Mayor agrees; statue must go
San Jose officials put off decision on where to put it; monument defaced the day after the meeting
SAN JOSE » One day after city leaders agreed to remove a Christopher Columbus statue from City Hall following public outcry, a vandal poured red and black paint over the marble statue of the 15th century explorer.
Officials from the city’s Public Works Department spent Thursday scrubbing the paint from the statue, which sits in the City Hall lobby. By evening, a few splatters of paint remained on the figure’s overcoat.
City spokeswoman Cheryl Wessling did not have details Thursday about the costs for restoring the statue. It wasn’t immediately clear if any arrests were made.
This isn’t the first time the Columbus monument has been vandalized. In 2001, a man smashed the controversial Italian explorer’s face with a sledgehammer, while shouting “Murderer!” and “Genocide!”
On Wednesday, after an hour of public testimony denouncing Christopher Columbus as a brutal European colonialist, Mayor Sam Lic--
cardo conceded that the marble statue of the 15th century explorer in City Hall’s lobby will have to “go somewhere else.”
But when and where it goes was left undecided.
A council committee that Liccardo chairs agreed Wednesday to gather input in partnership with San Jose State University about where the statue should go and what should replace it. The committee will discuss the statue again in November
he fight over San Jose’s Columbus statue comes amid a national debate over monuments to historic figures that many now see as unworthy of honor and representative of racial oppression. Honors to Confederate leaders have come under fire around the country as racially insensitive and an inspiration to white supremacists.
And San Jose isn’t the only city where Columbus monuments have come under attack. Just last month, a Columbus statue in Houston was defaced and a Baltimore monument to the explorer was smashed. Organizers have demanded removal of a Columbus statue in the Ohio capital city named after him.
The Italian explorer has long been celebrated for his daring 1492 expedition across the Atlantic bankrolled by Spain in search of a western trade route to Asia. After landing in the Bahamas, he initiated Euro- pean colonization of North America, but his enslavement and harsh treatment of indigenous people in pursuit of gold led the Spanish crown to strip him of his governing authority.
“It is time to stop idolizing the greatly misrepresented Christopher Columbus,” Martin T.L. Madrigal, an Army veteran, said at the meeting Wednesday evening in San Jose, adding that Columbus committed rape and genocide. “City Hall either represents all of us, or it does not. With every fiber of my being, I can say that the statue of this fraud in no way does that.”
The debate began after the San Jose Brown Berets in August launched a petition that’s been signed by more than 1,900 people to remove the statue. That turned into a formal proposal from downtown Councilman Raul Peralez to relocate the figure, donated to the city in 1958 by the Italian-American community.
“The history of Christopher Columbus has long been a controversial discussion for many Americans, especially Native Americans,” Peralez explained. “Having the statue as amain focal point in our lobby can provide some individuals with a feeling of oppression and frustration thus making them feel unwelcomed and discouraged to come to City Hall.”
The mayor, who is half-Italian, on Wednesday defended the Italian community’s attachment to the embattled explorer. He spoke on behalf of the Italian-American community since no members showed up to defend the statue, though they launched a counterpetition last week to keep it. More than 1,600 people have signed onto that proposal.
Liccardo said Italians didn’t come to the meeting because they were worried about being “labeled.”
“We have schools named after presidents who owned slaves,” Liccardo said. “Life and history are both complex. We just need to acknowledge that people we may honor for doing great things have also committed great atrocities or great sins.”
But, the mayor conceded, the statue will ultimately have to “go somewhere else” and called for a community dialogue with San Jose State about where it should go.
Dave Perzinski, president of the Italian American Heritage Foundation, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
But Peter Ortiz, co- chair of the Brown Berets, said he considers the outcome a victory, though he isn’t happy the group must wait a month or more to see the statue come down — especially since no members of the Italian-American community showed up to defend it.
“If we didn’t show up to the meeting, the issue would have been over,” Ortiz said. “You can’t argue with genocide — these are facts. Christopher Columbus is a lie. It’s time for us to move forward.”