Columbus was just one of many

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who was struck by the following sentence in the article on the search for the national origin of Christopher Columbus: “Of course, the fact remains that Columbus wasn’t the first to step on what became American soil. The Irish, Vikings and maybe even the Chinese got here earlier” (Opinion, May 15).

Indeed, others got here much earlier, thousands of years before anyone arrived on a ship from across the Atlantic or Pacific. These travelers also stayed, and in so doing also changed history, even though they’re still thought so insignificant that they are routinely erased from even the parentheses of the master narrative so tiresomely recounted in your newspaper.

RALPH H. SAUNDERS

San Anselmo, Calif.

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I was disappointed to read that Martin Dugard referred to Columbus as one of “America’s greatest immigrants,” “charismatic” and “passionate.” Columbus was an opportunist who stumbled upon the Americas; he paved the way for a genocide and the rise of European and European-American domination of the world for hundreds of years.

SALVADOR JIMENEZ

La Puente