growing number of Americans, the explorer is instead a symbol of genocide and slavery. And the holiday that once seemed a benign celebration of national pride has increasingly been labelled a day of shame.

The issue is especially charged in Cambridge, which contains many African-Americans and Afro-Caribbean immigrants as well as Italian-Americans, for whom Columbus has traditionally been a hero.

Some Cambridge residents are resisting the more somber version of the holiday promoted by critics. Former Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci, who now serves as a governor of the Dante Alighieri Society of Italian Culture, says the Genoese explorer is an important figure for many Italian-American young people.

"Martin Luther King is a role model, Joe DiMaggio is a role model, Frank Viola is a role model and Christopher Columbus is a role model in the eyes and in the minds of young Italian Americans," Vellucci says. "Nobody should try to change that."

Joseph V. Ferino, who volunteers for the state's Quincentennial Commission, agrees that some of the "decelebration" of the holiday is unnecessary. He says Columbus Day marks "the birthday of America...an epic event" in history.

Ferino feels that Columbus' journey should be celebrated as a meeting of peoples. "The civilizations and cultures that were found here made contributions," he says. "All groups benefited from it...it was an exchange."

He also feels that recognizing the holiday doesn't imply a vindication of the actual conduct of Christopher Columbus or the violence of the colonial system.

"There were some very negative things, but they can't all be attributed to Christopher Columbus per se," Ferino says. "I don't think the negative things, such as blaming him for the destruction of the native American population, should be the cause after 500 years not to celebrate the discovery."

"It should be a celebration of all people. America as a whole should be celebrating it," he says.

But Ehrl D. LaFontant, a city activist who sits on the board of the Haiti Communications Project, sees no reason to celebrate the quincentennial next Monday. The traditional version of the Columbus story is a dangerous distortion of the truth, he says.

"Far from discovering America and bringing it civilization and culture," LaFontant says, "Columbus in fact destroyed the civilizations and cultures that existed in this part of the world. Ninety million indigenous people have been wiped out."

"He was basically a murderer," he says.

Columbus Day should be used, LaFontant believes, not to exalt the man who "discovered" the New World, but rather to reflect on what his voyage meant for the people already on this continent and those who followed him across the ocean, both as free immigrants and as slaves.

"I think this day should be a day of education," he says.

With that goal in mind, the Haiti Communications Project has joined with two organizations, the 500 Years is Enough Coalition, and the Committee of 500 Years of Resistance, to "demystify...[and] bring out the truth about Christopher Columbus' voyage," LaFontant says. The groups will bring speakers and performers to Jamaica Plain on Monday to address slave trade, the annihilation of the native American population and the cultural legacy of colonization.

This opposition to Columbus Day has influenced even more traditional commemorative efforts. Ferino acknowledges that the controversy surrounding the Columbus image has shifted, perhaps permanently, the focus of the holiday.

The events sponsored by the state's Quincentennial Commission have so far been more reflective than jubilant; they include lectures and exhibitions on pre-Columbian civilizations and the history of slavery.

City Hall has also been making an effort to keep public school students abreast of the rapidly changing meaning of the Columbus story. Cathy Hoffman, director of the city's Peace Commission, has been working with the city's Multicultural Education Committee to "challenge the notion of Columbus as hero" through curricula and student workshops.

"Our point of view...is that if we let Columbus Day go by without re-looking at it, it means an acceptance of a model of domination, of one culture being able to annihilate other," Hoffman says.

But she says she does not want simply to assign blame to any one culture or group, and is particularly wary of alienating Italian American students. Hoffman says the day should be a celebration and examination of all the diverse cultures.

LaFontant agrees that the holiday can foster co-operation among the groups that make up present-day America.

"If it's just a one-day thing, that would be an exercise in futility," he says. "[But] this dialogue will be a framework for more tolerance...[and] lead to better understanding among all of us."