Last Saturday, around 40 activists gathered at Columbus Statue Park in South Tampa to protest Tampa’s glorifying monument to a man who was a confirmed pedophile, rapist and slave trader.
In front of the statue, Indigenous activists sang songs and prayed for the lives that were lost to genocide enacted by Christopher Columbus after he stumbled upon the Caribbean while lost at sea. There, the Arawak and Taino people found him and his men, treated them kindly and fed them, but Columbus decided to take advantage of their goodwill.
Robert Rosa of Florida Indigenous Alliance and American Indian Movement read a passage from Columbus’ own journal to the crowd.
“With fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them,” Columbus wrote.
Rosa read this passage to the crowd then said, “This man [Columbus] said that we were a beautiful people. We didn’t lie, we didn’t steal. And what did he do? He tried to destroy us. He tried to put us under the ground. He tried to breed us out.”
[content-2] Indigenous activists have been protesting the statue for 30 years, but received very little response from city council people and mayors of the past. And there’s been no response this year from Mayor Jane Castor’s administration and city council. That’s despite the fact that Indigenous People’s Day is now recognized federally and in several cities and states. Columbus statues have been removed in several locations across the country.
But Tampa has remained staunch in its glorification of Columbus.
Sheridan Murphy of FIA said that this is about to change. A new campaign will be launched from now until the statue is taken down, he said.
“We’re coming for the city council meetings,” Murphy said. “And if you don’t hear our words, we’ll bring the drums in and we’ll disrupt your city council meetings. You won’t have any more peace until this comes down.”
Murphy and other speakers pointed out that there are plenty of other noteworthy Italians that could be honored instead—people who didn’t feed Native babies to dogs and rape young girls, like Columbus did.[content-1] Several other groups showed up in support, from Malaya Florida, which fights for justice in the Philippines, to the local chapter of the Party For Socialism and Liberation and the Tampa Bay Community Action Committee.
After the speakers discussed the ills of colonialism and the devastating impacts it has caused from Southeast Asia, to the Middle East, to Africa and Central and South America, protestors dipped their hands in fake blood and pressed the blood against the monument.
When the demonstrators finished, the remaining blood was tossed on the statue, and reached all the way up to the figure of Columbus that adorns the top of the monument. This marks the third year in a row that Indigenous activists have drenched the statue in blood.
As protestors left, officer Richard Lehr and other Tampa Police Department officers pulled several Indigenous people over and demanded their identification. All of them were released after TPD ran their IDs.
