1492 marked the first time the Europeans reached Latin America. While it was recognized in the first lecture that Latin America was more a concept than a geographically defined area, Christopher Columbus’ arrival at the Bahamas is believed to be the starting point for the colonization of the Americas by the Europeans. This week and its content proved to cause a change in my perspective regarding Columbus and what I believed beforehand to be his accomplishments. In this blog post I will discuss two assumptions that lingered in my mind only to be proven wrong this week.

Before discussing whether I had admired him or not, I definitely saw Columbus as a genius. After all how could a man who lived in a time with such little geographic discovery, discover an entire continent. What I learnt this week firstly was that Columbus was not necessarily a genius who voyaged in a calculated manner across the seas in hope to land at undiscovered territory, but was rather on a journey to deliver letters to India where he stumbled upon the Americas in what seems to be an accident.

Moving onto his admiration, I saw Columbus in many high school textbooks, and recognized many landmarks and significant things named after him (including the country of Colombia), I saw Columbus as a man who changed the world – a hero. That was a certainty in my mind, the same way I was certain that Mandela and Gandhi are peace heroes. What I learnt this week was that this was not necessarily the case. Columbus actually took part in the enslavement and persecution of many Native Americans.

The question I asked myself after this week summarizes my thoughts throughout it: Given that Columbus was neither a genius (as he stumbled upon the Bahamas en route to India) nor a hero (due to his involvement in immoral activity), why should he be admired?