To the Editor:
Christopher Columbus always has been considered as America’s “first hero,” but when I think of heroic characteristics, I think of having humility, being selfless and being caring. And that makes me wonder why is Columbus considered a hero when he took 500 natives back to the motherland to be enslaved.
As Columbus’ historian friend, Andrés Bernáldez, once said, “They came thus to this land (...) of which all were sold and this proved to be very bad as they all died, being unfitted for the land.”
As seen here, Columbus doesn’t seem like a hero that should be celebrated. He doesn’t have one caring gene in his body, yet we’ve established a whole holiday for him. Moreover, he is no way selfless when he enslaved numerous innocent people and used the slave money to compensate the Spanish king for his second voyage to find gold in the Americas, in which he never really found gold in the first place Lastly, is he considered to have humility when he, on the first day in the Americas, ordered six Native Americans to be seized to be servants? There’s no modesty here, just superiority. In all, these are not the values that America’s foundation should be traced back to. Instead of being caring, being selfless and having humility, Columbus was corrupted, greedy and ruthless.
Mia Coliflores
Crystal Lake