Christopher Columbus Documentary

    After reading what Columbus himself had to say about his voyages and journeys, it was good to hear another version of the story and more of an objective historical look at what happened on these trips. While I was reading the extracts from Columbus' journal I was thinking about the idea that there are always two (or more) sides to every story and this documentary had more of the indigenous perspective, or at least took their livelihoods and existence into account. With this, we saw more of the harsh reality of what happened when Columbus and his men came onto these islands and seemingly took over. The documentary said, "within 50 years of Columbus' arrival, the Arawak population was practically depleted." That is sad for a number of reasons, including the fact that now on those islands, none of their descendants remain. It also keeps the Arawak people from having any true representation or voice on what happened.

    Luckily, historians and people on those islands today realize that one girl in the documentary saying, "It's sad because there would be much more Indians today if that didn't happen. That pretty much finished them off, the hunting of the Indians." While Columbus is certainly not the sole person to blame, as there were people and royalty he was reporting to in Spain, this goes to show not everything is what it may have seen from his accounts, especially as a person who is celebrated. The reality of the situation, as the documentary talks about was that these people were being enslaved, overworked and dying because of the entrance of Spaniards, as a result of Columbus' voyage. While the world Western world is the way it is today because of these journeys, it is important to recognize and understand the price many had to unwillingly pay for it to be this way. The sad and often times harsh reality.

-cs

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rosario Ferre's "When Women Love Men"

      The story story told in Ferre's "When Women Love Men" was an interesting look at how love, relationships, gender, and culture all come together in Puerto Rico. The story also hits on several other issues like societal class, race, and death, which we have seen become commonalities in the literature in the Caribbean. In this story, we see the relationship and interaction with two women who contrast one another as practically opposites. These two, who share the same first name of Isabel are the wife and mistress of Ambrosio, who has died and forced these two into the interactions we see in this story. From the beginning, there is an awkward tensity here and no punches were being held back, even at the man who had passed away.       In a pretty bizarre story at times, the story says, "Because we, Isabel Luberza and Isabel la Negra, in our passion for you, Ambrosio, from the beginning of time had been grow...
Read more

Breeze, "Sunday Cricket" & Sam Selvon's "The Cricket Match"

    In these two stories, we get a look at how sport and competition can be an equalizer in a postcolonial world. The stories also touch on how much sports can tie into a culture's identity. In "The Cricket Match" we see a more traditional idea of what we might think of cricket, a British game, but with some people from the West Indies playing. In "Sunday Cricket," we see a full-on West Indies story, from diction to how the characters acted. The common ground, though, was the game of cricket. It did not matter where they came from, on the field, each person had an equal opportunity to perform and compete. While it's thought of as a traditionally British game, the men from the West Indies were impressive in "The Cricket Match," the narrator saying, "Them Englishers never see a stroke like that in their lives. All heads turn up to the sky watching the ball going." In this game, preconceived superiority and social class did not matter. This ...
Read more

Wickham's, "The Light on the Sea"

      Similar to "Blackness," I saw this story as one that arrives at self-actualization and realization. Mr. Farley was an artist who was never satisfied with his work. He could never complete it because he would lose his vision. Our narrator introduced Mr. Farley as someone who might be seen as dealing with 'otherness,' generally seen as an outcast from the rest of the society. The story says, "It did not surprise me that Mr. Farley never succeeded in his career, never became talked about but always remained a kind of butt, outside the swim of things, a harmless figure of fun." Mr. Farley had to deal with this bit of social isolation like we have seen so many characters have to do in this Caribbean literature. He has to feel this way most of his adult life, dealing with the idea of  unhomeliness, uncomfortable with his work and not feeling satisfied. That is, until he finds somewhere he foes like to call home.     This p...
Read more