Celebrating America: Why we honor Columbus and ignore Vespucci
A bust of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of the Pan American Union.
(OPINION) Why do Americans celebrate Christopher Columbus? It’s a question often debated, especially when race relations in the United States reach a boiling point. Now, like in so many occasions over the last few decades, Columbus has proven a polarizing figure.
As protesters topple statues across the country and the issue of race continues to be debated in the wake of George Floyd’s murder on Memorial Day while in police custody, one thing has come to the forefront: America remains a country at odds with its past. With Independence Day approaching, the U.S. finds itself in the midst of an identity crisis. Some have called the events of the past month a “Cultural Revolution,” others a chance to rewrite the wrongs of America’s past.
Can Columbus be both a brave explorer and a plundering colonizer? To understand Columbus means having to look at him through a religious lens. He was a pious man who saw it as his duty to save the souls of non-Christians. Columbus, working on behalf of the Spanish crown, ultimately sought to use the resources he found on his voyages to enrich himself as well as help finance the church’s quest to recapture Jerusalem from Islam. All that context matters when looking at Columbus, although it doesn’t serve as a defense for the ultimate fate of Native American people throughout the Americas.
Republican senators earlier this week debated whether Juneteenth, the day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S, should replace Columbus Day as a federal holiday. At the same time, Columbus statues across the country have either been toppled, decapitated, splattered with fake blood or altogether removed by lawmakers.
Columbus is lauded because he is a stand-in for all the achievements of Italian Americans in the U.S. But Americans have been celebrating the wrong man. Columbus, problematic because he is credited with opening up the slave trade, never even made it to the shores of what is now the United States. Instead, we should be celebrating another Italian explorer and the man for which this country — along with the continents of North and South America — is named for. That man? Amerigo Vespucci.
A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, a fictionalized biographical account, written by Washington Irving in 1828 helped fuel a myth. By 1892, President Benjamin Harrison declared Columbus Day a one-time national celebration, coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas. Harrison’s decision came shortly after a lynching in New Orleans, where a mob murdered 11 Italian immigrants.
Then, like now, politicians tried to make amends. Indeed, Harrison’s proclamation was part of an effort after the lynching to placate Italians. But the holiday ended up sticking — especially among these new immigrants — and in 1934 Congress passed a statute stating that the president “issue each year a proclamation” designating October 12 as Columbus Day. It was during this period that a man from the 15th century born Cristoforo Colombo became an American hero with an anglicized name. As Italians gained in power and influence, the day (celebrated on the second Monday of October) officially became a U.S. federal holiday starting in 1968.
Vespucci, however, is barely mentioned in American classrooms. Have you seen crowds toppling Vespucci statues? You haven’t because there aren’t any prominent statues of him. While some would love to see Columbus Day be made into Indigenous Peoples Day (several cities have done so), Americans should celebrate Vespucci. Western Europeans coming into contact with where we live today — and the subsequent spread of Christianity that came with it — is a convergence of cultures. The coming of two worlds should be celebrated. It’s something Hispanics across the United States do each October.
Vespucci was educated by his uncle, a Dominican friar who got him interested in exploration and maps, during the Italian Renaissance. Later in life, the Florentine-born merchant and banker — he’s what we would today call a businessman and entrepreneur — found a second career as a successful navigator and mapmaker. As a result, he figured out in 1501 (during his Portuguese-financed expedition) that Brazil was part of a different continent. He called it the “New World.” That claim inspired cartographer Martin Waldseemuller to recognize Vespucci’s accomplishments in 1507 by applying the name “America” (the feminized name for Amerigo) for the first time to his map. Others did the same. By 1532, the name America had found a permanent place on maps across Europe.
Who was Vespucci? Part of a politically-connected family (they had a good relationship with Lorenzo de’ Medici), the Vespucci family was famous for funding a chapel in the Ognissanti Church located in Florence. Vespucci’s interest in geography and subsequent voyages, spanning the years 1497 to 1504, would cement his legacy in Europe and around the globe. Thanks to a series of letters, we know about Vespucci’s work. He died of malaria in 1512.
Vespucci — despite his name being placed on a map — has always played second fiddle to Columbus from the very start. The veracity of some of his voyages were questioned, while others doubted Vespucci ever recognized that he’d encountered a continent previously unknown to Europeans. Instead, Vespucci (just like Columbus) died thinking they had reached the outer reaches of Asia. Vespucci’s reputation hit a low point in 1856 when Ralph Waldo Emerson called him a “thief” who managed to get “half the world baptized with his dishonest name.”
“Some scholars have held Vespucci to be a usurper of the merits of others,” according to historian Roberto Almagia. “Yet, despite the possibly deceptive claims made by him or advanced on his behalf, he was a genuine pioneer of Atlantic exploration and a vivid contributor to the early travel literature of the New World.”
One of my favorite spots in Washington, D.C. are the grounds of the Pan American Union Building, which serve as The Headquarters for the Organization of American States in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. On those grounds is a bust of Vespucci, the only statue I know of in this country that recalls his accomplishments. He also has a statue in his native city, although it is often overlooked since Florence is loaded with priceless works of religious art.
We live in a time when our past has increasingly come under review. Trying to judge historic figures through a 2020 lens means having to impose our current morality on people who lived centuries ago. We can’t change the past, but we can choose who we honor today. Will Columbus statues be taken down? It’s already happening. Will Columbia University change its name? It’s highly unlikely.
Columbus will remain a controversial figure. Should Columbus Day be canceled? Maybe we’d be better off celebrating Vespucci Day.
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.