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  • 5 weeks ago
Filmmaker Paul Puglisi traveled across the US to make sense of the controversy surrounding of one of America's most enduring symbols - Christopher Columbus. Conversations with cultural leaders, historians, activists, authors and educators bring to life the perspectives that molded a 15th century sailor into a genocidal conqueror, a messenger of Christ, a cultural icon and a patriotic hero in a land he never knew existed. With our current socially and politically charged atmosphere in America, young people who have been raised with instant access to information are learning what they aren't taught in school about the consequences of one of the most monumental events in human history. They are leading a movement to re-think what Columbus stands for in a nation guilty of its own atrocities against Native Peoples.
Transcript
00:01Columbus is not someone that we should celebrate because he spread oppression and he spread genocide throughout the indigenous people
00:08who inhabited the land before.
00:10Some people want to judge Christopher Columbus by today's standards, which unfortunately is not fair and not possible.
00:16What is it called when somebody goes into somebody else's land militarily?
00:22Has U.S. expansionism ceased or does it continue? And why does Columbus link so closely with those ideals?
00:31We're running the risk of tearing down something that says a lot about the core values of our country.
00:37To tell the true history of the United States of America, you have to start with the indigenous people and
00:42you have to tell the story of what happened to us and how it happened to us and why.
00:46If you're going to start it with a rhyme and it's great and it's wonderful, then you're already starting off
00:51with a lie.
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