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11.07.19
essay
by Jose Gonzalez
Stop honoring genocide Roseville must remove a statue of Christopher Columbus For nearly three years I have reached out multiple times to the Roseville City Council to push for the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue in front of a post office and across from the civic center. The first city council I asked did not register a heartbeat, while the Jose Gonzalez is a retired state correctional youth counselor who lives in Roseville. current one has only registered a dim pulse. The Columbus statue was donated to the city in October 1976 by the Sons of Italy, a now defunct entity. Although I had driven past the outrage during the recent Columbus/Indigenous statue numerous times, I never gave it any Peoples’ Day weekend by vandalizing attention. It was not until the Columbus Day Columbus statues with red paint in Chula Vista weekend three years ago that I realized the and San Francisco. Increasingly, cities are statue honored Columbus. I was stunned. choosing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day I had just started exploring Columbus the instead of Columbus Day. previous month. While at Sacramento Meanwhile, Roseville is State University’s library, I found a waiting for the sale of the post book, Confronting Columbus, that office property to be finalopened my mind to the atrocities ized before relocating the committed under Columbus in More and Columbus statue. The city the West Indies. The more I more people are has reported that it plans read, the more troubled, sickto reach out to neighboring ened and horrified I felt. learning the truth cities to take in the statue. Columbus initiated centuries about Columbus. Destroying it is not an option of genocide against indigenous as it is considered to be art. populations throughout the The city is well aware of Americas, including California. the controversy surrounding the He began the trans-Atlantic slave statue, and covered it up during the trade when he returned to Spain after his Columbus/Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend first voyage across the Atlantic with a handful to protect it from being vandalized. It has been of Taino survivors. Altogether, hundreds vandalized multiple times, which explains why of indigenous slaves were taken across the it is missing its nose. Atlantic. Under Columbus, Tainos as young Although I do not know where the statue as 14 that failed to meet their gold quotas had will end up, I do know an increasing number their hands chopped off. Those that ran off of people do not want it in a public venue. The were chased down by dogs. Living conditions statue is especially offensive to our indigenous, for the Tainos became so atrocious that many Latino and African-American populations. died of starvation or suicide. Eventually, as a I encourage Roseville council members result of hundreds of thousands of indigenous to study Columbus. Doing so will help them deaths due to violence, disease, starvation and understand why so many find the statue so suicide, African slaves were shipped to the offensive and why it should be permanently West Indies to replace them. removed. Ω More and more people are learning the truth about Columbus. A few expressed their