Spain reacts as Los Angeles removes Columbus' statue
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 @ 12:29 PM
CHRISTOPHER Columbus' statue has been taken down from Los Angeles' Grand Park after 45 years after the city council decided his presence in the California metropolis was 'nothing to celebrate'.
Part of a wider motion that has replaced 'Discovery Day' on October 12 – celebrated in Spain as the 'National Festival' and formerly 'Hispanic Day' – with a new title, 'Indigenous People's Day', the decision to remove Columbus from the park is linked to his being held responsible for what would be considered today a mass genocide.
The statue of Cristóbal Colón, as was his untranslated name, 'rewrites a tainted chapter in history' which is 'charged with false romanticism about the expansion of European empires' and 'exploitation of natural resources and people', says former US secretary of trade and current local government member in Los Angeles, Hilda Solís.
Reactions in Spain have been mixed.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com