Why This Cuban-American Says No to Columbus Day
Right now, Nevada’s Governor Joe Lombardo has a bill on his desk called AB144. It would replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day as an official state holiday. Conservatives are asking him to veto it.
My mom came to America from Cuba. She escaped a communist dictatorship to find freedom here. My entire life and reality is owed to this fact.
Cuban Americans like my family love this country and everything it stands for. But they also know the truth about Columbus. And that truth isn’t pretty.
What Columbus Actually Did
Here’s what they don’t teach you in school.
Columbus never set foot in what would become the United States. He went to Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. When he got there, he became governor of Hispaniola in 1492.
The historical record is clear about Columbus’s brutality.
Spanish chronicler Bartolomé de las Casas documented mass executions, mutilations, and people burned alive under Columbus’s rule. The Taíno population of Hispaniola dropped from 250,000 to under 50,000 in just a few years. Columbus personally ordered hands and ears cut off for people who couldn’t meet gold quotas.
Some people say this was normal for the 1500s. But even then, his rule was so brutal or otherwise corrupt, that he was arrested in 1500 and sent back to Spain in chains.
The Spanish colonization that followed Columbus created the longest period of chattel slavery in the New World. We’re talking about 500 years of forced labor and human misery.
The Caribbean’s Indigenous Taíno people? They were wiped out completely.
Cuba’s Real Hero: Hatuey
In Cuba, they have a different national hero. His name was Hatuey. He was a Taíno cacique who organized the first resistance against Spanish invaders in 1511.
When the Spanish captured him in 1512, they sentenced him to death by burning. A Spanish friar urged him to convert to Christianity, promising salvation. Hatuey asked if Spaniards went to heaven. When told yes, he refused baptism, saying he’d rather face whatever came next than compromise his principles for his oppressors.
This wasn’t really about religion. It was about freedom. Hatuey saw forced conversion as just another form of conquest. Hatuey was a man who chose to die on his own terms rather than surrender to tyranny.
This Isn’t About Being Woke
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. This sounds like the same liberal nonsense we hear all the time. But it’s not. This is about getting our facts straight.
Look at what Columbus actually accomplished. He never reached North America. His rule in the Caribbean got him arrested and sent back to Spain in chains. The Spanish colonization that followed created centuries of slavery and wiped out entire peoples.
These aren’t liberal talking points. These are historical facts.
This whole thing has turned into another stupid ideological battle completely divorced from facts. People are choosing sides based on politics instead of looking at what actually happened in history. And as conservatives, we should care about facts more than fairy tales.
Cuban-Americans Know the Difference
Cuban-Americans are some of the most conservative Hispanic voters in the country. We understand the value of freedom because we’ve seen what happens when you lose it. But being conservative doesn’t mean we have to defend every tradition, especially when that tradition is based on bad history.
We also understand what it means to fight for independence from colonial powers.
Just like Americans fought the British crown during the Revolutionary War, Cubans fought Spain for their freedom. The Cuban flag that national hero José Martí helped design carries the same meaning as the American flag – it represents an independent nation that threw off colonial rule.
When we see Columbus celebrated as some kind of founding father, it makes no sense. He wasn’t fighting for anyone’s independence. He was the start of 400 years of Spanish colonial rule that Cuba had to fight to escape.
Americans don’t celebrate King George III. Why celebrate the man who brought the chains instead of those who broke them?
The Real Issue Here
The fight over Nevada’s AB144 isn’t really about Columbus. It’s about who controls the narrative.
Some conservatives are upset because they see this as government picking winners and losers in our history books. But government has been doing that all along. They picked Columbus back in 1968, even though he had nothing to do with American history.
If Nevada wants to get rid of Columbus Day, I say good for them. At least they’re being honest about history.
Moving Forward
Governor Lombardo has a choice to make. He can sign AB144 or veto it.
We can support traditional values without defending bad history. We can believe in limited government while demanding that government tell us the truth.
Columbus wasn’t a founding father. He was never in America. His real name wasn’t even Christopher Columbus – it was Cristoforo Colombo. And his legacy in the places he actually landed is one of brutality and oppression.
Sorry to buck the norm, but I have this crazy idea: let’s teach real history. Right now, we are making up stories about a guy who never came here and pretending he’s a national hero.
The politics of this debate aside: America has plenty of real heroes worth celebrating.
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
