This year, low-key Columbus Day in Chicago
No parade amid pandemic concerns and controversy
There will be a lot less fanfare on Columbus Day in Chicago this year.
As criticism of Christopher Columbus’ place in history has grown, clashes erupted over the removal of statues in his honor this summer and Chicago schools officially dropped his name from the holiday.
Traditionally, Monday would be marked with a parade that celebrates Columbus’ voyage to America and Italian American culture. But this year, for the first time in decades, the parade has been canceled because the city isn’t issuing permits for such large-scale gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, the parade organizers, instead plan a rally and car procession at Arrigo Park, the site of one of the now-removed statues. A small contingent of the group also held the traditional Italian flag-raising at Daley Plaza on Friday.
“It will certainly be a different kind of year, and we’ll be having a toned down celebration,” said Pasquale Gianni, a member of the group’s executive board. He added that “we fully intend to have the parade next year” and blamed this year’s cancellation “solely” on the pandemic.
Mary May, a spokesperson with the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, issued a statement: “While there are no events organized by the City this weekend, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) will be monitoring weather conditions and any event or activity that should arise in relation to the holiday weekend. As always, OEMC and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) encourage everyone to wear masks and for all activity organized by residents to follow the City’s COVID-19 precautions and rules.”
A number of large cities have made the switch from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day in an effort to reframe the day in honor of Native American history and culture.
Some Italian Americans say celebrating Columbus is a celebration of their heritage. But activists around the country have condemned the explorer, pointing to his mistreatment of Indigenous people after he landed in the Americas in 1492.
For the first time, the second Monday in October will be marked solely as “Indigenous People’s Day” on Chicago Public Schools’ calendar.
The Chicago Board of Education’s vote in February to stop observing Columbus Day drew praise from some educators and activists. But Sergio Giangrande, president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, in February called it “a slap in the face of the more than 500,000 Italian Americans in Chicago, and the 135 million Italian Americans worldwide.”
In dropping Columbus’ name, the board held that the district would continue celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. CPS previously used both names on its calendar, and board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland said it was their responsibility to lead on the issue.
Gianni, whose grandfather Dominic DiFrisco emceed the parade for years, said organizers have made a point to make it inclusive to all ethnicities and long ago stopped referring to Columbus as the discoverer of America. Gianni called Columbus “foundational to the American origin story,” and said the depiction of him as a villain and murderer is historical “revisionism.”
Long before CPS, South Dakota changed Columbus Day to Native American Day in 1990. The city of Berkeley, California, moved
to Indigenous Peoples Day in 1992, and in the ensuing years many communities have made similar substitutions, including Evanston.
During the summer, Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered the statues of Christopher Columbus removed from Chicago’s Grant and Arrigo parks overnight, sparking continued debates among Italian American leaders and politicians about Columbus’ legacy and how the city should proceed.
Lightfoot said in a series
of tweets this summer that the statues were removed “until further notice.”
Lightfoot has said she has no plans to eliminate Columbus Day at the city level, and that she thought it made sense when CPS “essentially celebrated both, Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day.”
Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, said he hopes the city will recognize only Indigenous Peoples Day in 2021 and celebrate Italian American heritage — separate from Christopher Columbus.