Columbus Day celebrates immigrants
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Legislature passed nearly 1,000 bills last year. A few were important. Most were not. Many were frivolous, some dumb — a waste of politicians’ time and public money.
Gov. Jerry Brown did veto 12 percent of the Legislature’s offerings. But that’s all muck under the bridge.
There are many bills pending in the Legislature again this year that the state could do just fine without.
The biggie: abolishing Columbus Day and replacing it with “Indi genous Peoples’ Day.”
I know, Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of this already inhabited continent led to the indefensible annihilation of Native American life that had existed for thousands of years. I’ve always been incensed about it after being brought up by a mother whose grandmother was a Cherokee toddler on the Trail of Tears. Mom revered her Native American heritage.
I’ve never been a Columbus fan, but maybe it’s time to stop picking on the guy. He was a historic explorer, after all. And some European was bound to sail here eventually and begin conquer ing the natives.
Most importantly, Columbus Day is now an annual occasion for ItalianAmericans to celebrate their heritage. I’ve witnessed that pride of culture. My children’s greatgrandfather on their mother’s side sailed to San Francisco from Columbus’ hometown of Genoa in the 1800s. Like many, he headed for the Sierra gold country.
San Francisco held one of the nation’s first Columbus Day parades in 1869, which began calling itself the Italian Heritage Parade in the 1990s. That city has produced some great ItalianAmericans, including Amadeo Peter Giannini. He founded the Bank of Italy — later renamed the Bank of America — and revolutionized banking by lending to working stiffs. He helped finance the rise of California agriculture, Hollywood’s movie industry and the Golden Gate Bridge.
But recently, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to scrub Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. So did Los Angeles city council members and county supervisors. In San Francisco, however, there was so much blowback that politicians backtracked and now are contemplating a joint ItalianAmerican/ Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
State Sen. Henry Stern has introduced a bill, SB 1490, to scuttle California’s Columbus Day and rename it Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
“I’m getting heat,” he acknowledged. “It’s a robust conversation.” He’s thinking about amending the measure to give ItalianAmericans a cultural heritage day, but not naming it after Columbus.
“There are great ItalianAmericans throughout history but Columbus is not one of them,” he told me. Stern says Columbus brought “systematic rape, slavery, torture and exploitation” to the “New World.” That’s disputed by scholars who insist Columbus tried to keep his crew under control.
Anyway, there’s plenty of blame to go around for butchering Native Americans. President Andrew Jackson’s face is on the $20 bill, but he’s the blowhard racist who ordered my ancestors out of the Great Smoky Mountains.
“It’s ironic that when our Legislature does everything it can to celebrate immigrant rights, it’s about to get rid of a holiday that celebrates (Italian) immigrant rights,” says Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio, who has been lobbying against Stern’s bill pro bono.