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The Columbus Monument: A Hermeneutical Analysis, Basil Ugorji

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

Christopher Columbus, a historically revered European hero to whom the dominant European narrative attributes the discovery of America, but whose image and legacy symbolize silenced genocide of the Indigenous Peoples of America and the Caribbean, has become a controversial figure. This paper explores the symbolic representation of the statue of Christopher Columbus for both sides of the conflict – the Italian Americans who erected it at the Columbus Circle in New York City and in other places on the one hand, and the Indigenous Peoples of America and the Caribbean whose ancestors were slaughtered by the European invaders, on the …