Even now I remember those public school mandated Christopher Columbus day celebrations. By the third grade I learned to loathe those songs we had to sing about the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb. In school I was taught Columbus was an explorer and hero but at home my Taino-proud mother taught me he was a rapist and pillager. Ahhh what great conflicting lessons learned at an early age but from the post I am sure you can guess I gravitated toward the latter and earlier rather than later.
Year after year I would be packed into a school auditorium and stand, visually undetectable, lost in a sea of navy blue school uniforms. With all my weight shifted to one hip, arms crossed, and my newly learned and nearly perfected eye roll handy I waited with sheer DELIGHT for the precise time where I would switch out the word “discovered” and bellow out the more historically accurate “landed” or my favorite, “invaded.”
Rebel young!
12 years later I still don’t celebrate Columbus day– held on the second Monday of October.
The PSA above is type old but so much younger than those tired ass songs they’re still making kids sing so just remember this coming Monday to reconsider again, Columbus Day.
