For many years there has been talk about removing images of Christopher Columbus. He's not very popular among natives nor among many Hispanic/Latino people. He is credited with slaughtering natives, introducing diseases and enslaving natives. He has a general image of having been cruel to the native populations.
Much less is known about Queen Isabella. Just about all that the majority of people know about her is that she funded Columbus' voyages to the New World. But there's much more to her than what contemporary history books in schools say about her.
She was known as "La Catolica," and as "Protector of the Indians." She was a devout catholic who would spend lengthy times kneeling in prayer. It's for this reason that she was called The Catholic.
She also made laws that protected the Indians. When Christopher Columbus took several natives as slaves to Queen Isabella, she ordered that they be released. During her reign she also ordered that the native Americans were not to be enslaved. She also spared them the trials of the Holy Inquisition, which was rampant in Europe, because she regarded them as children. She also ordered that Indians were to be treated fairly. And before her death she requested that her successors enforce those orders.
She also refused to send Spanish women to the New World and ordered the Spanish soldiers to marry the native women. It is from this mix of the Spanish conquistador and the Native American woman that the majority of today's Hispanics/Latinos descend from. Hispanics/Latinos of today are who they are in great part due to her and the Catholic Church. They are neither pure Native American nor pure White, they are a mix of those two. DNA results prove this.
It's a pity that the queen who was instrumental in the creation of many new nations and people in the New World is being lumped in along with Christopher Columbus. Her image will be removed along with Columbus'.
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