Syracuse, N.Y. — Standing atop a makeshift stage with the Columbus monument looming large behind her, 91-year-old MaryAnn Zeppetello spoke in no uncertain terms: “The statue has to come down.”
Zeppetello, a lifelong Syracusan and second-generation Italian American, was met with raucous applause from a crowd of about 200 people who gathered for a demonstration in the city’s Columbus Circle plaza on the day known alternately as Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
The crowd hoisted signs proclaiming “Celebrate Diversity – Replace Columbus.” One woman’s shirt was more direct: “Columbus was a murderer.”
Two groups – Women of Italian and Syracuse Heritage, of which Zeppetello is a member, and Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation – hosted the event, which featured speakers calling for the statue to come down.
The event contrasted sharply with one held in the same plaza only hours earlier, when the Columbus Monument Corporation, a group that has sued Mayor Ben Walsh and the city of Syracuse to keep the statue where it is, held a celebration.
The Columbus Monument Corporation has repeatedly said the monument is a representation of Italian heritage in Syracuse, paid for mostly by Italian immigrants in the 1930s. WISH hopes to reframe the conversation around other ways Italian Americans can celebrate their heritage, said member Colleen Zawadzki.
Zeppetello’s own grandfather chipped in to pay for the statue, and she may have been at the very first ceremony when the statue was unveiled, she said. She was 3 years old at the time, so she doesn’t quite remember.
“We support the mayor’s initiative to replace the monument with something that is much more humane and representative of what we want Italian culture to represent,” Zawadzki said of WISH’s aims.
Danielle Smith, a member of the Onondaga Hawk clan, said she wants the statue to be removed and the holiday refocused on Indigenous peoples.
“I feel like we’re past the point where Columbus should just be done,” Smith said. “Let the Italian Americans come up with a figure who they can all be proud of.”
She said a statue of almost anyone would be better than the statue of Columbus – “Obviously, we don’t want another person who has committed rape and genocide and murder, but anyone else.”
Most of the evening featured calls for something similar: Recognition that the monument stands on historic Onondaga land and that Christopher Columbus is, as one woman sang to the crowd, “not a good man.”
A lone protester held a sign proclaiming that the statue should stay.
Near the end of the demonstration, dozens of people stood in a semicircle around the monument, some holding signs, others wearing red gloves to represent stained hands. Together, they yelled “shame” five times before observing a moment of silence as red light bathed the statue.
“Hopefully Syracuse will eventually get rid of this statue,” Smith said. “We’ve been asking for decades for it to come down. And we’re still here.”
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