Columbus in Chains Reflection

Adrian Perez Columbus in Chains is a controversial story that makes you rethink about history and about Christopher Columbus himself. I personally never gave that much attention to Christopher Columbus because in school I was taught that he’s the one that discovered us and that’s it, but after discussing about him in class, it made me think about his purpose in discovering us. A lot of people think that he is a hero, but I don’t think he’s a hero. A hero is someone who looks out for others and is not selfish. Christopher Columbus is an important figure in history, but he’s no hero. He brought slavery and war to our land, and he didn’t think of us, he just wanted to do his job, which was to discover us. I think that the author thought that in a way he was a hero, but in another way he wasn’t. A.J. first thought that he deserved to be chained up and felt good about it, but then realized that he’s the one that discovered her land. This story inspires me to know more about our history and our past.

Columbus In Chains- Beatriz Cruz

The question was if Christopher Columbus is a hero or not. I do not think he was really a hero. Although he discovered many places, he was not a hero. In my oppinion heores are people that have courage and are self sacrificed, but have moral excellence. Christopher Columbus had courage and was self sacrificed, but he did not have moral excellence. He did not care when he hurt the indians just to rule this island. The little girl had the right to express her oppinion on Christopher Columbus. Where she studied they could not do what they wanted. They had to behave ladylike, talk about novels and poems they were reading, they did all this while walking. But she was different, some of the other girls and her liked to play games that the teachers did not approve. I liked the way she did everything that she wanted, she had courage.

Columbus in Chains: Christian Torres

Now I admire the girl in this story who wrote her mind in the book about what she thought about Columbus. We all should do the same. We also should wonder, as we did in class, about the kind of man he was. He wasn't important, least a hero when he found the New World, I think he was just lucky. It was a good thing that such different cultures were able to join together to make one such as ours, but what they had to go through during that time, it was tough. Columbus made no heroic act, but still he deserves to be a historic figure to be remembered as the lucky one that was able to find a whole new world before someone else did.

Christopher Columbus day - Luis Bevilacqua

I really enjoyed this day in which we had a discussion about whether Columbus was a hero or not. It gave me a chance to express my views and discuss some interesting points about his contributions to our history. i believe he is a hero, very few heroes in history have been able to do a great deed without a sacrifice for the gerater good. There will always be blood in a change of culture, there will always be those who oppose, and if blood was not shed, the change would have come much later. We could possibly have ended up a third world country having to fend off for ourselves. I appreciate what he did for us and if I was in his place I would have done exactly the same thing. poeple have no clue what they want, they think they do but they dont. Give a culture a chance to evolve into the future and bring forth future eras of prosperity and they will not want it just because it will spill a few drops of blood to the ground. then so be it, let few suffer now, so that the future generations for decades to come can blossom from that very sacrifice. Try to feed a tiger and it will bite your arm off, because it doesnt know any better.

Reflection on Christopher Columbus

 During our class we had a discussion about Christopher Columbus and we were debating if this man is really a hero or not. Hero is any person admired for courage, and nobility. We must think about this definition to decide whether Christopher Columbus is a hero or not. Nobility is a person that from nature is considered a good person. Courage is the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, and pain without fear. With this two definition we can say that Christopher Columbus is not really a hero. This man was a very bad leader in our island. He was the man who really put our Indians as slave and at the end the Indians didn’t survive. Some people consider him a hero because he found our island, but if we go back through history we can see that what he did was put our ancestors as slave. He did not do anything of nobility nor courage. In my opinion this man really is not a hero because for me a hero is someone who has done good things in society and has lived for others and don’t think for himself. The only thing that we can consider that Columbus did was that he was lucky to find islands in his journey.

Reflection On Columbus In Chains and Information on Christohper Columbus and his holiday.

Liane Says: 

The chapter Columbus in chains in the book Annie John basically describes Annie John in school and how bright of a student she really is but this is not the character she exemplifies out of school. It was kind of interesting because the way the chapter is written is very detailed so you can picture everything that’s going on throughout the story. When she was reading her text book she saw a picture of Christopher Columbus in chains and was happy that he was there with no power as she did not like him. When she was scolded the author states that what she did was wrong because he Columbus was the one who discovered her land and who was a great man in history.  I do not think Christopher Columbus is a hero. He just happened to be sailing, with no intentions of discovering anything, and found land. This land was already occupied and anyways it was eventually going to be found so I would not consider him being a hero. A hero saves lives, is inspirational and someone you look up to. There is none of these qualities I can find in Columbus. Annie John is in my favor. She does not like Christopher Columbus and is quite happy that he is sitting down in chains looking down upon him not knowing what to do.

Christopher Columbus was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American Continents in the Western Civilization. With his four voyages of discovery and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, he initiated the process of Spanish Colonization which foreshadowed general European Colonization of the "New World." 

Columbus's first voyage was in 1492. Following his plotted course, he landed within the Bahamas at a locale he named San Salvador. He referred to its inhabitants as "Indios".

The anniversary of Columbus's 1492 landing in the Americas is observed as Columbus day in October 12 in Spain and throughout the Americas, except that in the United States it is observed on the second Monday in October. The day is celebrated as Columbus Day in the U.S, as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in many countries in Latin America, as Día de las Culturas (Day of the Cultures) in Costa Rica, as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad and Fiesta Nacional in Spain, as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay and as Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) in Venezuela. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various countries since the early 20th century.

In the United States people appreciate this day.  Brazil does not celebrate it.  Latin American countries celebrate their native races. It is commonly believed that opposition to Columbus celebrations dates to the later part of the 20th century. However, the current groups of American Indian activists are not alone historically. In the nineteenth century, for example, "patriotic" activists sought to eradicate Columbus Day celebrations because they thought the Catholics would use the holiday to take over the country. Similarly, the notion that Columbus was responsible for more calamity and destruction than progress and prosperity has been a recurrent theme ever since Columbus's voyage. Even the notion of connecting Columbus and Indian holocaust has been repeated periodically for centuries. In the late 20th century, groups on the political left have voiced opposition to Columbus celebrations. Indigenous groups in particular have opposed the holidays as celebrating the man who initiated the European Colonization of the new world. Opposition often focuses on the cruel treatment indigenous peoples faced at the hands of Columbus and later European settlers. Some have argued that the responsibility of contemporary governments and their citizens for allegedly ongoing acts of genocide against Native Americans are masked by positive Columbus myths and celebrations. These critics argue that a particular understanding of the legacy of Columbus has been used to legitimize their actions, and it is this misuse of history that must be exposed. Indigenous people got together and declared October 12, 1992, International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People. The National Council of Churches, called on Christians to refrain from celebrating the Columbus quincentennial, saying, "What represented newness of freedom, hope, and opportunity for some was the occasion for oppression, degradation and genocide for others.

There are many cultural myths of North America exclude or diminish the culture and myths of Native Americans. Some say Americans celebrate the greatest waves of genocide of the Indians known in history each year on Columbus Day. "Columbus' voyage has even less meaning for North Americans than for South Americans because Columbus never set foot on our continent, nor did he open it to European trade" he said.