Maite's POV

I'm so excited to be a fucking professor! I am so nervous to be doing this. I have experience being a TA, but this is different. This is completely on me and I have to be the gateway for these students and history.

I finish my first World History class and I feel more confident with myself. I am teaching 4 classes this semester and I am happy most of them occur on the same days. I text my sister and see how she is doing at NYU and she is so worried for me with the aftercare that comes from donating but I am mostly mobile. I haven't been working out strenuously, but I have been taking long 5 mile walks every day to stay active and help with my recovery time.

All my lectures happen to be an hour and a half Monday and Wednesday and the last is my favorite. It's my seminar class dealing with Latin American History in colonial times. This is my smallest class but the one where all the students speak. Definitely some more spirited than others… I have posed a question that can be seen as controversial in some circles especially in a state like New York. I had seen the roster right before the semester started and Molly is in this class and I hope whatever happened to Michael and I do not come into play here because I would hate to dismiss Molly from this class. She isn't the type, but you never know what can happen.

"Hello class welcome to the semester long seminar of the History of Latin American History. I surmise that everyone has already read the syllabus. This class is intended to spark debate on facts and of history. We will only use arguments based on reason and sources. I will not make you do ice breakers we will know so much more of each other by the arguments we raise instead of awkward ice breakers that leaves us all with hardly anything to say because they are so general, broad and leads us nowhere. My first question for this course is 'Do you think Columbus Day should be celebrated or not'?"

"Yeah I don't see why not? He discovered America and our country wouldn't be it as we know it without him. He is a hero to Italian Americans especially here in New York. I'm from NYC and he is a source of pride for us."

"He maybe a source of pride for you but he is a source of derision for many others." Molly speaks up in rebuttal. The student who just spoke looks like he just ate a huge piece of grapefruit.

"The Columbian Exchange was truly the first instance of trade that included the whole globe from east to west. It added more wealth and untapped resources."

"That trade also included people being traded as commodities. Stripped not only of their agency but of their homes. To only highlight Columbus successes would be a disservice. The Columbian Exchange did not only bring an exchange of goods but also of diseases that decimated nearly whole populations of native groups. When they could not ultimately make a viable slave/servant race out of natives to Spain they looked to other means which led to the Atlantic Slave Trade. He is not a celebrated figure as he is here in any of the colonies that he seized.

You speak of his successes with a limited scope. His own men turned against him due to his ineptitude and he died in near disgrace and high debt. He is one of the ultimate examples of failing up. He had no intention of sailing to what we call the Americas he was wanted to go sail the other way in hope of not crossing the Ottoman empire. We see that clearly when he describes the natives he meets as Indians. He had been turned away by his own people that he went begging to other courts to finance his travels and was turned even by Isabella of Castile only to be saved on the advice of her husband Ferdinand.

He has had a global impact but to brand him and other conquistadors as just mythical explorers ignores the dark and twisted atrocities that occur in what will later become colonies. Our class is about Latin American history in colonial times. Conquistadors and the empires that fueled and financed their voyages influence for better or worse is still felt to this day even though all countries in Latin America have achieved their own independence from the empires that ruled them before." Molly's counterargument is very sound, and it only looks like an opening. She definitely is a daughter of lawyers.

"Why should he even be so celebrated in America anyways? I know this is a class about Latin American history, but this holiday is celebrated in pockets of America. I'm from Florida and his holiday isn't celebrated there. We don't get the day off like it is here. Growing up I just thought it was a day to get bedding from Macy's. I didn't know its true magnitude until coming here and seeing that we didn't have school on that day. The guy was known to revel in mutilating and killing people. He would kill not just natives which he clearly thought them to be lesser than him but also Spanish people who didn't agree that everything he thought was right. When he started killing Spanish people and killing natives from torture and the horrible conditions from forced labor he was of no use to Isabella and Ferdinand."

"Are we really arguing how Columbus shouldn't be celebrated? He is the catalyst for globalism and connecting the world and opening up new trade and revenue streams."

"He is also the catalyst for the decimation of Native populations through torture, disease, and forced labor. He is also the catalyst for the kidnapping and servitude of African people. Many of whom never made the voyage due to dying on the way from disease and malnourishment. Stacked upon each other. Many thrown overboard as if they were nothing of value anymore when they died. Lead to mass suicides and parents killing their children instead of them growing up as slaves when groups like the Arawaks couldn't fight them due to the advanced armor and weapons the Europeans possessed. Amerigo Vespucci rightly distinguished that the New World was distinct and had no connection to the East Indies. Rendering Columbus assertion that these 'Indians' was incorrect. Columbus was a sadist that was also not equipped to run. We can acknowledge Columbus helped usher modern globalism, but we can't gloss over the fact that he was a talented torturer and was an incredibly inept leader that ended up dying in disfavor."

"What do you think Professor?" A student poses the question to me. The focus on shaping their thought with discourse from their peers through the Socratic method but it doesn't mean I will be excluded. I can feel Molly's eyes on me.

"Well from course syllabus is based on scholarly review of Latin American History from a Latin American scholar's perspective. When we are basing our arguments for or against something, we must also look at the intent of the person in the first place. Columbus was an explorer with an ego but no one to finance him. Most explorers had ego because they were competing to carry the most favor so their expeditions could be financed. The human cost of Columbus is astronomically high even at the most conservative of estimates. His accidental discovery of the Americas led to Spain being able to finance their numerous wars with other European nations and have dominance even after the crushing blow of Isabella of Castile dying.

It led to a globe being divvied up by European powers through war and dominance over vulnerable populations not suited to win against them. Do I personally believe Columbus should be celebrated? Absolutely not and that is a personal preference. I do believe Columbus belongs in museums and history books but not in a sanitized way over embellishing one small time frame in his long life. He is an incredibly dynamic figure to study because of his actions in his life. History is not about studying the good. Most history can be summed in three categories war, religion and innovation. Every major discovery can fit in those three big brackets sometimes often intertwine.

I don't think it is appropriate to celebrate Columbus Day as a day only of celebration, but I am also raised culturally as a Mexican in Mexico this holiday in this country do not hold a great significance for me as it can for you. I just find it an amazing way to understand how people shape their thoughts when confronted with this subject…"

The time in the class goes by quicker than I imagined and it's over and I'm giving them some assigned reading for the next debate we will have in class. The class shuffles out of there and I am proud to witness every student speaking which means they are comfortable and confident enough to speak their thoughts.

"Hi Professor…"

"Hello Molly, you did well explain your argument today. It was more exceptional considering you did nothing to speak your identity into the argument. This is not to say that's a bad thing, but many times people will use it to try to pick apart your argument."

"Thank you for saying that. It means quite a bit coming from you. I just wanted to say I know you Michael didn't work out, but it doesn't mean that I will treat you any different because you are not together."

"I would never think you would. You are a fair-minded person. However, I must tell you that it might be best for now to keep a distance because I don't want there to be any doubt the grades you earn are on merit alone." Her face drops a little, but she recovers.

"Yeah of course I understand. It's just hard because you were so awesome this summer and I miss you and game night and all that stuff."

"I miss them too Molly. I wanted to ask and hopefully it isn't an overstep but how are you doing?"

"Oh, um I'm doing well. I was so relieved when I woke up. The last thing I could remember was hearing the loud bang and then I wake up in the hospital being told I need a liver immediately. I'm just so happy someone was able to donate some of theirs to save my life."

"I'm so glad to hear that. I was so sad to hear what happened to you. You have your whole life ahead of you Molly and I know you are going to do important things with it."

"Thanks Professor, I guess I'll see you on Wednesday." Molly makes her way out of the class. I make my way to the hospital.