Invisible Landscapes: Colonialism and history in Montecristi
Archaeologist Eduardo Herrera Malatesta reflects on the unfamiliarity with the pre-Columbian past that he encountered during fieldwork in the Montecristi province in the Dominican Republic.
In the search for an explanation, he looked at the inheritance of colonialism over the different communities in the Caribbean. After 500 years, the impact of the colonisation is still visible in the popularised negation of a national past before Europeans.
“History began with the arrival of Columbus” is a colonial lie that the general public still believes. As part of NEXUS 1492 research objectives, during fieldwork in Montecristi in 2015 Eduardo Herrera Malatesta gave a series of talks at different high schools as well as an exhibition created by the NEXUS 1492 team to try reach a wider public and show that history, and particularly their history, has older and more diverse roots and that it is worth knowing and exploring them.
Read the whole article on the NEXUS 1492 website.