Columbus | the past, the monument, the parade

On 8 October 2018 Manhattan's Fifth Avenue will be transformed for the Columbus Day Parade. The parade will be led by Grand Marshal Guy Chiarello, President of First Data Corporation.

Columbus Circle, New York City, circa 1907

Over 35,000 people participate in the Columbus Day Parade in New York City each year, including over 100 groups, with bands, floats, and contingents. The parade attracts nearly one million spectators and is the largest celebration of Italian-American culture in the world.

Much as New Yorkers love the festivities, communities are divided over celebrating the man and his purpose. American immigrants, many of who come from colonized countries, believe we should abandon a holiday that celebrates Columbus' crimes and perpetuates criminal colonizer behavior.

rewriting history

When history is written by conquerors it most likely is not a factual telling of what actually transpired. 

First Landing of Columbus on the Shores of the New World, painting by Dióscoro Puebla(1862)

At best it is skewed from the limited perspective of early arrivals and at its worst it is an all out lie perpetuated to bolster the superiority of the winner and cover the atrocities committed against the loser. 

Time to abolish Columbus Day, blog by Bill Bigelow

Such is the case with Christopher Columbus. Known to the world and throughout misguided history as a great explorer. 

Today it is inconceivable that we are still honoring the father of the slave trade with a national holiday.