Tributes To Columbus In Essex County: A Great American Holiday – Belleville, NJ Patch

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County saw a swell of pride from members of its Italian community amid the Columbus Day holiday, which took place Monday.

On Sunday, dozens of residents of Nutley and Belleville paid homage to Christopher Columbus with local events, including members of the Federation of Italian-American Societies of New Jersey and the Nutley Unico.

About 50 people attended a flag raising ceremony in Belleville, and about 80 people gathered around a stone bust of Columbus near Nutley Town Hall. Speakers praised the explorer as an ambitious risk taker, whose struggles echoed those of Italian immigrants in the early 1900s, NorthJersey.com reported.

In recent months, tensions have run high in Essex County over Columbus, who some activists and community members have decried as a “murderer” for his treatment of Indigenous people. Towns including Newark and West Orange have removed statues of Columbus amid the controversy.

But many members of the Italian community in Essex County have pushed back, insisting that Columbus is a hero deserving of respect.

Last week, the Bloomfield-based Italian American Once Voice Coalition (IAOVC) released a video in an attempt to “set the record straight on Columbus” and what he encountered during his exploration of the Americas.

The IAOVC released a statement on the issue:

“Columbus Day, a great American holiday, which Italian Americans revere as their own, as well as Columbus statues and monuments, are under attack with a false narrative about untruths attributed to the great explorer. This part of the world was no ‘Garden of Eden’ when Columbus arrived … But revisionists are silent on these facts. No one holds Indigenous people to today’s standards, then why Columbus? He was a man of his times, and if you check the facts, according to reputable scholars and sources, he didn’t perpetrate the breadth of atrocities accorded to him.”

Last month, the IAOVC announced its members have filed suit in U.S. District Court against the Township of West Orange, seeking an injunction to have the Christopher Columbus statue returned to its original location.

“We tried everything we could to stop local officials from removing the Columbus statues,” IAOVC President Manny Alfano said. “When they turned a deaf ear to our pleas, we were forced to defend our heritage by going to federal court.”

“This suit against West Orange serves as a warning to elected officials in every town, city and state that we will not stand by as they consider removing an important symbol of our heritage,” Alfano added.

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