Please see Comments from Manny Alfano and Walter Santi at bottom  
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COLUMBUS-BASHING CROWD WANTS BIG TURNOUT OR MARCH
Rocky Mountain News
September 7, 2001 
By Peggy Lowe, News Staff Writer

It's time to say !Ya basta! -- Enough! -- to a Columbus Day holiday that 
celebrates the domination and oppression of native peoples. 
That was the rallying cry Thursday as Nita Gonzales addressed a kickoff news 
conference for the Four Directions All Nations March, an Oct. 6 event that 
aims to transform the holiday to honor cultural diversity. 

"In 1492, America was invaded, not discovered," said Gonzales, one of the 
leaders of the Transform Columbus Day Alliance. 

About 50 people, "a rainbow of the universe" from children to elders, 
gathered at the Denver City and County Building. 

The march and other events scheduled for the weekend before the holiday are 
being billed as a proactive message, not just a protest against the 
Italian-Americans' Columbus Day Parade on Oct. 8. 

Last year, a group led by Gonzales and Glenn Morris of the American Indian 
Movement tried to stop the parade and were peacefully arrested. 

America has gone from a melting pot to a mosaic, said state Sen. Penfield 
Tate, D-Denver, and the march is not anti-Italian but inclusive of every 
culture. 

Michael Hancock of the Urban League hopes the march draws as many as the 
annual Martin Luther King parade -- 30,000 people. 

Gonzales called on the Colorado legislature to abolish the state Columbus Day 
holiday and challenged the Denver City Council, Mayor Wellington Webb, 
churches and schools to join the march. Unless they agree, Gonzales vowed 
that she and 50 others in the Red Earth Women's Alliance will fast, drinking 
only water until the day of the march.

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Say NOTHING, Do NOTHING ... WE WILL BE NOTHING! 
Remember what ever is done to our Italian brothers and sisters can and will 
be done to all of us. Please SPEAK OUT

Contact Peggy Lowe at (303) 892-5482 or lowep@RockyMountainNews.com.

Manny Alfano
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There are hundreds of Columbus Day Parades around the country that are
problem less..save Denver ..and just why?

Just why should the small Italian-American community run into brutal
opposition from a  large crowd  of rowdies that are so mis-informed
about the TRUE historical facts about Columbus ?

Just why should  anyone forget that the descendants of many
Italian-American  Denverites were the early Italian immigrants that came
to work in Colorado's  coal mines where  they worked for coolie wages
doing very dangerous work ?

Many  died premature deaths from Black Lung disease,and they were maimed
and killed in many accidents. There were lynchings of Italians in
Denver and a mysterious fire in Walsenburg that killed many of these
miners and their families ..and never solved. A man who became the
richest man in America also gave orders to machine gun Italian strikers.

The coal these immigrants mined helped develop the industry of the state
and now their descendants have to get on their  knees  for permission to
hold a Columbus Day Parade ? ....Just why?

Walter Santi