My name is Ariadna Garcia Ruiz and I am a Patrick Henry High School student. We have been studying the arrival of Europeans in the Americas in our U.S. History class. I am aware that there is a statue of Christopher Columbus on the state capitol grounds and I believe that Columbus statue should be removed. This issue to me is important because for me, and probably everyone agrees with me, Columbus was a bad person and mistreated innocent people.
Here are some specific facts from our class activities and my own research to support the need to remove to the statue of Christopher Columbus on our state capitol grounds.
When Columbus went to the Arawak villages in the Caribbean, he found these good indigenous people and right away he thought that they could make good servants. He was just like a little kid trying to get something without asking them anything.
Columbus hypocritically presented himself as a devout Christian even though he kidnapped, maimed and killed the indigenous people of Hispaniola in pursuit of gold. If he wanted gold so bad, why would he not get it by himself instead of forcing all these innocent people to sacrifice their own lives in something that they didn’t want.
Columbus is the reason why countless human beings suffered brutal massacres, perishing forever. Columbus did this to innocent people and is responsible for their deaths.
The Spanish people forced the Taine people to be Christians and if they didn’t, they would kill them. Howard Zinn wrote about this. I personally hate that people would force me to do or make me believe in something that I don’t want to believe in.
Columbus ordered all Taine people from 14 and older to deliver a certain amount of gold dust every three months and if they didn’t then they would get their hands cut off.
I believe my voice matters. I would like to see Minnesotans come together and remove the Columbus memorial at the capitol grounds.
Ariadna Garcia Ruiz