For Indigenous Peoples Day I took the paywall off my two part series on Columbus and what followed him.
Part 1 is Christopher Columbus: The OG of Genocide, Whitewashing, and Republican Hero Worship. It works from the record left by his own contemporaries: his letters, the chronicles, and Bartolome de las Casas, whose father sailed with Columbus. The crimes were recorded in real time. Spain investigated him. History convicted him.
Part 2 is Castizo Futurism and the New Conquistadors. It traces the same conquest logic into the present, with better branding and the same appetite for land, labor, and obedience.
Both essays are free to read today.
Read Part 1: Christopher Columbus: The OG of Genocide, Whitewashing, and Republican Hero Worship, Part 1
Read Part 2: Castizo Futurism and the New Conquistadors, Part 2