About

What Christopher Columbus Saw When He Pulled Up To America is a series of memes that use a version of the catchphrase, "This is what Christopher Columbus saw when he pulled up to America," over an image of an attractive woman who is dressed up as or arguably resembles an Indigenous American person. In May 2025, a version of the meme that uses a photo of a woman who is purportedly X / Twitter user @SantoriMary (mimiesquisitinha on Instagram) with red paint across her face and eyes, seemingly cosplaying as BRchan mascot Kuruminha, went viral. The memes purportedly reference stories of a Carib woman whom Italian explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus is said to have sexually assaulted alongside his crew.

Origin

On October 14th, 2024, X^[1] user @ChrisWinig posted a piece of fan art of the character Chel from the animated film The Road to El Dorado sitting on a beach, writing, "The first thing Columbus saw when he arrived in America," garnering over 2,600 likes in seven months. This is the earliest known version of the meme.

It has been suggested that the memes reference stories of Christopher Columbus and another of his crewmates sexually assaulting a Carib woman.^[9]

Spread

On May 23rd, 2025, X^[2] user @uncleHsTopGuy posted a new version of the meme featuring a different woman with face paint, writing, "This is what Christopher Columbus saw when he landed in the Americas," garnering over 2,000 likes in four days.

On May 25th, the same X^[3] user posted a version of the meme using what is purportedly an image of X^[4] user @SantoriMary, or mimiesquisitinha on Instagram,^[5] garnering over 303,000 likes and 9,500 reposts in two days. While the user has posted evidence that she is the one in the photo, it has not been officially confirmed.

The meme garnered viral spread over the following days. On May 26th, it was reposted by the Facebook^[6] page History Me This with the caption, "POV: You're a Spanish conquistador and you just pulled up to the New World," garnering over 13,000 reactions and 2,000 shares in a day.

On the same day, an image macro of the post was shared by the thehoodclips Instagram^[7] page, garnering over 15,000 likes in a day.

On May 27th, 2025, Redditor u/Distinct-Ganache-698 posted the meme to the /r/PeterExplainsTheJoke^[8] subreddit, garnering over 1,200 upvotes in under a day.

That same day, X^[10] user @SantoriMary posted another photo of herself in the same outfit, writing, "I don't like people distrusting me," garnering around 60 likes in under a day.

Various Examples

Related Memes

Kuruminha

Kuruminha is the mascot of Brazilian imageboard BRchan. The character is a young indigenous Brazilian woman wearing red face paint and dressed in a loincloth. On BRchan and other imageboards, images of the character have been as reactions, with Kuruminha inspiring memes and fan art.

Template

Search Interest

External References