Barcelone councilors want to tople the statue of Christopher Columbus

[Vilendor]

Leftwing councilors say city should not be celebrating his colonial legacy and call for memorial reflecting ‘American resistance to imperialism’

A group of anti-capitalist councillors in Barcelona are hoping to topple the statue of Christopher Columbus that has stood at the foot of La Rambla for more than a century, arguing that the city should not be celebrating the explorer’s colonial legacy.

The 197ft (60-metre) high memorial, topped with a bronze statue of the Genoan pointing out to sea, has been part of Barcelona’s skyline since 1888. Its base pays homage to Columbus’s colleagues and his patrons, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

In proposals to be submitted to the city council on Friday, the three CUP Capgirem councillors call for the statue to be taken down along with “all the decorations at the base of the column that glorify the conquest of America and its ‘museumification’ through historical interpretation”.

Far more fitting, they say, would be a memorial reflecting “American resistance to imperialism, oppression and indigenous and African-American segregation”.

Their suggestions, however, go well beyond statuary. As well as removing Spanish flags from municipal buildings in Barcelona, they would also like to see 12 October – the national holiday on which Spain celebrates Columbus’s landfall in the Americas – turned into an ordinary working day.

They say the date not only marks “an intolerable act of colonialism and imperialism”, but also “the genocide of the indigenous American population by colonist-conquistadors, and an act of aggressive Spanish nationalism against all the peoples that it oppresses and has oppressed”.

Last is a demand for the council to ban fascist events in the city.

The notion of celebrating 12 October is increasingly distasteful to some in Spain, especially those on the left.

Last year, Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, said the country should not be marking “a genocide” with an €800,000 (£700,000) military parade, while José María González, the Podemos-backed mayor of the southern city of Cádiz, tweeted: “We never discovered America; we massacred and suppressed a continent and its cultures in the name of God.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...arcelona-perch

Should we tear down the pyramids? The Pantheon? Should we burn the museums? Hmmm.... this sounds familiar... do you guys know who thinks the same way and does the same things? ISIS

[Zarc]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...arcelona-perch

Should we tear down the pyramids? The Pantheon? Should we burn the museums? Hmmm.... this sounds familiar... do you guys know who thinks the same way and does the same things? ISIS

Well that's an overstatement. A left-wing politician submitting a proposal to a democratically elected assembly suggesting the removal of a statue from their city is now somehow equated to somebody by their own accord destroying ancient sites in what might very well be a foreign country for this somebody? Also the reasoning behind the idea is that Christopher Columbus represents represents oppression in the form of colonialism (whether you agree or not is irrelevant) while the reasoning behind destroying the cultural heritage sites by ISIS is that all traces of pre-Islamic culture needs to be removed because they are heretic things and "my religion is the only truth and all else mush perish". Sol.. quite a stretch as far as comparisons go. But thank you for playing.

For what it's worth I wouldn't vote for removing the statue if I lived in Barcelona.

[JohnBrown1917]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...arcelona-perch

Should we tear down the pyramids? The Pantheon? Should we burn the museums? Hmmm.... this sounds familiar... do you guys know who thinks the same way and does the same things? ISIS

Already a topic on this.

But you do know that some catalans do not see them selfs as Spanish, and thus do not consider Columbus to be part of their history?