I like how Martin Waldseemuller's regret became the name of 2 continents! I would imagine that would be like naming your kid, "Harry Baals" and Harry becoming someone important... oh wait that did happen!
Columbus does have to credit of "discovering" the New World but only from the Eurocentric viewpoint. Imagine if they had a respect for the indigenous people and used their name in an English translation, "Turtle Island". Turtle Island derives from the Iroquois's creation story which involved women creating the world and relying on the turtle as a safe haven for her children. I originally learned this in Women's History because it was showing the significance women had in Native American culture.
I enjoy how this reading emphasizes how everyone who originally thought another land existed was basically brushed off due to ridiculousness. Eratosthenes's revolutionary thought and mathematics perhaps wasn't deemed insane but certainly unbelievable. Over a thousand years later, even Columbus himself didn't believe there was a New World! He thought he landed in India and called the natives Indians. The New World is full of ill-named things: America for a man who didn't "discover" America and Indians for a people who weren't Indians at all.
I like Jefferson's phrase of "all America, North and South". His phrase is more accurate than of people's speech today. People now are supposed to be more educated and such, yet Jefferson fully recognized in that instant that "America" wasn't just the United States.
Interestingly enough, I know a few Japanese South Americans. I met them all through Foothill College where there are many international students. I could tell this one guy wasn't from the US. When I heard him speak, I couldn't identify his accent when he was speaking English. I was very surprised since I have a keen ear for Asian accents. Then I learned his name: Gustavo Nakamura. I later asked him why his name was Gustavo and he told me how his family migrated to Brazil to escape poverty in Japan. It's nice that Japanese people can be accepted as Brazilians. Of course they suffered through prejudice in the beginning, but after about 100 years of habitation in South America, they're fully accepted. Here in the US, people still aren't accepting Asians as Americans in many cases. Asian people have been in the US since the early 19th century and yet they still suffered incredible amounts of hatred even from the government. It's only within the last century that Asians were granted the right to become citizens of the United States. Even to this day, many people think I'm a foreigner because of how I look. Yes, this also happens in the Bay Area.
The term, "Pan American" is interesting. I understand the approach it's taking but I am struggling to find when I would ever use that term unless it's in an academic setting. Instead of referring to my ethnic identity as "Asian American", would I accurately refer to myself as "Asian North American" or "Asian United State's citizen"? Perhaps I'm too stuck to "Asian American", but none of those other terms comfortably roll off the tongue. What is the solution?
Okay, honestly, the 2nd chapter of this is somewhat boring to me. Even the author says, "...the truth about the peopling of the hemisphere is disappointingly undramatic." I understand all this is building up to modern American history, but it feels so painstakingly slow! I'll try to summarize what I've read to show that I've read it at least:
Thousands of year ago, the first generation of modern humans in the Americas were hunters. Evidence was found to suggest that these people started farming later on with tools and began the hunter-gatherer culture. It is unclear how they figured out how to farm, with potatoes being one of the first results. Because of agriculture, people stopped being nomadic and became settlers since they controlled their own food instead of hunting until the animals are gone. With agriculture, civilizations are born. The Olmecs were the first Mesoamerican civilization that laid the ground work for other civilizations to come. The 3 staple foods of the Native Americans flourished: maize, beans, and squash. These civilizations are considered more advanced than their Pre-European counter parts.
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