Molly Montgomery Photo
A 2018 protest unofficially renames Christopher Columbus Family Academy after a Quinnipiac chief.
In the wake of city and neighborhood decisions to remove the Wooster Square Christopher Columbus statue, Fair Haven parents, teachers, administrators and community members have penned a letter to the Board of Education. The letter asks the board to rename Christopher Columbus Family Academy, celebrate Indigenous Peoples Month instead of Columbus Day, and revise history curricula.
Community organizations have unofficially renamed Columbus Family Academy to “Mantowese School” in the past, after a Quinnipiac chief.
Read the full letter in English and Spanish below.
To the New Haven Board of Education
June 21, 2020
Erase the Celebration of Genocide in Latin America from Our Schools and Teach Our History
Since 1968, Christopher Columbus Family Academy has stood at the corner of Blatchley Street and Grand Avenue in the heart of Fair Haven, New Haven’s landed immigrant community. Seen by many as a symbol of Italian heritage, historians now know that Columbus directed the torture and genocide of over three million Indigenous Taino, Caribe, and Arawak peoples in what is today South Florida, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and other nations of the West Indies as part of his mission to deliver gold back to the Spanish crown. Columbus and his brother also initiated the slave trade in the Americas, instituting a model of conquest and oppression that was later applied to Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.
Columbus had a transformative impact on the history of navigation and is viewed by many as the “first immigrant” to the Americas. This is important history for our children, and all of us, to understand. At the same time, the celebration of this problematic figure on a public school building entered daily by hundreds of young children betrays our most basic responsibility to set a good example and provide positive role models. It adds insult to injury that the majority of the children currently attending Columbus Academy are of Indigenous heritage, with a significant percentage of Puerto Rican heritage specifically, making them the descendants of those slaughtered for profit by their school’s namesake.
Our school district further elevates this figure by observing Columbus Day as a holiday. And while Columbus is celebrated, on the one hand, the true history of Indigenous peoples and European colonization of the Americas — including approximately 90 percent of the Indigenous population who died as a result of European colonization — plays little if any role in our schools’ curriculum. When this history appears in the curriculum, often around the Columbus Day and Thanksgiving holidays, European colonists and their violent encounter with Indigenous peoples are too often presented inaccurately as friendly and benign, thus perpetuating false and racist understandings into the next generation.
We the undersigned call upon the New Haven Board of Education to act with urgency, through the following essential steps:
- Change the name of the school currently called Columbus Family Academy, to a new name chosen via an inclusive, open, and educational decision-making process.
- Remove Columbus Day from the school calendar and establish October as Indigenous Peoples History Month for the New Haven Public Schools.
- Train educators and administrators in an historically accurate curriculum on Indigenous history, the history of European colonization of the Americas, and ethnic studies more broadly.
- Revise or replace all teaching materials that erroneously present Columbus solely as a hero or role model, show European colonists as benign explorers, and/or the “encounter” between European colonists and Indigenous peoples as friendly and peaceful.
- Establish history and/or social studies curriculum in each grade that includes the study of local Indigenous peoples, as well as an ongoing process for decentering European-origin knowledge, historical actors, arts, literature, ways of thinking, etc. and incorporates Indigenous and other non-European peoples’ knowledge, histories, arts, literature, ways of thinking, holistic approaches to nature, etc. across the curriculum.
- Establish a policy and procedure for all New Haven Public Schools public events to include an acknowledgement of the Indigenous peoples who inhabited the land.
Signed:
Alder Paola Acosta, Ward 14
Principal Roy Araujo, Columbus Family Academy
Laura Barberia, Columbus Family Academy Teacher
Anthony Barroso, Organizer, Connecticut Students for a Dream
Dr. Abie Benitez, former Principal, Columbus Family Academy
Representative Juan Candelaria, 95th District
Addys Castillo, Executive Director, Citywide Youth Coalition
Alder Jose Crespo, Ward 16
Alicia Camacho, NHPS Parent and Chair of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University
Lee Cruz, Fair Haven Resident and Columbus Family Academy Parent
Liz Demsky, Wilbur Cross High School Counselor
Diane Ecton, Co-Chair, Fair Haven Community Management Team
Kica Matos, Fair Haven Resident
Mildred Melendez, Democratic Town Committee Vice Chair
Sarah Miller, Fair Haven Resident and Columbus Family Academy Parent
Stephen Pitti, NHPS Parent and Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University
Bruni Pizarro, Interim Executive Director, Junta for Progressive Action
Melba Ramos, Columbus Family Academy Social Worker
Rafael Ramos, Fair Haven Resident and Founder, Bregamos Community Theater
Ana María Rivera Forastieri, Connecticut Bail Fund
Joseph Rodriguez, former Member, New Haven Board of Education
Michelle Lee Rodriguez, Co-Chair, Fair Haven Community Management Team
Mishele Elizabeth Rodriguez, Fair Haven Resident
Fatima Rojas, Columbus Family Academy Parent and Organizer, Semilla Collective
Alder Ernie Santiago, Ward 15
Juan Carlos Soto, Community Organizer
Dr. Carlos Torre, former President, New Haven Board of Education and Professor of Education, Southern Connecticut State University
Xiomara Vazquez, Columbus Family Academy Teacher
A la Junta de Educación de New Haven
21 de junio de 2020
Eliminemos de nuestras escuelas la celebración del genocidio en latinoamérica y enseñemos en las clases la verdadera historia
Desde 1968, La Academia Familiar Cristóbal Colón se encuentra en la esquina de Blatchley Street y Grand Avenue, en el corazón de Fair Haven, la comunidad de inmigrantes de New Haven. Visto por muchos como un símbolo de la herencia italiana, los historiadores ahora saben que Colón dirigió la tortura y el genocidio de más de tres millones de pueblos indígenas taínos, caribeños y arawak en lo que hoy es el sur de Florida, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana, Haití, Cuba, Jamaica, las Bahamas y otras naciones de las Indias Occidentales como parte de su misión de devolver el oro a la corona española. Colón y su hermano también iniciaron el comercio de esclavos en las Américas, instituyendo un modelo de conquista y opresión que luego se aplicó a los pueblos indígenas en todo el continente americano.
Colón tuvo un impacto transformador en la historia de la navegación y es visto por muchos como el “primer inmigrante” en las Américas. Esta es una historia importante para que nuestros hijos y todos nosotros comprendamos. Al mismo tiempo, la celebración de esta figura problemática en un edificio de escuela pública al que ingresan diariamente cientos de niños pequeños revela nuestra responsabilidad más básica de dar un buen ejemplo y proporcionar modelos positivos a seguir. Agrega insulto a la lesión de que la mayoría de los niños que asisten actualmente a la Academia Colón son de herencia indígena, con un porcentaje significativo de herencia puertorriqueña específicamente, lo que los convierte en descendientes de los asesinados con fines de lucro por el homónimo de su escuela.
Nuestro distrito escolar eleva aún más esta cifra al observar el Día de Colón como feriado. Y aunque se celebra Colón, por un lado, la verdadera historia de los pueblos indígenas y la colonización europea de las Américas, incluido aproximadamente el 90 por ciento de la población indígena que murió como resultado de la colonización europea, juega poco o ningún papel en nuestras escuelas ’ plan de estudios. Cuando esta historia aparece en el plan de estudios, a menudo alrededor del Día de Colón y las vacaciones de Acción de Gracias, los colonos europeos y su encuentro violento con los pueblos indígenas se presentan con demasiada frecuencia de manera inexacta como amistosos y benignos, lo que perpetúa los entendimientos falsos y racistas en la próxima generación.
Los abajo firmantes pedimos a la Junta de Educación de New Haven que actúe con urgencia a en los siguientes pasos esenciales:
- Cambiar el nombre de la escuela que actualmente se llama “Columbus Family Academy”, por un nuevo nombre que sea elegido por la comunidad escolar a través de un proceso abierto, inclusivo e imperativamente educativo.
- Eliminar el “Día de la Raza” del calendario escolar y establecer octubre como el Mes de la Historia de los Pueblos Originarios Indígenas en las escuelas públicas de New Haven.
- Capacitar a educadores y administradores sobre la importancia de enseñar la historia indígena y la verdadera historia de la colonización europea de las Américas, apegándose a lo que verdaderamente fueron los hechos históricos.
- Revisar y reemplazar todos los materiales de enseñanza que presenten erróneamente a Colón como un héroe o modelo a seguir, eliminar la enseñanza del encuentro entre colonizadores europeos y pueblos indígenas como amigable y pacífica por que no lo fue.
- Establecer un currículo de historia y/o estudios sociales en cada grado escolar que incluya el estudio de los pueblos indígenas locales, así como un proceso continuo para descentralizar los conocimientos de origen europeo como personajes históricos, literatura, formas de pensar, etc. e incorporar los conocimientos de historia, arte, literatura, formas de pensar, cultura, cosmogonía, concepción holística de la naturaleza, saberes ancestrales de los pueblos originarios indígenas en todo el programa escolar.
- Establecer como procedimiento, un currículo para todas las escuelas públicas de New Haven que estipule que en cada asamblea o evento escolar, haya un reconocimiento y/o mención a este territorio, como territorio de los pueblos originarios indígenas.
Firmada:
Alder Paola Acosta, Ward 14
Principal Roy Araujo, Columbus Family Academy
Laura Barberia, Columbus Family Academy Teacher
Anthony Barroso, Organizer, Connecticut Students for a Dream
Dr. Abie Benitez, former Principal, Columbus Family Academy
Representative Juan Candelaria, 95th District
Addys Castillo, Executive Director, Citywide Youth Coalition
Alder Jose Crespo, Ward 16
Alicia Camacho, NHPS Parent and Chair of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University
Lee Cruz, Fair Haven Resident and Columbus Family Academy Parent
Liz Demsky, Wilbur Cross High School Counselor
Diane Ecton, Co-Chair, Fair Haven Community Management Team
Kica Matos, Fair Haven Resident
Mildred Melendez, Democratic Town Committee Vice Chair
Sarah Miller, Fair Haven Resident and Columbus Family Academy Parent
Stephen Pitti, NHPS Parent and Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University
Bruni Pizarro, Interim Executive Director, Junta for Progressive Action
Melba Ramos, Columbus Family Academy Social Worker
Rafael Ramos, Fair Haven Resident and Founder, Bregamos Community Theater
Ana María Rivera Forastieri, Connecticut Bail Fund
Joseph Rodriguez, former Member, New Haven Board of Education
Michelle Lee Rodriguez, Co-Chair, Fair Haven Community Management Team
Mishele Elizabeth Rodriguez, Fair Haven Resident
Fatima Rojas, Columbus Family Academy Parent and Organizer, Semilla Collective
Alder Ernie Santiago, Ward 15
Juan Carlos Soto, Community Organizer
Dr. Carlos Torre, former President, New Haven Board of Education and Professor of Education, Southern Connecticut State University
Xiomara Vazquez, Columbus Family Academy Teacher
Mantowese was a leader (chief) of an area which is now called Middletown. Momauguin was the leader (chief) of the land now called New Haven. He is the person that signed land rights use to the British in 1638. Perhaps the school is better named Momauguin. That's if history is going to be used to define place.