The 70th annual Columbus Day parade brought with it support and opposition Monday as local groups jostled for position on the still unresolved issue of what to do with the city’s Columbus statues. In Little Italy, Christopher Columbus is viewed in a positive light, a source of pride for Italian Americans in Chicago.
Elsewhere though, critics of Columbus point toward the enslavement and genocide of Native American peoples kicked off by his 1492 expedition as a reason to rename the holiday ‘Indigenous Peoples Day‘ and permanently keep the statues away from the public eye. Amidst the debate of whether or not to keep the statues, 38th Ward Alderman Nicolas Sposato is still hopeful an agreement can be brokered with city hall to display the statues.
