South Philadelphia resident writes letter to mayor voicing cultural importance of Columbus statue
Tensions rise high in South Philadelphia; one resident wants it to stay for different reasons
FOX 29's Marcus Espinoza reports.
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - Billy Marchio is South Philly through and through. He’s a teacher in the community and believes that the Christopher Columbus statue in South Philadelphia should stay, however, he thinks the way that people are currently going at it is not the way to do it.
“I think the best course of action is to go about it democratically. Those guys down at Marconi, yes they are my neighbors. I live with them in South Philly, but I feel like their efforts are misguided and I really don’t agree with their methods of how they want to keep the statue up. We should do it in a more peaceful and democratic way,” says Marchio.
So that’s exactly what Marchio is doing. On June 17, Marchio sent a letter to Mayor Jim Kenney, outlining the history of Christopher Columbus and what it’s of cultural importance to his neighborhood. He says that Columbus was chosen as the most recognizable figure to represent the trials that Italian Americans went through.
“I don’t think it was a point of pride. I don’t think Columbus as a person was what they were going for. They were just trying to look for an Italian figure to assimilate. Their main efforts were to assimilation, he said.
Still on Wednesday, Mayor Kenney announced his desire to recommend the arts commission of Philadelphia to remove the statue.
As for understanding the methods behind the mayor’s insistence of removing the statue, he says he understands.
“I totally understand where they are coming from and I don’t discredit their feelings. I think we can’t judge Columbus in the court of public opinion. People on both sides, my side and the other side, have to do our due diligence," Marchio said.
As for the people who are defending the statue so quickly he believes they were worried it would be lost to history.
“We just didn’t want to come down and then there’s a void and nobody knows that this was an Italian American monument. This is a symbol of all the hardships that Italian Americans had to go through and I think a lot of people though that in the beginning.”
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