Columbus cartoon

For this media item I decided to search for something about Christopher Columbus. I wanted to find a video on him because Zinn’s paper really had me questioning his journey. Many of Zinn’s remarks about who Columbus was as a person and the real story about American history were new to me so I wanted to learn more. I found a cool 5 minute video on youtube about Columbus from the Mel-O-Toons production company.

To begin, this video was old school and also a cartoon video. With that in mind, this video was probably meant more for kids although I found it to be great and I’m 20. Anyway, the relevance of this video being a cartoon is that this video contradicted much of the hard truth that Zinn shared in his article. First, a main distinction was surprising to me. In Zinn’s article he talked about how Columbus was on his way to Asia in search for gold while this cartoon said he was looking for India. That is a pretty big error for one of them to make and I’m no history buff so I don’t know who to believe. Also, Zinn questioned the integrity of Columbus while this fun loving video with sweet music made him look like a hero.

Furthermore, I love the end of the video when the narrator says “on that day in 1492 when Columbus first spotted America”. I found this to be very funny since Zinn has recently persuaded me otherwise, and that Rodrigo was the one that spotted the land and Columbus just took the credit. And finally the video had to point out that the Europeans had white skin and when Columbus and his men came to an already vacant America they found people with darker skin. Let me guess, the people who made that video where American. They just had to throw that in there. We Americans must not notice how much we focus on skin color and race, but boy it sure seems like a lot when you look at it from the outside.

This cartoon was great and fit in perfectly with what I was trying to get out of this media assignment. It also helped further confuse me about the history of this country. Was he looking for Asia or India? Anyway, I think that this video also answers the DQ about what we should share with our youth. Obviously this cartoon is intended for the youth and like we teach or young today about Columbus, none of it has to do with Zinn’s opinions-the violence, greed, and lies. None of the killed Indians, quest for money, or dishonesty about who first spotted America. I now do think that Columbus wasn’t as great and genuine person, but if you asked me 10 years ago I would have told you differently.

Here is the website link to check out this great 5 minute cartoon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuvRFZ4Mxbo