Residents want Columbus statue removed from Corpus Christi's port
Kathryn CargoSome Corpus Christi residents say a statue of Christopher Columbus evokes painful emotions for Native Americans, and want it removed from downtown.
Armando Windstalker Cavazos, a descendant of the Lipan Apache tribe, was among those who spoke at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
They asked for the council's support of their efforts to tear down the bronze statue from the SEA District.
"It's disrespectful to have a statue or any kind of memorial celebrating a man who not only came over (and) colonized, (but) he's responsible for the genocide of our people," said Cavazos, a representative of the local Indigenous Warriors Society. "He's responsible for the rape of our people."
The statue was sculpted by Roberto Garcia Jr., and dedicated in 1992. The project was spearheaded by the Corpus Christi Quincentenary Commission.
The Columbus statue is located at 222 Power St., next to the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center.
It does not belong to the city; the Port of Corpus Christi owns and maintains the statue.
The residents also requested to have Columbus Day — the second Monday in October every year — renamed Indigenous People's Day in Corpus Christi.
Dozens of other U.S. cities have changed the holiday to Indigenous People's Day, including Austin and San Antonio. In March, the New Mexico Legislature approved a bill to do the same statewide.
"We're still here, and we acknowledge the history about Columbus being a horrible person," said Love Sanchez, who has created online petitions to both rededicate Columbus Day and to remove the statue.
In 2018, the council proclaimed Oct. 21 -— National Indigenous Peoples Day — as a day to recognize tribes of the Coastal Bend.
Sanchez, 37, of Corpus Christi, is a descendant of the Karankawa and the Lipan Apache, both tribes that held strong ties to the Southwest and northern Mexico.
"It's not even really a national holiday they even celebrate anymore," she said, referring to Columbus Day. "If it was Indigenous People's Day, people will celebrate that.
"There are a lot of other people who care about this."
PORT TO REMOVE STATUE
Port officials had already planned to remove the statue in the coming days and place it in storage, said Sean Strawbridge, the port's CEO.
The statue won't be displayed again until two projects are finished — construction of the port's new administration building and the demolition of the Harbor Bridge.
Both projects are expected to wrap up sometime in 2021.
"It's viewed as a piece of art," Strawbridge said. "We need to respect it on the very simple standpoint an artist took a lot of effort to make it."
Strawbridge said it's not the port's place to take a stance on Columbus, though he acknowledged some may view the explorer and his legacy with skepticism.
"We certainly recognize the sensitivities around our histories. This country has a long history, some of what (we) as Americans should not be proud of," he said. "Rather than focus on some of those histories ... let's focus on making history we can be proud of."
Sanchez and others supporting the statue's removal plan to speak at a port commission meeting in the future.
INDIGENOUS BURIAL GROUND
Texas' second-largest Native American burial ground is in Corpus Christi.
It doesn't have a formal name, but burials there were discovered in 1994 when Ennis Joslin Road was being expanded.
The statue's proximity to the burial ground is disturbing to people of Native American heritage, said Cavazos, 30, of Corpus Christi.
That's just another reason to remove it, Cavazos added.
"We're just trying to get this done so that way our ancestors can rest," Cavazos said. "As long as we have this scar, we're never going to be able to go forward."
Larry Running Turtle Salazar, a longtime local advocate for Native Americans and a descendant of the Apache tribe, has been working several years to raise money to add a monument to the site.
Salazar has contributed a medicine wheel there, and many local Native American descendants pray or meditate at the site.
"People go by there as if it was nothing," said Salazar, 62. "Yet thousands and thousands of my people have been buried in that area. I've put it upon myself to put it in the (National Register of Historic Places.)"
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