In a March 2019 podcast (“Tides of History”), one of the world’s most respected experts on Columbus, historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, states, “There has been an improper and ignorant denigration of Columbus.” Writing in a February 2021 article, while admitting to not liking Columbus’ character very much, he nevertheless suggests, “Maybe [Columbus] doesn’t need all the statues nineteenth-century admirers erected. But there aren’t many individuals more worthy of commemoration.”
So, how is it that everyone else seems to know something about Columbus that has escaped Fernandez-Armesto, despite 50 years of studying Columbus, access to all the primary source material which he reads in their original languages, and a deep understanding of the Atlantic and Mediterranean worlds that produced Columbus? I mean, doesn’t Fernandez-Armesto know that Columbus was a racist, imperialist, slaver, genocidal maniac, and pedophile, as a parade of people proclaimed in public testimony on the proposed removal a statue of Columbus in Brooklyn earlier this year? Not just like the Confederate generals, but ten times worse, they decried. Worse than the mafia, another woman yelled out. Do these people have access to a hidden archive that has alluded Fernandez-Armesto all these years? Some of them cite Bartolome de las Casas, but according to Fernandez-Armesto, de las Casas saw Columbus as his “hero” and considered Columbus’ brief administration of the colony at Hispaniola its “Golden Age” before the Spaniards who succeeded him defiled it. What the heck is going on here?
The Columbus Affair does not get to the bottom of these questions. In fact, it doesn’t even know enough to ask them. Rather, it rambles along for roughly 80 pages about the petty little fight over Columbus Day, in which neither side seems to know anything much at all, except how to get angry. Over the course of this short book, Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College (CUNY), whose academic training is in Romance languages, cautiously enters this degraded debate over Columbus, the man; Columbus, the symbol; and Columbus, the federal holiday.
Overall, this is a half-hearted effort by Tamburri, a haphazardly put together collection of intellectual post-it notes aimed at an ill-defined audience. On the one hand, he seems to be lecturing the self-appointed leaders of the Italian American community, leaders who appear buffoonish in their verbal contortions to defend Columbus, callous in their dismissal of Native American perspectives, and stubborn in their inability to decouple their community (not under attack) from Columbus (facing full-on assault). He seems less interested in scolding the other side, the anti-Columbus Italian Americans, many of whom are equally fanatical and just as buffoonish, who call for the complete and total erasure of Columbus from polite society, meaning, first and foremost, no federal holiday, and in as much as possible, the removal of all statues, depictions, and the permanent sullying of his name. Tamburri seems far more attracted to this side, though he is either too timid or too conflicted to put a stake in the ground.
Unfortunately, the book is meandering, superficial, and banal to be useful to any reader, regardless of his or her position, pro, con, or agnostic. Its only value is in its call for these self-appointed Italian American leaders and the community at large, including its academics, to move beyond these petty squabbles and determine strategies that celebrate, honor, preserve, and develop the vast, complex, and real Italian American experience, an experience in which Columbus the man plays no direct role in whatsoever. Tamburri is correct in lamenting the fact these leaders have mobilized their constituents to fight for Columbus at the expense of the community’s true history, the history which allows it to enter meaningfully into dialogue with members of other communities. He correctly identifies the need for a K-12 curriculum strategy for teaching Italian American history, among various other things. These recommendations, sprinkled throughout, are the only value in this book, and he would have been better advised to write a manifesto instead of dwelling on this sad little affair. That was so last summer!
Given his ill preparation, why did he write this book? He conveys that he declared his Institute neutral in the Columbus debate due to the tax levied nature of its funding. I’m not sure I buy that explanation. (I mean, from a legal standpoint, he is incorrect.) But at the very least, it shows Tamburri’s wisdom. With both sides of the debate filled with rabid individuals, foaming at the mouth, and driven to lunacy by historically unsubstantiated claims, it’s best to stay out of the fray; especially given the low stakes. Neither side has much to win or lose here. Really.
That seems to be the reason behind this book. Free from the Institute, he can voice his thoughts as an individual. So, what does this book really tell us? First off, do not read it to learn anything about Columbus. Tamburri’s sections that attempt to dig into that history read like a 5th grade book report. It’s apparent that Tamburri didn’t crack open a book about Columbus until the day before he wrote this text. He’s floundering in a half-inflated inner tube out on the vast ocean, hopelessly trying to grab hold of the Admiral. He is out of his depths.
The book proceeds in much the same way. We hear about the pro-Columbus Italian Americans who spit hate, while arguing that the holiday (not even theirs to begin with---a basic notion that is never ever fully explored in this book) and the statues were created in reaction to discrimination. Should we care? Tamburri is silent. We hear about the anti-Columbus Italian Americans who argue that it was only the Italian American prominenti who promoted Columbus and they did it just to esteem themselves. So what? Tamburri floats these assertions and accepts them without any evaluation. Then of course, there’s the Native American side who have nothing against Italian Americans and couldn’t care less about prominenti or contadini or whoever else is eating dinner in the basement, they just don’t want anything called Columbus. Period. One cannot help but be empathetic to their position, despite it being a non sequitur. It was the British, the colonists, the US government, and the settlers who carried out genocide, not Columbus who never stepped foot on the soil of what is now the US. But, as the pro-Columbus side makes clear, he’s an easy symbolic target because he was the “first.” Plus, no one much likes him anymore. As Fernandez-Armesto observes, “The really amazing thing about [Columbus’] reputation is that he’s gone straight from being hero to villain with nothing in between; whereas the truth is in between. The truth has been overlooked. When he was hero, [everyone wanted him]. Now it’s exactly the opposite. Nobody wants Columbus. He’s toxic! He’s become this villainous symbol of imperialism, and genocide, and slavery, and exploitation, and of course those characterizations are just as INVALID as the hero ones…”
Unfortunately for Fernandez-Armesto, we live in a post-truth era, where all that matters is the story one tells. Whether one draws from fact or fiction doesn’t matter. Whether Columbus’ arrival represents the most important event in human history (as Tamburri quotes Neil deGrasse Tyson, though this idea is widely held and expressed much better elsewhere), or whether he was just some bozo who got lost and turned into a greedy imperialist, leading a conga line of like-minded bastards, is all up to your own prejudices. If the evidence suggests otherwise, just throw a temper tantrum. Eventually someone will acquiesce and move on to more important things, like cleaning the garage.
In sum, The Columbus Affair is rather disappointing. It’s a shame that Tamburri did not discipline himself to write a more forceful Italian American manifesto about a way forward without the Columbian albatross. Instead, he allowed himself to get bamboozled by the two dopey sides of this ill-informed, puerile, and low-stakes ideological debate. Had he fleshed out more of his action plan instead of embarking on an amateurish, discombobulated foray into history, he might have written something with true gravitas. He seems more than capable, and I hope he will take this review as encouragement to do so.
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