The white banner hanging over the
stage proclaimed: “A Celebration of
Cultures: The Columbus Quincenten-
nial-with support from Safeway, Inc.”
The hundred or so spectators in busi-
ness suits outside Washington, D.C.’s
Union Station last October 12 filled
only a fraction of the dozens of rows of
chairs set up for the event. Across the
street an equal number of people, some
wearing the red jackets of the American
Indian Movement, beat drums and car-
ried posters of Columbus with the cap-
tion, “Wanted for Crimes of Genocide.”
The commercialism of the banner
and the sparse turnout were appropriate
symbols of the work of the Christopher
Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Com-
mission, which seven years ago received
Congress’ mandate “to celebrate and
commemorate” the five-hundredth an-
niversary of Columbus’ arrival in this
hemisphere. The commission was sup-
posed to be the official flagship steer-
ing all quincentenary projects toward a
Hollywoodesque Columbus Day in
1992. In fact, its mismanagement has
lent greater credence to the message of
those who would mark the occasion in
a radically different way.
Besides sponsoring events, the Ju-
bilee Commission acts as a clearing-
house for the quincentenary projects of
other federal agencies and private indi-
vidual organizations, on which it can
bestow an official seal of approval.
Officially designated projects range
from a Florida production of the
Franchetti opera “Cristoforo Colombo”
to a yachting competition in Baltimore
harbor and northern Chesapeake bay.
To be accepted, a project must only
loosely relate to any number of themes,
from Columbus, the Columbian period,
five hundred years of history, the Old
World or the New World, to anything
remotely connected with the ocean.
Jacob Bernstein is afreelance jour-
nalist who writes on the quincentenary
and related issues.
In practice, the most important pre-
requisite for official acceptance is that
the project be self-financed. The com-
mission was granted a total budget of
$2 million, broken into portions of
$220,000 per fiscal year with an extra
$200,000 thrown in for 1992-a paltry
sum, given the original plans to spon-
sor a tour of three Spanish replicas of
the ships Columbus took on his first
voyage to the Americas, and to help
NASA coordinate an international race
of solar-powered spaceships to Mars.
Going for the Gold
Because of its meager finances, find-
ing corporate sponsorship became a
major preoccupation. But the appoin-
tees to the commission appeared ideal-
ly suited to that task. It includes the
secretaries of commerce and state, the
librarian of Congress, the archivist of
the United States, and the chairs of the
National Endowments for the Humani-
ties and the Arts. In addition, the House
of Representatives and the Senate nomi-
nated seven people each, while the Presi-
dent appointed ten “broadly represen-
tative of the people of the United States.”
“My God, what are they doing?”
Henry Raymont, one of two academics
on the commission, recalls saying upon
seeing the commissioner list for the
first time. “Most of these people are
businessmen and they really don’t give
a damn.” The commissioners by and
large are people influential in political
fundraising or active in volunteer gov-
ernment service, including several law-
yers, the Supreme Knight of the Knights
of Columbus, a New York stockbroker,
corporate CEOs, accountants, bank-
ers, and an Illinois state senator. The
majority of the commission’s members
are of Latino or Italian descent. Only
two are women, including Lynne
Cheney of the NEH. None are Native
American.
The original chairman, Miami real
estate broker and Cuban 6migr6 John
VOLUME XXV, NUMBER 3 (DECEMBER 1991) 9Goudie, personified the Reagan ad-
ministration’s approach to the quincen-
tenary. A friend of President Bush’s
son Jeb, Goudie had raised money for
Republican politicians, among them
former Florida governor and current
federal drug czar Bob Martinez. In Janu-
ary 1991, Common Cause broke the
story that Goudie has been named as a
defendant in 15 lawsuits since 1987,
and had his real estate license revoked
for improper use of escrow funds.
Goudie also admitted to the New York
Times that he failed to file federal in-
come tax returns for 1986 and 1987.
Raymont charges that all Goudie
accomplished during his tenure as chair-
man were “several trips to Spain to get
his photograph taken with King Juan
Carlos.” In fact Goudie did entice one
corporate sponsor into aiding the com-
mission. In 1989 Texaco pledged $5
million to finance the U.S. tour of the
Spanish replicas of the Nina, the Pinta
and the Santa Maria, part of Spain’s
$500 million quincentenary celebration.
But what was to be the commission’s
largest event ended instead in disaster,
bringing Goudie’s tenure to a swift end.
Rough Seas and Murky Waters
What exactly transpired between
Texaco, Spain, and the commission re-
mains obscured in a web of denials and
conflicting claims. According to Miguel
Ferrer, director of the Spain ’92 Foun-
dation, a non-profit organization estab-
lished by the Spanish government to
promote its version of the quincentenary
in the United States, “Goudie misrepre-
sented himself, telling Texaco that the
United States had commissioned the
ships themselves, and that Texaco could
have exclusive rights.” Spain, which
views the quincentenary as a vehicle to
promote itself as a modern nation and
transform its conquistador image into
that of positive contributor, was “deeply
offended.”
“It was difficult for Texaco to un-
derstand,” Ferrer says, “that others had
to be able to participate. Texaco just
had commercial intentions. They
wanted their logo on the sails and jack-
ets of the crew.” Despite protracted
three-way negotiations in 1990, Spain
rescinded all previous agreements with
the commission and the oil company
pulled out.
It’s a golden pportuntry Souvenirs like this pin reflect the
commission’s “business mentality.”
In December 1990, just prior to the
release of a New York Times article
detailing his financial mismanagement
of both the commission and his own
personal holdings, Goudie resigned. At
that time, it was rumored that the FBI
was conducting an investigation of
Goudie’s activities on the commission.
Goudie could not be reached for com-
ment, but in the past he described his
departure as voluntary and an attempt
to protect the commission from harm-
ful publicity.
Another disgruntled business that
hitched its fortunes to the success of the
Jubilee Commission is Norco Awards,
Inc., which is under contract to market
coins, pins, and medallions with the
commission’s logo of the three ships
and Columbus’ portrait. (Originally, the
commission was to sell only materials
and objects that are “substantially edu-
cational.” But in 1988, legislation was
Commission Executive DirectorJim
Kuhn places the onus for the Texaco
fiasco on Spain, who he claims was not
forthcoming with “insurance informa-
tion.” Texaco spokesperson David
Dickson, however, blames Goudie’s
mismanagement. “At this point,”
Dickson says, “it is not in Texaco’s
interest to participate in the quincen-
tenary and we are not planning to do
anything further with the commission.”
Curiously, Executive Director Kuhn
insists that Texaco remains an official
sponsor. “We may not have seen any
new funds,” he said, “but they have
given funds in the past and so will
remain as an official sponsor.”
REPORT ON THE AMERICAS
amended to establish the “Christopher
Columbus Quincentenary licensing
group,” and authorize the commercial
use of the commission’s logo.) Norco
spokesperson Mark Ross says “the com-
pany will take a considerable profit
loss” due to “the inept and inefficient
leadership of the commission and the
licensing group.” To add insult to in-
jury, the commission recently moved
to have the U.S. Treasury mint its own
special-edition silver and gold Colum-
bus coins.
Minting coins is one of several at-
tempts to salvage the commission’s
waning fortunes by Frank Donatelli,
the former AID administrator for Af-
rica and political assistant to Ronald
Reagan, who replaced Goudie as chair-
man in February 1990. But one com-
missioner questions whether the recent
activity is any more than “damage con-
trol.” The commission established a
Columbus Scholars Program to fund
college scholarships and summer ses-
sions abroad for high school students.
The New World Summer Program sent
100 students to the Dominican Repub-
lic in 1990. But the sponsor, a Japanese
firm, pulled out and defaulted on the
bill, leaving a debt that the commission
only recently paid off. “The best we can
do now,” commission member
Raymont says, “is help enhance what is
already out there, draw official atten-
tion and recognition through the com-
mission.”
Second Wind?
In order to deflect Native American
criticism of its work, the Jubilee Com-
mission says it is in the process of
appointing an Indian commissioner, Bill
Ray, a Klamath Indian from Southern
Oregon. Ray reacted with surprise when
asked about his upcoming appointment;
until that moment, no one had informed
him. Executive Director Kuhn says the
White House is processing the paper-
work. Ray hopes that his appointment
will create “an opportunity for the com-
mission to deal with the plight of the
modern-day Indian.” The U.S. govern-
ment terminated the tribal status of
Ray’s people in the 1950s, and confis-
cated its reservation. Official recogni-
tion was restored in 1986, but the
nation’s landbase remains two state
parks. “A lot of things need to be done
and undone,” says Ray, “to improve the
status of Indians.”
Donatelli’s speech at the Columbus
Day ceremony in Washington echoed
the prevailing message of the commis-
sion that the quincentenary should be a
special occasion in which Italian-Ameri-
cans and Latinos can take pride. “Our
great country has opened up its arms to
people all over the world,” he said.
“The genius of America is that we have
designed a system that can meld a great
diversity of people.”
Donatelli views the quincentenary
as an opportunity to use Columbus as a
symbol of the American dream of
progress and development, conquered
frontiers, the triumph of capitalism and
the success of technology. “Christo-
pher Columbus embodies many quali-
ties that can help us: courage, intelli-
gence, perseverance, and vision,” he
said. “The quincentenary is not just an
occasion to look back, but also a time to
think of the exciting possibilities for a
new age of discovery. But we need
those old virtues pioneered by Colum-
bus nearly five hundred years ago.”
But not even Donatelli’s apple-pie
vision manages to rise above the
bumbling commercialism of the Jubi-
lee Commission. Jesuit priest Charles
Polzer, the other academic on the com-
mission, believes that the quincentenary
could have been a chance to forge a new
identity, one more in line with the Re-
naissance foundations of the United
States. “It is my perception that the
United States has lost its identity, and
that the quincentenary was an opportu-
nity to find it, an occasion to rethink
America,” says Polzer. “But the com-
mission only had a business mentality.
Whenever I brought these issues up,
they said they didn’t have time to dis-
cuss them.”
Growing louder in the background
are the insistentvoices of Native Ameri-
cans who would like the quincentenary
to be observed as a period of mourning
and a defiant acknowledgment of their
success at survival. In the end, perhaps
the commission’s travails and ineffec-
tiveness, as Polzer puts it, “might have
played to the good.” The controversy
that the commission generated has
awakened interest in the quincentenary
and allowed others to explore it in ways
the commission’s sponsors never imag-
ined.
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