Smart-arse type entry
Today is a public holiday. October 12. El Día de la Hispanidad. Day of Hispanicness/Hispanicity/Hispanicship. Apparently, October 12 is not only a holiday in Spain, but also in a number of Latin American countries where it is dubiously known as Día de la Raza in some and more politically correctly as Día de la Resistencia Indígena in Venezuela.
It was on this day in 1492 that Columbus is said to have arrived in America (“Hello, we’re here!”) with his band of merry would-be colonists. The highlight of the voyage had been the seafarers’ rousing renditions of Who’s afraid of a big flat world, a big flat world, a big flat world to a cuckoo-clock tune, which preceded the union of the Spanish and the Habsburg thrones by twenty-seven years. Musical jollities thus made up for the effects of the Atlantic swell and the crew’s pre-GPS inability to pinpoint where they were exactly because of inaccurate longitude calculations. (“This isn’t Majorca! Where’s the disco? The beer’s all funny!”, etc.).
Although colonialism gets a bad press nowadays, the arrival of Columbus and co. did not only bring rape, pillage, plunder, and divide-and-rule. Recently, historians have concentrated on the taking and overlooked the giving. However, colonists both offered local caciques sophisticated Old World weaponry and generously gifted the indigenous population with the real God (accompained by the Kid and Spooky, with nativity plays thrown in), Catholic guilt complexes and several strains of cold virus .
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Here, the Catalans don’t feel Hispanic. Still, they take the holiday, unlike many Basques. Me too, I’m in the office, not because I don’t feel Hispanic but because of an unturndownable job that came in yesterday as I was playing with a piece of Plasticine and some paper clips.
It was on this day in 1492 that Columbus is said to have arrived in America (“Hello, we’re here!”) with his band of merry would-be colonists. The highlight of the voyage had been the seafarers’ rousing renditions of Who’s afraid of a big flat world, a big flat world, a big flat world to a cuckoo-clock tune, which preceded the union of the Spanish and the Habsburg thrones by twenty-seven years. Musical jollities thus made up for the effects of the Atlantic swell and the crew’s pre-GPS inability to pinpoint where they were exactly because of inaccurate longitude calculations. (“This isn’t Majorca! Where’s the disco? The beer’s all funny!”, etc.).
Although colonialism gets a bad press nowadays, the arrival of Columbus and co. did not only bring rape, pillage, plunder, and divide-and-rule. Recently, historians have concentrated on the taking and overlooked the giving. However, colonists both offered local caciques sophisticated Old World weaponry and generously gifted the indigenous population with the real God (accompained by the Kid and Spooky, with nativity plays thrown in), Catholic guilt complexes and several strains of cold virus .
*****
Here, the Catalans don’t feel Hispanic. Still, they take the holiday, unlike many Basques. Me too, I’m in the office, not because I don’t feel Hispanic but because of an unturndownable job that came in yesterday as I was playing with a piece of Plasticine and some paper clips.
posted by Bob at 12:22 pm
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