Part Two: Christopher Columbus's Dust

Like my group trip to Rome, my program recently took us to Sevilla, the capital of Andalucia. Within our program, Sevilla was another option for where to study abroad in Spain. While some people felt they had wished they had chosen Sevilla over Granada upon visiting, I was happy with the choice I made. Sevilla was very pretty and full of history and art, but it was also very large and sweltering hot. The weekend we were there temperatures reached highs of 80 degrees F. Joder! That’s hot.

On the way to Sevilla, we stopped in a national park called Torcal. Torcal is by far one of the most amazing geological areas of nature I have ever seen. It is on top of a mountain range, but it was once completely underwater. Because of this, all of the rocks are formed like riverbeds, and you can see the gradation and markings from where water rushed by and ate away at the rocks. It was absolutely amazing and beautiful. It was so nice to be in the fresh mountain air and go hiking and see the incredible rock formations. It was a pleasant surprise for all of us, and after looking down into a large valley that sat below the mountains someone said, “Good work, God.”

Once in Sevilla, I realized if the heat there would soon reach Granada, I had not packed enough summer clothes. Our first full day there while wearing shorts and a tank top, I felt overheated and searched for shade often. During the summer months, Sevilla can reach temperatures of 120 degrees F. Probably what made this worse was the fact that it is such a large city, concrete and rock absorb the heat and keep it hot into the night. Also, Sevilla has a humid heat since it is situated along a river. However the city also holds many large and lush gardens, which create nice reprieves from the heat.

One of the sites we went to visit was the city’s Cathedral, which holds the Guinness World Record for the most square footage for a church. It is a beautiful gothic Cathedral, but it also has incorporated old parts of a mosque that was once there before the Inquisition. The Cathedral was indeed massive, and the inside reminded me of the Westminster Abbey in London. The Cathedral is also the final resting place for Christopher Columbus. When Ol’ Chris died, he was buried in Sevilla at a monastery. Due to celebrations and some other reason I forget, he was then moved to what is now Dominican Republic. However, Dominican Republic gained freedom from Spain, so he was moved to Cuba. And as we all know, Cuba is no longer a part of Spain either, so he was sent back to Sevilla and put in a special tomb in the Cathedral that was originally designed as a gift for the Dominican Republic. However, a few years ago, DR started up some trouble and said that Seville had the wrong body—they still had Columbus. So, in 2003, they did DNA testing of the small remains they had left of Columbus, which is now a small pile of dust, and tested it along with the remains of his illegitimate child, who also has a tomb in the Cathedral. The consensus was then in, Columbus was indeed in Sevilla. So, Columbus did not just sail the ocean blue in 1492, but also well into his death. Phew!

I have to say, it never ceases to amaze me how famous Christopher Columbus is. In the States, Columbus is almost considered infamous. He was a man who landed on someone else’s backyard and claimed it as something he “discovered.” We all know what happened from then on; mass genocide, spread of disease, and wars over land. The land we now call the Americas. While I was studying in Costa Rica, every museum was full of depictions of those first meetings between the indigenous and conquistadors. The currency in Costa Rica is the “colon,” as in “Cristobel Colon” his real name. Many history lessons focused on the Spaniards invasion and control of the area, and it was interesting to live where life wasn’t previously under British control, but Spanish.
In Spain, there are memorials for him everywhere. He is practically the patron saint of Spain. In Sevilla every year on October 12th, Christopher Columbus Day, they have massive parties celebrating him. He is so ingrained in the culture, he is as famous as Isabel and Ferdinand, the former Queen and King of the Inquisition Era. He was the frontrunner in a time when Spain was powerful, and because of that they hold on to the glory he gained in their name.

Another famous site we visited was the Alcazar. The Alcazar was once a Moorish fort, but was then turned into a royal palace after the Inquisition. This place is very much like the Alhambra in Granada (I know, I still haven’t told you about it!) but it is still in use by the Royal family. It has gardens that span seven acres, and it was very lush and beautiful. There were some very interesting facts about history in general that came directly from this palace. One was the Media Naranja, or half orange. The Media Naranja was the top of a ceiling in a section of the palace that looks like half an orange, and is the spot in which two famous people of Spanish history (I have forgotten at the moment who) were married. Because of this, people now call their spouses their “media naranja,” or, their “better half.”

Also, there is a crest within the building that depicts two pillars and a river curving through them. The two pillars represented two powers, which I believe were Spain and Morocco, and the river being the Straight of Gibraltar. Don’t quote me on that one though, because I can’t remember exactly! I need to take a tape recorder on my tours! However, this image of the two towers and river were used often for symbols involving Spain. If you were to roughly sketch the two pillars and river, you would get two lines and a squiggly mark. $ This ended up being the origin of the dollar sign. That just blew me away! Who thinks about the origin of the dollar sign? Also, on many crests of Spain and within the palace there are the words “Plus Ultra”, which is Latin for, “You may go beyond this point.” All of these crests used to say, “No Plus Ultra,” because this was during a time when they thought the world was flat. They thought if you went beyond a certain point you would fall off the edge of the earth. After Columbus came to the Americas and it became obvious the world was not flat, all of the No’s were scratched off.

As you can see, I take a lot from my tours when I go to these places. I am very interested in the history of the area, especially since Spain was a catalyst in forming the country I am from. Our history is intertwined with theirs, and it is impossible to escape this fact. Living in Spain makes me feel more connected to not only the history of my country, but world history. Seeing and experiencing these things suddenly makes those hours as a child in social studies come to life, and makes me wish everyone could see and hear these things instead of just reading them from a textbook. But I also realize not everyone is as interested as me, so I’m glad to know the children in our country at least have text books to learn from.