Columbus honored, reviled at dueling events in Boston
By Brian MacQuarrie
Globe Staff / October 12, 2010
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More than five centuries after he strode ashore in the Bahamas, the complicated legacy of Christopher Columbus continues to be divisive.

Tweet Be the first to Tweet this!Submit to DiggdiggsdiggYahoo! Buzz ShareThis Yesterday morning, at the North End park named in his honor, the explorer was embraced as a symbol of Italian achievement. But in the afternoon, outside the Suffolk County House of Correction in Roxbury, he was demonized during a protest against the detention of hundreds of undocumented immigrants there.

The protest contrasted sharply with the festive mood that permeated Christopher Columbus Park four hours earlier. There, gathered around a gleaming white statue of the park’s namesake, a family-oriented crowd of 200 spectators reflected on the accomplishments of a man who continues to inspire pride in the traditionally Italian North End.

“It’s very important that we pay respect to Christopher Columbus and what he meant to America,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. “Too often in our world today, we don’t remember the past. The past created the opportunities we have today.’’

Menino, who has been awarded the title of “knight commander’’ by the Italian president, laid a wreath at the base of the statue with Luigi Munno, the Italian consul general in Boston.

To Kathy Palano Ray, a member of the Friends of Christopher Columbus Park, the day “is a time to reflect back on our heritage and remember that our families came here to find a better life. But we still remember our traditions.’’

Italian words and conversations could be heard throughout the park, including songs from students at the Eliot School, where a full-time Italian language teacher is funded partly by contributions from the consulate.

Even non-Italians like Paul Tavares, 69, enjoyed the festivities, which included a short parade that featured dozens of babies in strollers and a three-piece walking band.

“I’ve always enjoyed Columbus Day. It comes at a great time of year,’’ said Tavares, who lives nearby at Lincoln Wharf.

Although he is of Portuguese descent, Tavares did not hesitate to assert a bit of ethnic pride in the holiday. “I married an Italian,’’ he said.

The protesters, however, had a different opinion of the famed explorer.

“We are taught to honor this man, Columbus, who represents the worst of humanity,’’ said Alex Papali, an organizer with Resist the Raids, an advocacy network that is critical of immigration enforcement. “We are doing the right thing by standing against 500 years of mind control.’’

Instead of the daring adventurer who opened the New World, critics say, Columbus opened the way to the enslavement and death of millions of indigenous people in the Americas.

Papali was cheered by about 100 protesters, who carried signs with slogans such as “Columbus was Undocumented’’ and “No Human Being is Illegal,’’ after they marched to the jail from Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.

Avi Chomsky, a Salem State University professor who is the daughter of political activist Noam Chomsky, criticized the Obama administration for continuing an “enforcement-only’’ approach to immigration that the president had pledged to change during the 2008 campaign.

The protesters then walked to a nearby bridge where undocumented immigrants inside the jail could glimpse the demonstration.

Dozens of detainees who are awaiting deportation or other immigration proceedings raised their fists in solidarity and pounded against the windows.

“We want to call attention to the cruel and unusual punishments that have become part of the immigrant enforcement policies in this country,’’ said Alexandra Pineiro-Shields, who attended the protest with her 4-year-old daughter, Isabella.

In 2009, a Dominican national awaiting deportation died while in the custody of the jail. In August, Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea J. Cabral told the federal government in a scathing letter that she would terminate the contract to hold undocumented immigrants at the House of Correction, citing a litany of complaints that included the government’s public release of a report on the death of Pedro Tavarez, 49, before it was provided to the sheriff.

Cabral, who had accused US Immigration and Customs Enforcement of a “staggering lack of communication and respect,’’ later said that she intended to talk with the agency in an effort to resolve her concerns.

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