‘Not ashamed of our history.’ Spanish towns offer to take colonizer statues from US
As America grapples with its past and questions who should be memorialized, indigenous activists have advocated for the removal of statues that have historical ties to colonialism, including Christopher Columbus, The Guardian reported.
But while those figures are considered controversial in the U.S., some Spaniards still hold them in high regard, according to a letter posted on Facebook by the Neighbours Association of Fray Hernando de la Talavera.
“We’re not ashamed of our history,” the letter says. “We’re aware that mistakes were made, but we also know how unfair it is to judge the past from the point of view of today’s society.”
The letter follows news of statues being toppled in multiple states, including California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the removal of statues or Queen Isabella and Columbus from the state capitol in Sacramento, The Hill reported. The letter from the small town of Talavera de la Reina sent to Gov. Newsom offered to take the statues and cover all shipping costs, according to The Hill.
California lawmakers described the statues in the state capitol as “completely out of place today,” The Guardian reported.
“Christopher Columbus is a deeply polarizing historical figure given the deadly impact his arrival in this hemisphere had on indigenous populations,” legislative leadership said in a statement.
Another small town outside Madrid called Boadilla del Monte reached out to San Francisco Mayor London Breed about the toppled statue of Spanish priest Junipero Serra and the statue of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, which was vandalized with graffiti, The Guardian reported.
The town’s conservative mayor described the figures as “architects in part of what we so proudly today call western civilization,” and offered to take the statues if San Francisco “could not protect them with the honour and respect they deserve,” according to The Guardian.
Spain’s foreign minister sent letters to federal, state and municipal governments in the U.S. expressing concern about the removal of such statues, according to El Pais, a Spanish language daily newspaper.
“We have made them aware of the importance we award to this shared history with the United States, as shared as it is unknown,” Arancha Gonzalez Laya said at a news conference, according to El Pais.
The Spanish Royal Academy of History expressed disapproval about the defacement of the statues and reaffirmed its “commitment to the knowledge of Spain’s actions in America, beyond the falsification, the distortion and the partisan manipulation,” in a statement, El Pais reported.
