After taking a brief stroll through the tumultuous toxic trolling traffic machine that is Twitter, I unfortunately was sucked into a Columbus Day discussion (Only reading, I was not a fool who commented back and forth with a bot). I will not attempt to define the word “discussion” in our modern vernacular here but I would like to spread some awareness in terms of Columbus, the word Latino, and a smattering of other related topics. Let us delve.
First of all, Cristoforo Colombo (there are at least five different ways of communicating his name) was born in Genoa, Italy. He married a Portuguese woman, and set sail from Spain after the conquering of Granada thus ending the Muslim occupation of the Iberian Peninsula (a whole other interesting topic: the Crusades). He completed a few voyages, found some stuff, did some bad things, yada yada yada pick up a book. For the purposes of this article I am focusing on a specific argument about Columbus that is ever so apparent today as people strive to label everything and everybody (even though I thought the goal was to get rid of such practices). Now, many people dispute the fact that Columbus was Italian based on some genuinely true knowledge. One, Italy technically wasn’t a unified country until deep into the 1800’s. Columbus was born in 1451 so that is not an intelligent argument. Two, he never spoke Italian but Ligurian, Latin, Spanish (also Castilian dialect), and Portuguese. Now hold it right here. This is a prime example of why one must educate oneself (beyond reading a Wikipedia passage) prior to claiming expert level analysis on everything that is seen on social media. Italy was made up of different provinces, Republics, States, whatever you would like to call them. Each area had its’ own dialect along with speaking/reading Latin. So, he spoke Latin (the language of the Italic tribe who formed the Roman Empire) and a dialect native to the Genoa area in the province of Liguria. This is important to understand.
So he did not speak Italian, this is true. He spoke a dialect of Italian and Latin, which was the language in Italy at the time. Ok, that completes the basis of that argument. Latin along with the dialects of each province was the languages in Italy at the time so it was impossible to speak Italian. Not satisfied? Here’s more…the Italian language that we know today is derived from the Toscana (Florentine dialect). In the late Middle Ages (1300’s) Florence was the political and economic empire in which the major influencers of the time inhabited. Thus, many who spoke Latin also learned the Florentine dialect (much like many countries speaking English today). Naturally the great works were then written in this dialect: think Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarca. When the works of these men circulated in the 1400’s, many began reading in the Florentine dialect. Then, this contraption called the printer was invented which increased this circulation immensely. Soon enough, in the early 1500’s, rules for this Italian dialect began to be published and delivered to provinces throughout Italy. Eventually this became what we know as the Italian language today. As one can see, Columbus was sailing the ocean blue before these rules for the “new” Italian language had circulated. Not to be bleak, but he was also dead before this happened thus he did not speak Italian.
Let us go back to the language of Latin now. Latin, as mentioned above was the language of the Roman Empire (key word: Roman = Rome) that was initiated by the Italic (another key word) tribe. One can and should surmise that anybody labeled as a “Latino” is of Italian origins. Latino in Italian simply means the language of Latin. So why on earth is there a Latin America that does not really boast many individuals of Italian origins? Why is there Italian-American when they are truly those who should be considered Latino? On my mother’s side I have family that came over from Italy in 1902 so should I identify as Latino (also, Latin with the letter “x” following it is seen as misspelled on my computer)? We have Mexican-American, African-American, Latino-American, and European-American…wait. Even if you are not willing to submit that Italians are the only Latino people, let us at least discuss another thing. Latin is attributed to Spain, Portugal, etc. Also, those countries (news flash) are part of Europe. Why is Latin America named after the language of Italy in the Middle Ages (Latino) but every other place in Europe (including Italy for some reason) attributed with being European-American? We really need to do some reconsidering especially if in this woke culture we are going to label everything and everybody. Many African-Americans have European ancestry (23andme) and I actually have African ancestry. What is the correct percentage that allows one to call oneself by a certain handle? Come to think of it, if science tells us (and I’ve heard that we must always trust the science) that we are all traced back to one lady in Africa then aren’t we all technically from the same place? In that same thought, how is there such thing as a Native American if we are all traced back to Africa? It is also widely known that nomads came across the land bridge from Asia before the ice age. These individuals were then locked in present day America (North and South) for thousands of years (because of the ice age) before Columbus made his first voyage. Shouldn’t Native Americans be considered Asian? If one wants physical proof, please look no further than Mexicans and Filipinos. A mix of primarily Spanish and Asian make up both countries. It is a mess of voyages, treks, conquests, reconquests, and settlements that confuses the vast majority of people today. The world attempted to stop all of this colonization and settle into each country as best as possible but it seems that we bring up certain past events over the course of a relatively small timeline in order to frame who we are today. One thing is for certain, we are all diverse within ourselves regardless of what color you are and what label is put upon you.
Two suggested books in the areas covered: The History of the World in Bite-Sized Chunks by Emma Marriott and Breve Storia Della Lingua Italiana by Silvia Morgana (This is in Italian but it is sold in English). (Notice: both female authors, how diverse!)
Wilks Wroasting 