Dangerous Memories

To make a quake of victory  

to make a cluster of liberated world 

to make a song in flood 

It is the earth 

It is the earth 

that triumphs.

Para hacer un temblar de victories 

para hacer un racimo de mundo libre 

para hacer una canción inunda 

Es la tierra 

Es la tierra 

La que triunfa 

~ Juan Felipe Herrera 

Akrilica 

Advance Comments on Dangerous Memories

How History is told I as important as whose history gets told. The authors of this volume have done us all an immense service by retelling the story of five hundred years of the evisceration of Caribbean and other people of color. And they have done so in a way that makes a people’s history come alive in its terrifying anguish, pain and brutality.

The authors tell us that it’s a dangerous thing to remember. Because to remember the commonality of suffering is to become empowered. To remember the strange mixture of God, religion, and mass murder in the “discovery” of the “new world” is indeed a dangerous thing. For African Americans to remember that they share a common heritage of struggle – against the same enemy – with their Caribbean and Latin American brothers and sisters Is a dangerous thing. Dangerous to remember that at the same time that Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey were leading slave revolts in the U.S. South, Juan Santos Atahualpa was getting even with Spanish invaders in the South American Andes and the maroons of Jamaica and Brazil were resisting violence and death from the safe house communities they had built in the countryside.

This book is not only a timely recall of facts largely left unsaid, it is an embrace if the righteousness of struggle, a celebration of a people’s will to resist.

Bernard D. Headley, chair, Criminal Justice Department, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago

This is a dangerous book: it imperils long-accepted fictions and half-truths about the “discovery” of the “new world.” It digs deep into our common past, Europeans and colored peoples,’ haves’ and have-nots,’ during the past five past centuries. It is bottom-up history challenging the trickle-down versions we have so long been spoon-fed. The work of Eduardo Galeano comes to mind; Dangerous Memories has the same revelatory excitement. A healthful antidote to the pabulum, we’re about to be fed during the Columbus Quincentennial – it is thrilling history.

Studs Terkel, author, social commentator, political activist, radio interviewer

… a brave piece of work which presents events with honesty, from the perspective of the ones who were invaded and slandered and repressed for centuries. I think that it is very important that names like Macaela Bastidas, the Queen Anacaona, and Lautaro should be taught as heroic resisters and not mentioned as mythological characters’ food for cartoons, or distorted in insignificant bites in text books. Our history, the history of the Native American continent, is a history of constant struggle, dignity, and love for life. It is time for us to stand up and denounce the lies about us and take in our hands the writing and telling of our own and real history.

Carmen Aguilar, storyteller and teacher, Academy for Performing Arts, Chicago

Dangerous Memories is at once a painful and inspiring social collage. Unlike the wooden, no-anger-here of so many textbooks, this book sings and cries with humanity. Its breadth of understanding and empathy is startling. Here is fine addition to the new literature of this quincentenary period – and an extraordinary resource for educators.

Bill Bigelow, co-editor, Rethinking Columbus and teacher, Jefferson High School, Portland, Oregon

I think this is the best resource guide that has become available for how to teach the quincentennial, for parents and teachers and other people of conscience. It is only by learning our true histories that we will be able to situate ourselves in the world today, and only when we have learned where we have been as a people that we can begin moving forward in less destructive ways.

Jan Elliot, director, Committee for American Indian History and editor, Indigenous Thought

A fascinating book: I really enjoyed reading it. It pulls together a history we don’t know. As we begin taking a look at event in history, we recognition of the part of the people in the formation of this society is usually absent. Dangerous Memories provides some ways to look at the people on whose backs this country was formed. The exercises are helpful because they translate into controlling our own behavior.  

Faith Smith, member of the Ojibway/ Chippewa Nation, president, Native American Educational Service

The First Crusade, 1096-1099

Post-reading Strategies 

• Who had power?
• What were the main kinds of political structures?
• How did governments work?

Recalling Images of Columbus

Write a portrait of Columbus from your study of history, from pictures and movies you have seen. Describe him and his compatriots as you recall them. Write what you think were his intentions in sailing west from Europe. 

The End of the World: Questions for Discussion

• How would you describe everyday life in Europe and/or Spain after reading the chapter?  How does this image agree or contrast with the image you had of Columbus’s time before your reading?
• Fifteen-century Spain had a heavy emphasis on military advancements.  How does that emphasis compare with current priorities in the United States?

Getting Inside the Minds of the Colonizers: Cartooning

Draw a cartoon which presents in “imagination bubbles” the mindsets of the merchant and ruling classes of Europe which prepared them for a “conquest” over the people they were about to encounter across the Atlantic.  Draw a contrasting cartoon which sho9ws the mind-sets of other groups of people who also sailed the Atlantic and Pacific, landed on the coasts of the Americas, and did not proceed to conquer its inhabitants.

The First to Land or the First to Conquer?:  A Role-Play

(Refer to the requerimento information in the chapter and the section on European views of the natural world.)

Divide into three groups.  The first group represents a part of the world with the following characteristics:

• Government with a high degree of participation of the people
• Equitable distribution o f land, goods, and benefits
• Development of sophisticated navigation techniques
• Widespread curiosity and interest in exploration
• No expansionist warfare over neighboring populations

The second group represents another part of the world, which has:

• An autocratic pattern of government, with power and goods in the hands of a few
• Sophisticated navigation techniques and also highly advanced weapons
• A long history of engagement in military battles for power and territory

The third group represents the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.

The first two groups take turns “landing” in the Americas, pretending to be sailors from the vessels which have sailed long distances and are now meeting natives for the first time. 

• How do the sailors talk with the natives?
• What are their goals?
• What arrangements do they make, out of what worldviews and assumptions?
• How are the two experiences different?

Charting Key Connections

Several “isms” are mentioned in this chapter as influential ideas and movements at the time of Columbus.  On a large piece of paper write these terms, spacing them all over the page.  In a discussion group draw lines which connect terms and discuss any connections you can make between those “isms.”  Write notes on each “connecting” line which summarize your thoughts on how these terms are connected.

Impact of the “isms”

Sketch a map of Europe and one of the Western Hemisphere.  Fill in the “isms’ listed above on the European map and draw lines to the Western Hemisphere showing transference of these notions beginning with the arrival of Columbus and the subsequent Spanish conquest.  Again write notes on each “connecting” line which summarize your thoughts on how these ideas were key factors in the conquest of the indigenous people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Expansionism and Militarism

Study the maps below and discuss the questions presented here:

• What group controlled the major portion of the Iberian Peninsula in the tenth century?  How do you know?
• By the end of the eleventh century what had happened to the political control of the Iberian Peninsula?  From y our reading of this section, explain what had transpired in the politics of Spain.
• Identify the political powers which controlled the peninsula at the time of Columbus’s first voyage.  Describe the importance of the reconquest of Granada for Spain.

Explain why Portugal’s position was better suited for Atlantic conquest and why Columbus’s journey would be perceived by the world as one of conquest and colonization rather than exploration. 

Iberian Peninsula, 10^th century 

Iberian Peninsula at the time of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella

The Western Hemisphere Before the Conquest  

Civilizations for Centuries

Draw up a timeline from your memory which indicates how far back indigenous people lived on the continent now known as America. Show as much as you can remember of the different civilizations which existed throughout the centuries before Columbus. As you read the chapter, correct any misconceptions you may have had and add any new information you gain to your timeline.

The Power of the Word

The terms (below) have all been used in reference to the people who were on this continent when Columbus arrived and the space they inhibited. Discuss in writing or in a group what you know about the meaning of these terms, how they originated, and what they conveyed about the people who used them. Discuss in a group how such language was (and is) used to oppress people.

Terms: 

Native Americans, First Americans, indigenous, Indians, primitive, civilized, uncivilized, savage, wilderness, the "wild"

Myriads of People 

Brainstorm a list of as many groups of Native American peoples (nations) that you can. Don't consult any books to do this. Rely on your memory. Compare your list with a comprehensive list in an encyclopedia. Discuss how well you did and how limited our knowledge is of the people who inhabited this continent first. Why do we not know more about the people who lived here in the millions when Columbus landed? 

Geographic Regions and Peoples

On a blank of American, label the regions identified in this section of Dangerous Memories and show what groups resided where at about the time Columbus arrived. You will need to obtain a list of names of the hundreds of groups and nations that existed and develop a wall-sized map in order to make the names readable. This is the best done as a group task. If you do this an individual, it would be best to choose one region to research and map only the groups in that regions (e.g., Meso-America or your own region of the United States).

Languages and Cultures’ That Far Outdistance the Conquerors

Linguists and anthropologists have shown that more than three thousand languages were once spoken in the Americas and about two thousand were in existence at the time the Europeans invaded the continent. On the map shown on the following page, Native American languages of North and Central America have been divided into families. Locate the “family” of languages which once was spoken in the area of the United States where you live. Research in an encyclopedia what specific languages belong to this family. Chart these languages on the language map shown here or a map shown here of a map of your own region.

Indigenous Identity and the Land

Read the following thoughts of the indigenous people about their relationship to the land. As you read

• Take note of the ways in which people feel linked or connected to land;
• Consider reasons why they may not feel that anyone can own the land;
• Think about how their ideas of sharing the goods of the earth might stem from their ideas about their relationship to the land: 
• consider how they felt seeing the land exploited by the Europeans;
• try to imagine whether Columbus and the Europeans could have understood the natives' perspectives about the land. Could they have understood this radically different perspective if they had been more observant and less driven by the search for material wealth? 

Managua, 1979

May 29

A three-hundred-person column of the famous Frente Sur (Southern Front) crosses the border from Costa Rica.

May 31

The FSLN calls for a national insurrection and general strike: Heroic people of Nicaragua, the hour of the overthrow of the infamous dictator has come…

June 4

The Sandinistas take Leon.

June 7

Somoza declares martial law and a state of siege.

June 9

The Managua insurrection begins.

June 16

The provisional government junta of National Resurrection is named, starting a parallel government in Nicaragua and preparing for the fall of Somoza.

July 2-6

Strategic cities fall to the Sandinistas.

July 16

Esteli barracks of the National Guard, the last military installation outside of Managua, falls.

July 17

Somoza resigns and leaves for Miami.

July 19

Radio Sandino awakens the country with sounds of victory—the Sandinista national anthem, slogans, folk songs. The new junta requests discipline, vigilance, and generosity to the defeated enemy. The people of Managua take over the city even before the troops arrive. They line the streets to greet the troops who are their sons and daughters, classmates whom they have not seen for years. It is like a family reunion with red and black flags covering the streets, the plaza which will soon be named after Carlos Fonseca. Pandemonium reigns.

The people have regained their memory and their voices. There is one name repeated over and over again, without fear of reprisal. Viva Sandino!

The people are reclaiming their history, their land, and a memory that is dangerous.

See George Black, Triumph of the People, 155-157