El Caribe Gris

While reading Caribe Gris, I began reading the original Spanish version. Since I'm bilingual, I thought reading it would be easy, which it was, but I began to question myself when they referred to Christopher Columbus' writings as "inutil". It was surprising to see the writer speak about Columbus in that matter. I didn't know what the main idea was about, so stumbling across that sentence made me question my translating ability. At that moment, I quickly turned on the English version, and to my surprise, they did mean to call his writings useless. The writer also called him out on his view of the world as being small, and the location of his lands being incorrect. 

   

As I continued to read, I had to keep switching from Spanish to English every time I stumbled across anything that seemed a bit off to me. It seemed the writer had strong feelings towards the way people of the Caribbean were depicted through those writings. I knew the main idea had something to do with these inaccurate and fictional writings from Christoper Columbus, but I was wondering if there was something more to it. As we discussed the reading in class, I knew I was going in the right direction. It speaks about Columbus'  inaccurate writings and how the writer feels these biased/fictional writings have an impact on how others view Caribbean history.

This reading is something I personally never knew or thought about, but it does make a lot of sense and has quotes, times, and sources they used down below. They helped me to clarify a few things and informed me of Bartolome de Las Casas' edits on this particular writing. My opinion on the main idea continues to be the same. Although I did have difficulty with the translation, everything seems to go hand in hand with the main idea of this article. I overcame these difficulties by reading piece by piece and in both languages to grasp the message of El Caribe Gris.