Hey dear Latino

Latino USA listener.

So there's a new series by PRX and we wanted to share it with you. It's called monumental and it's well kind of what you'd expect by the title.

It's about how monuments reflect the story and the realities of America.

Quite a topic, huh?

If there's one figure that's particularly complex

and hurtful for us Latinos to revisit,

and if there's one figure with a lot of statues who is

particularly complex and yes even hurtful for many Latinos to revisit that

would be Christopher Columbus, the man who was glorified for centuries

as the discubridor of America, the man who discovered America. This episode of monumental questions exactly that, the

myth of Columbus as a discoverer and it highlights the bloody history that has often been erased from that very glorifying narrative.

And it turns out that that myth is present in monuments that are still up in places like Arecibo Puerto Rico.

Here's the episode and enjoy.

The whole idea of the drama and imposition of the monumental landscape is that it is

meant to feel natural. It is not meant to make you stop and think. It is meant to be ambient.

And in the case of so many monuments, it is meant to dwarf you.

It is meant to make you feel smaller. It is meant to make you look up and worship.

This is monumental, a podcast series produced by PRX.

I'm your host Ashley C Ford.

The voice you heard at the top is Elizabeth Alexander.

She's the president of the Mellon Foundation.

...