Raising a glass. To a Culture. A race? A lethal Italian?

It’s the Spanish National day. The 12th of October. The anniversary of the day Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean. Our shops around where we live are closed, our friends are on leave.

In the US, it’s Columbus Day. But it’s celebrated right across the Americas, and in Spain, because what could be more appropriate for all those nations than to pay tribute to a remarkable Italian?

Not, of course, that they all recognise that he was Italian. I’ve had Spaniards tell me he was Spanish. Why, I’ve even had Portuguese friends tell he was one of their compatriots. Which, considering he was a native of Genoa, some 2000 kilometres from Lisbon, rather strains the imagination.

Confusing Genoa with Portugal is almost as bad as arriving in the Americas and thinking you’re in the Indies.

I’m sure there are others who claim Columbus for one of their own. I suspect that if you asked Trump (please wear a mask), he’d probably tell you Columbus was American. And, indeed, a supporter of his (Trump’s).

Columbus arrives in the New World
The sword and the cross are visible
The even worse scourge, disease, is there but hidden

To be honest, seeing him as a bit of a Trump man would be less implausible than some of the other claims. After all, Columbus’s arrival in what would later be called America inflicted a devastating pandemic on the Continent. Smallpox wreaked havoc amongst the indigenous population. Many authorities maintain that measles and flu added colossal numbers of dead too, but of course those fine authorities on medical matters, the anti-vaxxers, might perhaps question whether either of those diseases is really that serious.

The net result was a 90% reduction of the population over a bit more than a century. That’s 55 million dead. Hugely more than Trump has achieved, though he’s clearly working on it.

They didn’t all die of disease, of course. The conquistadors’ weapons couldn’t possibly do as much damage as the illnesses, but they did what they could. All for the glory of Spain (Making Spain Great For Now) and the triumph of the Christian Church (with miscreants burned at the stake or even, in one notorious case involving gays, flung to dogs to tear to pieces). 

In Spain, the day has been celebrated since early in the 20th century. It was initially called ‘The Day of the Race’, with the focus on celebrating the bonds between the Spanish and the peoples of Latin America who spoke the same language. Later on, given that racism began to be viewed as somewhat toxic, before Trump came along to make it acceptable again, the name was changed, in Spain at least, replacing ‘Raza’ by ‘Hispanidad’. I suppose that makes it the ‘Day of the Spanish-speaking peoples’. Doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue but it’s perhaps better than celebrating a race. A bit less offensive.

Anyway, it’s a big deal. And I hope all the people who celebrating it have fun. 

Happy Columbus Day to all my friends in the States.

Happy ‘Día de la Raza’ to my friends in Latin America who still call it that.

And happy ‘Día de la Hispanidad’ to my friends in Spain.

I’ll raise a glass tonight to Christopher Columbus, a native, as I am, of that fine country, Italy. Though given what his arrival in the Americas heralded, maybe I’ll not toast him with any great enthusiasm. Half a glass for him, I think, the rest for my own pleasure.