8/9/2019 Cristobal Colon's Encounter THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE Vol. 20, No. 8 September 1992

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THE SANTA FEAN MACAZINE' SeDtember 1992' 16 THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZTNE, September 7992

C rist6bal Col6n's Eri'C'bii hte

Col6n'sfirst

voyageshould be

Ipropenyconsidered

a recon-naissance.

Virtually everYthing of importancethe succeeding 500 Years could besaid to stem from Col6n's landfall.Story, Charles Bennett

It is probably a safe bet that 99 percent of theinhabitants of Europe and North and South Ameri-ca are aware that this year is the five hundredthanniversary of the landfall of Crist6bal Col6n("Christopher Columbus" is a latter-day Latiniza-tion that he himself never heard) on a small islandin what we today call the Bahamas. The event usedto be referred to as the "discovery of America," butin this current climate of political correctness, thisterm is no longer deemed appropriate, nor was ithistorically accurate, of course. Instead of "discov-ery," the event of the landfall and the resulting cul-tural collision in the Caribbean is now referred toas the "encounter."

There may be indigenous native groups livingin remote areas of South America, perhaps' that areunaware of the Quincentenary. If so, it is ironic,given that the native peoples of the Americas wereimpacted more than anyone else by Col6n's landfall.Nevertheless, googoles of words have beenand continue to be written about the Quincente-nary and its many issues. A big budget film on theItalian-born Spanish subject Col6n starringFrenchman Gerard Depardieu will open at theatresin October. The Quincentenary is being commem-orated in the Americas and in Europe with a pletho-ra of special exhibitions, expositions, conferencesand symposia, parades and pageants, regattas, festi-vals, monuments and countless other programs andprojects.

When Col6n and his shipmates waded ashorefrom his flagship the Nifia's longboat to "discover"America, first off, of course, it was notAmerica-not yet anyway, and these Spaniards didnot discover it. They weren't even the first Euro-peans to reach its shores. Leif Eriksson had landedmuch farther north in A.D. 1000. But perhapsthese two points are relatively unimportant $iventhe big picture. What counts is that in this act two

vastly different continents, both of whicevolved independently on different land massearated by an ocean, were suddenly joined,transfer or exchange of plant species, animatechnolo$y would soon be initiated that woumatically alter life all over the world. Vieverything of importance in the succeedinyears could be said to stem from Col6n's land

Soon there would be talk of the "New Win European circles, and the lar$est and lomigration in history would'begin. The keyfor this process Col6n initiated when he sonto the beach of San Salvador Island werquest, destiny, honor, salvation and civilizAnd the ensuing years would reveal that thcess was a stranSle mixture of admiratiorespect, avarice and the desire to subjugate awho seemed so wealthy and yet so weak.home in 1493 Col6n wrote a widely readabout his voyage in which he touched on this

May gour highnesses belieue thatwhole world there cannot be better or morepeople...These people are uery unskilled inWith 50 men they could all be subjugatemade to do all that one wished. (rouRNAL oFvoYAcE,1492.1493).

Spanish conquistador Bernal Diaz del C(1492-1581), author of The True History Conquest of Mexico (1632), further stated thsuccinctly when he wrote that the Europeacome "to give light to those in darkness andget rich."Col6n's first voyage should be propersidered a reconnaissance. Actually, the encthat would remake two worlds began withsecond voyage to the Americas. He retur1493 with 17 ships under his command.

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THE SANTA FEAN MACMINE, Septmber

Col6n never realized that hisattempts to reach the Spice Islandssef in motion processes that woulddramatically alter life on our planet.ships carried horses and Castilian cattle, fruit trees,wheat and barley, sugarcane, hogs and other items.Col6n's second voyage actually initiated the inter-continental exchange that continues to this day.New World products taken back to Europe includedcorn, potatoes, dyes, pineapples, chile peppers,tobacco, turkeys, tomatoes, peanuts, sunflowersand other things. Indeed, the exchange was fairlycomparable in value: girains, vegetables, livestockand technology.This so-called Columbian exchange, involvingthe transfer of numerous species between Old andNew Worlds, changed the health and diet of peoplethroughout the world, at the same time irrevocablyalteringi the environment of the Americas. Col6nnever realized that his attempts to reach the SpiceIslands set in motion processes that would dramati-cally alter life on our planet.The encounter had its downside also. Latelyit seems as though there is more attention paid tothe adverse aspects of the encounter than to thepositive attributes. The impact of the new Euro-pean importations was immediate. The naturalvegetation of the Caribbean islands gave way to sin-gle-crop plantations. Subsequently labor demandsto plant and harvest the new crops, as well as newlyintroduced European diseases, quickly decimatedthe Indian populations. After a little more than adecade of contact, more than 3 million nativeinhabitants would perish. One source estimatesthat between 1493 and 1900, 90 percent of thenative population died.Probably the most detrimental import fromEurope was sugarcane. Raising sugarcane becameone of the quickest routes to fortune. Sugarcaneplantations like those on the Island of Montserrat,in the eastern Caribbean, were tremendously prof-itable to their owners as shiploads of su5iar weresent abroad to satisfy Europe's growing sweet tooth.

More than 100 sugarcane plantations operated onthe Island of Montserrat. To cultivate the sugar-cane on Montserrat and other places in theCaribbean, thousands of indentured servants andlater African slaves were brought in. Outside laborhad to be brought in, of course, because the indige-nous Indian inhabitants of the Caribbean had diedso quickly after European contact. The sugarcaneplantation slaves were driven so hard because of thestrinEient harvest requirements of the crop thattens of thousands died of disease, overwork andmalnutrition. It is said that each ton of sugar costthe life of one slave. The exact number of slavesbrought to the New World is unknown, but esti-mates rangie from 10 to 30 million.But leavin! alone the many controversies sur-rounding the Quincentenary, New Mexicans cantake special pride in the fact that this is one placewhere the indigenous Native American people stillmaintain their culture, their religion and their lan-guages, and still own their ancestral lands althoughundeniably each of these was severely impactedwith the arrival of the Europeans. In fact, it couldbe said that this co-existence of cultures - theindigenous Native American people and the Euro-peans - has been taking place longer in New Mexi-co than anywhere else irr the United States. TheSmithsonian Institution's National Museum ofAmerican History recognized this unique fact infocusing its Quincentenary exhibition AmericanEncounters on New Mexico, the scene of anencounter between American Indian and Europeancultures for the past 450 or so years.

No one can deny that Col6n's 1492 voyaSe setin motion a series of political and cultural changesthat shaped the modern Americas. In a way theimpact of Col6n's dawn October 12 landfall in theBahamas continues to be felt in New Mexico to thisday, 1

It issaid thaeach tonof sugarcost thelife of.one slav