On this day in 1493, Christopher Columbus (known to the Spanish-speaking world as Cristobal Colon and to one challenged tour guide with whom I used to work as "Christopholus Columbus") dropped anchor on the western coast of Puerto Rico and stepped onto the island for the first time. It was his second trip to the "New World," and it was an expedition that was well-funded, both with money and with expectations, by Reina Isabella, who had outfitted Columbus with seventeen ships and more than 1200 passengers--among them "astronomers, cartographers, soldiers, artisans, laborers and pardoned criminals"... you know, all the usual constituents one needs to take over a savage, wild island in need of some exploiting, er, taming.

It was hoped that gold would make the journey worthwhile, that it would, in fact, pay for the expedition many times over, but Columbus and his colonizers soon learned that there would be no gold in the "rich port," which had, perhaps, been named a bit too hastily. They left the island more quickly than they came. Having planted the flag and declared Puerto Rico a holding of the Queen, they motored on over to Hispaniola, where a government was established in the name of the Spanish crown for managing "New World" holdings.

It would be 15 more years before the Spanish would return, half-heartedly, to Puerto Rico, sending Juan Ponce de Leon to manage the island and determine whether anything could be extracted from the land. de Leon didn't have the best time of it here, and in his journal, one can sense the mounting frustration he felt in his post. "The site was so humid," he wrote. "I had a crew gather some gold [which amounted to just over 800 pesos], but could not get more since I had no food to give to the people, and since none of the Indians of this island would help me" [those darn Indians!!]. His official report to His Royal Highness was apologetic and whiny: "I had two pieces of land prepared, one of them next to the town... for the colonizers; the other...was for me, and in these lands we shall work for his His Royal Highness, because until now we have been only able to tell the Indian caciques to work their own lands for His Royal Highness. There are five caciques whom I have ordered to work their lands for His Royal Highness. This is all I have been able to do so far, because I have been required to move the settlement so many times, and for lack of food, and because I have not been able to take advantage of the labor of the Indians, as should be done...."

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November 19 is an official holiday in Puerto Rico, named "Discovery Day." Both the fact of the observance and the name that's been applied to it are issues of perpetual debate on the island. "We weren't discovered!" say critics, noting rightly that there were Tainos here long before Columbus's toe touched upon Boriquen's soil. But critics and non-critics alike celebrate the fact that November 19 is, at the very least, an extra day off from work and a day when entertainment prevails.

Today, as Francisco and I walked around Old San Juan together, climbing up Calle Cruz and facing the ocean, turning left towards the bay and walking towards El Morro, I thought about Columbus and conquistadores. As we passed by Casa Blanca, the home that was built for de Leon's descendants, and turned left onto Calle San Sebastian, we came upon the plaza where de Leon is immortalized in statue form, his jaunty hat soiled by pigeon excrement, his index finger pointed determinedly and perpetually south in a stubborn and steely resolve that is utterly absent from his journals. A trio of musicians was just beginning to tune their cuatros, and women in Spanish dresses, accompanied by men in white pants and button down shirts, each with a colored scarf, took their places to begin traditional (Spanish) dances. Tourists who had stumbled onto the scene were thrilled-- IT'S CULTURE!-- and hundreds of camera shutters whirred and clicked. Moms and dads pointed out the swirl of the dancing skirts to their kids. "500 years ago," an announcer began soberly in English, clearly for the benefit of the families that had peeled themselves away from the top-deck pool and buffet bar of the cruise ships in the rich port, "Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico." I wasn't the one with the microphone, so I couldn't correct him. I just rolled my eyes as I watched a man suck down a pina colada contentedly, and told Francisco that if I should ever wear a cruise ship lanyard around my neck or carry a straw pocketbook with an anchor stitched onto it, that he should get his own ship and send me off on it.