BRIDGEPORT — Angered that the city is considering returning the Christopher Columbus statue to its Seaside Park pedestal, a diverse group of area residents demanded that the city look for another location.
“It doesn’t mean what it’s been represented to,” said Wayne Winston, a Black community activist who served as the master of ceremonies for a conference of 18 Black, Native American and Latino residents outside the Margaret Morton Government Center on Broad Street Friday night. “It’s not something that should be honored and idolized, but he has a place of history for what he was as a navigator.”
Winston urged his “Italian brothers understand” and suggested the statue be placed in the Italian Community Center or St. Margaret’s Shrine, but not Seaside Park.
And it if is returned to Seaside?.
“Don’t be surprised if one day you see Columbus with a Black face and wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt,” said Lyle Hassan Jones, a Muslim Iman. “He went down as one of the greatest kidnappers, rapists, murders and enslavers in history. Its return to Seaside Park is a slap in the face to all Black, brown and Indigenous people.”
“That’s considered a threat,” said Chris Caruso, a former state representative and official with the Council of Italian American Societies. “Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not allowed to make threats. I have given most of my adult life as a public servant in Bridgeport and never have I been shouted at and yelled at like I have been over the placement of this statue.”
Caruso said neither he nor the Italian Community is going to sit by and be dictated to.
“The Italian Community worked 40 years to raise money for this statue,” he said. “We will not be beaten up, threatened, attacked, marginalized or have demands placed upon us.”
Caruso said Italian Americans “played just as much a role in building this city as any other ethnic group. We don’t tell others what they can and can’t do, and we won’t be told what we can do.”
As to the new history of Columbus depicting him as engaging criminal acts, Caruso disagreed.
“Most of their historical opinions are wrong, and if we were able to sit down and have a discussion as a group of mature adults, I would point this out to them,” Caruso said.
But one member of Friday’s group, who described herself as being of Italian American heritage, disagreed with Caruso.
Callie Heilmann, a co-director of Bridgeport’s Generation Now, said her grandfather, Bruno Gallucci, came to America from Italy and grew up to become a teacher of U.S. history and civics.
She said her grandfather, who died in 2001, would tell Caruso a statue of Columbus “has no place in our public park in Bridgeport ... he would want something different, something better and something good” in its place.
Shoran Piper, who said she is a clan mother and tribal leader of the Golden Hill Paugussetts, said Columbus represents a violent part of her tribe’s history that includes rape, murder, slavery and separation of families.
“When I first learned of the true history of Christopher Columbus eight to 10 years ago when I was at Housatonic Community College, believe me, I shed some tears,” said Jorge Cruz, a Puerto Rican City Council member from the 131st District. “We’re playing ping pong with this statue.”
Friday night’s demonstration came as the City Council’s Miscellaneous Matters committee will meet via Zoom Sept. 3 at 7 p.m.to discuss a resolution calling for the statue to be returned to Seaside Park. Residents may participate by calling 929-436-2866 and then typing in the Meeting Identification Number 961 7777 9984 and then the Passcode 567229.
On that same day, Hielmann and Gemeem Davis, both of Generation Now, said they are planning a demonstration prior to the meeting.
Earlier this month the city’s Park Board voted to return the statue to its platform in Seaside Park.
The city secretly removed the statue in early July while members of the City Council were attempting to work out a consensus with constituents.
Mayor Joe Ganim said the action was taken to prevent the statue from being damaged by demonstrators. Norwalk also removed theirs before it could be damaged, as did Middletown.
Shortly before Columbus Day 2017, red paint was splattered across the statue and the words “Kill the Colonizer” were printed in white paint on its base.
Many across the country were pulled down or damaged this spring during demonstrations fueled by racial injustice. It happened in Minnesota, Rhode Island and Maryland.
In Waterbury, Columbus’ head was chiseled off. Police arrested Brandon Ambrose, 22, of Port Chester, N.Y. He was charged with first-degree criminal mischief, desecration of property and sixth degree larceny. Ambrose is free on $1,500 bond pending a Sept. 9 appearance in state Superior Court in Waterbury.
In New Haven’s Wooster Square, a protest and counter protest briefly turned violent when punches were thrown minutes before the city removed the statue.
https://www.ctinsider.com/local/ctpost/article/Threats-and-warnings-of-a-Columbus-statue-return-15523476.php
2020-08-29 02:18:14Z
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