After it all ended Saturday, the annual angst known as the Columbus Day parade turned out to be law-abiding free speech.
In marching and street theater, people made their points. Columbus was either an Italian hero who discovered America or an invader who committed genocide on American Indians.
Nobody got beat up, at least not physically. Nobody got arrested. And taxpayers paid through the nose for police.
As Mayor John Hickenlooper discovered last week, when both sides slammed him for ordering them to get along, Saturday’s performance may be the best the city can hope for. From cornball karaoke of Frank Sinatra to ethnocentric hypocrites protesting people for expressing ethnic pride, extremes seem destined to define the parade.
Relatively few people turned out.
Such are the vagaries of this First Amendment wrestling match that its principal participants are now hundreds of cops called to duty on a day off.
“What if you give a parade and the only ones who come are the police?” asked Mike Shaw.
Shaw, 58, stood beside his 4-year-old grandson, Gage Bowman, at the nearly deserted corner of Blake and 22nd streets 10 minutes before the parade was to start.
“I talked to him about seeing a parade with two strongly held points of view,” Shaw said.
Seated atop a metal newspaper box, Gage didn’t seem to care about protests.
Brian Ciske did.
“Is it just for the cops or what?” asked the 25-year-old Estes Park man. Ciske was the parade organizers’ worst nightmare. He hoped to pass out fliers in support of Columbus Day for his white-power group,
whiterevolution.com. Ciske said his organization, based in Russellville, Ark., had only a couple of members in Colorado. No Denver Italian contingent exists. Still, having the legacy of the Klan show up at the Columbus Day parade played into the racist stereotype protesters hope to perpetuate.
Except that at the intersection of Blake and 20th streets, where a couple hundred protesters gathered, a young Indian man did equal damage to his cause.
“Go back to Italy,” he yelled at parade participants. “You’re not wanted here.”
The people he shouted at – people like Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher and Adams County Commissioner Alice Nichol, people like the Carlo Amato and George Vendegnia families – did nothing more than ride in cars with pictures of Italian flags or carry banners for groups such as the St. Anthony Society. A Denver SWAT team member whose name tag read Gomez stood in front of the young Indian. Still, the irony of the immigrant bashing was lost.
The young man asked for a handout of “Famous Italian Americans” from an older woman marching by. He tore it up in her face.
“That’s OK, honey,” she said. “We love you.”
“You know,” I told the kid, “you look more racist than anyone here.”
“I don’t care,” he replied.
An American Indian of Mestiza and Apache descent, Desiree Herrera cared. The 29-year-old director of the Two Spirits Society said she is not against Italians. Herrera just wants her daughter to study history that gives dignity to native people and tells of the violence European settlers did to them.
Before the parade reached her, Herrera took pictures of the “die-in” that protesters said represented the genocide practiced by Europeans – especially Columbus – against American Indians. It included bloody baby dolls impaled on stakes. Two dozen volunteers, not all of them Indians, played dead in the street until other protesters carried them off.
“I identify as Latina and lesbian,” said street actress Veronica Garcia. “Colonialism and racism are issues for me.”
Ethnic heritage is an issue for Todd Squillante. The 40-year- old Italian-American has lived in the Denver area for 33 years. Saturday was his first Columbus Day parade. He’ll soon join the Sons of Italy to make sure it won’t be the last.
Thing is, even though Squillante is a proud Italian, his wife is Chinese. His kids are half and half. “We have an Italian flag, a Chinese flag, a Colorado flag and an American flag,” Squillante said. “We fly them all at our house. We rotate them.”
On Saturday, 4-year-old Bianca Squillante held a big Italian flag as she waited for the parade. But listening to her dad talk about ethnic diversity, it was clear that he and Herrera share more with each other than with some 15th century explorer. If only the two of them – along with all the other parade supporters and protesters – were willing to be convinced.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
