Sicilian Culture: News: Columbus-Bashing Crowd Wants Big Turnout or March

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Columbus-Bashing Crowd Wants Big Turnout or March
By Peggy Lowe, Rocky Mountain News
September 7, 2001 - - It's time to say !Ya basta! -- Enough! -- to a Columbus Day holiday that celebrates the domination and oppression of native peoples.
That was the rallying cry Thursday as Nita Gonzales addressed a kickoff news conference for the Four Directions All Nations March, an Oct. 6 event that aims to transform the holiday to honor cultural diversity.
"In 1492, America was invaded, not discovered," said Gonzales, one of the leaders of the Transform Columbus Day Alliance.
About 50 people, "a rainbow of the universe" from children to elders, gathered at the Denver City and County Building.
The march and other events scheduled for the weekend before the holiday are being billed as a proactive message, not just a protest against the Italian-Americans' Columbus Day Parade on Oct. 8.
Last year, a group led by Gonzales and Glenn Morris of the American Indian Movement tried to stop the parade and were peacefully arrested.
America has gone from a melting pot to a mosaic, said state Sen. Penfield Tate, D-Denver, and the march is not anti-Italian but inclusive of every culture.
Michael Hancock of the Urban League hopes the march draws as many as the annual Martin Luther King parade -- 30,000 people.
Gonzales called on the Colorado legislature to abolish the state Columbus Day holiday and challenged the Denver City Council, Mayor Wellington Webb, churches and schools to join the march. Unless they agree, Gonzales vowed that she and 50 others in the Red Earth Women's Alliance will fast, drinking only water until the day of the march.
Rocky Mountain News: Local
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Say NOTHING, Do NOTHING ... WE WILL BE NOTHING! Remember what ever is done to our Italian brothers and sisters can and will be done to all of us. Please SPEAK OUT Contact Peggy Lowe at (303) 892-5482 or lowep@RockyMountainNews.com. Manny Alfano

There are hundreds of Columbus Day Parades around the country that are problem less..save Denver ..and just why?
Just why should the small Italian-American community run into brutal opposition from a large crowd of rowdies that are so mis-informed about the TRUE historical facts about Columbus ?
Just why should anyone forget that the descendants of many Italian-American Denverites were the early Italian immigrants that came to work in Colorado's coal mines where they worked for coolie wages doing very dangerous work ?
Many died premature deaths from Black Lung disease,and they were maimed and killed in many accidents. There were lynchings of Italians in Denver and a mysterious fire in Walsenburg that killed many of these miners and their families ..and never solved. A man who became the richest man in America also gave orders to machine gun Italian strikers.
The coal these immigrants mined helped develop the industry of the state and now their descendants have to get on their knees for permission to hold a Columbus Day Parade ? ....Just why?
Walter Santi

Required Reading for Italian-Americans...

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