Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Lost Highways: Dispatches from the Shadows of the Rocky Mountains
S5 E7 | How Do You Solve A Problem Like Columbus?
A monument to Christopher Columbus, sitting in the middle of Pueblo, Colorado has been dividing the town for years. To the large population of Italian-Americans whose ancestors came to Pueblo around the turn of the twentieth Century, it has long been a point of pride and a symbol of cultural belonging. But for the Indigenous and Chicano communities who also call Pueblo home, the statue of Columbus is a dark reminder of the long history of colonialism and genocide his voyages sparked. On this episode, we look at how community identities have been formed around historical heroes, and what happens to those communities when the actual history of those heroes catches up with what they’ve come to symbolize.
Read the transcript at: historycolorado.org/lost-highways/2024/06/27/how-do-you-solve-problem-columbus
--
History Colorado’s critically acclaimed podcast, Lost Highways: Dispatches from the Shadows of the Rocky Mountains, expands the history of the American West by exploring how overlooked stories from the past have shaped current world events and continue to impact our lives today. Lost Highways is made possible by the Sturm Family Foundation and a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Lost Highways: Dispatches from the Shadows of the Rocky Mountains
S5 E7 | How Do You Solve A Problem Like Columbus?
A monument to Christopher Columbus, sitting in the middle of Pueblo, Colorado has been dividing the town for years. To the large population of Italian-Americans whose ancestors came to Pueblo around the turn of the twentieth Century, it has long been a point of pride and a symbol of cultural belonging. But for the Indigenous and Chicano communities who also call Pueblo home, the statue of Columbus is a dark reminder of the long history of colonialism and genocide his voyages sparked. On this episode, we look at how community identities have been formed around historical heroes, and what happens to those communities when the actual history of those heroes catches up with what they’ve come to symbolize.
Read the transcript at: historycolorado.org/lost-highways/2024/06/27/how-do-you-solve-problem-columbus
--
History Colorado’s critically acclaimed podcast, Lost Highways: Dispatches from the Shadows of the Rocky Mountains, expands the history of the American West by exploring how overlooked stories from the past have shaped current world events and continue to impact our lives today. Lost Highways is made possible by the Sturm Family Foundation and a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
