Helloooo, I said we lump the Good with the Bad. How is that revisionist crap? I like seeing the complete picture of an historical so I can make my own assessment. I never even learned that 1492 poem until college when it was in a preface to a novel we read for Latin American Literature. In grade school, we were too busy learning about the rich and diverse cultures he displaced.

I think, CaliBasco, that the use of Indigenous People's Day or Dia de la Raza, varies according to political correctness. Because La Raza is too remincisent of colonialism for some people and when I lived in Berkeley it definitely was Indigenous People's Day, a day of celebration for their culture while also mourning their losses over the last 5 centuries.

Wendy,

Did you say Berkeley?

Wolf

Hey man is that freedom rock?

Wolf and Asterault - LOL - once again!!!!!

I have a very trascendent question regarding this issue... What means LOL? I've seen it in this message board a couple of times, and I guess it is an abreviation, but I can't guess its meaning... :p

Fernando

Fernando - it's a question a lot of us have asked - and then we show off by using the expression. LOL means Laughing Out Loud as per Wolf's exlpanation to me when I asked the same question.

Thank you very much Puna!

Now I can sleep much better knowing it

Fernando

Día de la Raza or whatever p.c. term is in vouge is revisionism at its worst. Colón was no saint, as Calibasco as noted, but lets not depict him as some raving maniac hell-bent on spreading disease and distruction in the New World. Colón represents an important transitional figure in the history of western civilization. Some may wish to regect western cultural in favor of human-sacrificining Aztecs. I encourage those who have glorified the "indegenous cultures" (Lets not forget that they too had imigrated) and have chided western culture that they all just move to Guatemala, Bolivia, or Paraguay while regecting their wordly possesions. I´ll paraphase a quip by a member of the RAE that appeared recently in El Semenal, "Lets not forget that the western world has hundreds of years of hard work behind it, that work has permited our cultural and economic sucess." In short, thank you Spain for having financed those important voyages.

I too learned the refran as a child, and I was raised in California. Besides, MadridMan calls Columbus home which is reason enough to honor that courageous sailor.

PS, If your in Valladolid, you can visit one of his former homes.

je je je... Shawn, once again you chime in with
pure hilarity! also, Wolf, Cali, and Puna had some zingers up top too.

'dia de la what...??' 'indigenous people's what...?' i'm being facetious, of course i've heard of those 'days,' but i believe they are hogwash. why don't we have 'mechanic's day' to honor all the people that labor for hours over our horseless carriages?

Columbus Day is a fine thing to celebrate. he opened doors for travel that were not conventional for the rest of europe. cool.

of course i agree, the aztec culture, among a slew of others, were awesome! but c'mon, PC crowd, get real. the revisionist perspective is almost as whack as the reparations seekers perspective.

also, not all the jews left spain. Torquemada, charter member of the inquisition himself, allowed the jews to stay *IF* they converted. so many jewish families (including my own, 'mejia' is a sephardic jew name) converted and played the game, but never truly gave in to christianity. many of the ended up minding the finances of the Isabel and Ferdinand, and so on... (according to 'geografia e historia de espania,' published by ANAYA, used as a spahish high school text).

anyway, i hope i haven't 'offended' anyone too much. after all, the PC crowd, who get all uptight about 'offending,' have offended me with talk of beating up Comlumbus, but it doesn't matter to them because you can only be offended if you are in their club.

¡viva Colon! (jewish, italian, catalan, spanish, whatever...)

andrew