Iconoclasms for a New World
2020.
The Plague Year.
A defining year has set in motion everlasting consequences.
Monuments are overthrown.
A new world is being shaped, and this world is no longer subjugated by the white.
Circa 1000, a man named Leifr Eiríksson invaded the continent by means of Ikkarumikluak, in Canada and decided
to misname it Vínland.
In 1492, a man named Cristoforo Colombo invaded the continent by means of Guanahani, in The Bahamas, and for that
he became known as a discoverer.
In 1507, a man named Martin Waldseemüller decided to misname that continent, placing the word America on a map, in the territory today known as Brazil (de facto Pindorama).
In 1776, a group of men gathered as the Continental Congress, declared that a specific country should then be called
the United States of America.
Be it in Ikkarumikluak or Guanahani or Pindorama,
America was not ever born in the United States.
Yet, somehow, the country and its allies still claim the identity of the entire American continent as its own.
We cannot talk of decolonisation without acknowledging the imperialist lexicon we use, protect, and disseminate.
The Invasion of Abya Yala, after Theodor de Bry’s “Cristoforo Colombo arrives in America” (1594)
The Rape of Abya Yala, after Jan van der Straet’s “The Discovery of America”
(ca 1587–89)
The Misnaming of Abya Yala, after Martin Waldseemüller’s “Universalis Cosmographia” (1507)
Through the symbolisms brought out by the earliest depictions of the New World and words of revision placed over the images is a first step towards an understanding of the political implications caused by European actions over the course of their centuries-long colonial power.
Americans All is a 1943 film made by Julien Bryan and commissioned by the United States' FDR Good Neighbor Policy. They hired filmmakers to make movies in the south with the aim of promoting friendly relations with American countries in the face of Europe's disintegration. This film marks a rare moment in modern history in which the United States is not led by delusions of grandeur.