If I'm going to name this PROJECT AMERICAN BELLYBUTTON, it seems like I should give a sort of explanation....
As I entered year three at Warren and decided to go for this Lilly Grant, I number of ideas for travel and adventure entered my head. I pondered India to delve into my love of yoga and spiritual questing. I considered Argentina to study tango and the interplay of Italian and Spanish histories that exists within that culture. I thought about a cross-country trip within the United States to explore history of the Native peoples of North America. Yet in the end, I decided I wanted to go to the source of American history so as to gain insight into the American society in which I live and teach. My first internal question became what is the source of our creation story? Every culture has a story they pass down generation after generation that explains society's origins...as I ran through the versions of American history I learned growing up in the Midwest, I kept coming back to,
"In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue"....
Oh yes, he most definitely did arrive in the "New World", which was quickly named Hispaniola, though it had been occupied for over 5,000 years by the Taino, who called their homeland Quisqueya, Haití, or Bohío. What ensued following Columbus's arrival is nothing short of the nexus of American history...our metaphorical bellybutton and the subject of my questing, questioning, and exploration over the next few months. I want to understand the source of our history with the hope that this will give me insight into the ways in which we choose our identities today.
This will be a participatory blog--I want your input into my question-making process. Are there any questions related to the story of how we all got here that you've always wanted to ask? Please post them if so.
