Columbus: The Spanish Idiot

The Novel Reuben and Rachel referenced Columbus many of times. This was  largely because this novel is about his decedents until the title characters emerge. It shows how god people have to go through the horrors of life. One of his decedents  was even kept inside a house for a year until she married the man who kept her there. (It was pretty messed up). However while all of this is going on, Columbus is shown to be  man who was revered for his "discoveries" and kindness. Well honestly Columbus was a moron. He was not the evil and deceptive man that recent historians have made him out to be, nor was he the peaceful and intelligent historical figure that we all learned about in elementary school. He was a man who wanted glory for himself and glory for his home country. He then went to the completely wrong place instead of India. He then thought that they were bettering the "Indian" people, but  instead he brought disease and cruelty to the people of Cadiz. He thought he was bringing them culture and civilization, but in his ignorance and inflated national pride, he did not even realize that they themselves had their own culture and society, and he destroyed that. He destroyed  their way of life and brought death to the native people's all while he thought he was helping them. Reuben and Rachel serves as propaganda showing Columbus to be a hero and a man to be revered. He was also used to show a story of his multiracial decedents to show what kind of a good person he was and how his stripping of his governorship was uncalled for. This was not the case, he was incompetent and a terrible leader, who was glorified for his mistakes. That was all. However I would like to make an argument (even though I know that this was not the author's intent) that because of his stupidity and his actions, his family was cursed in a way to live a life filled with the consequences of Columbus's sins. They were cursed with the generational sin of stupidity which was not broken until Rachel. (Yes I viewed most of the tragic characters as being flawed with stupidity even though they were mostly good-natured).