Parade Names Co-Marshal

The selection of Rep. Campbell as a second grand marshal does not right the wrong of giving the Rose Parade a quincentennial theme and selecting a descendant of Columbus to be its grand marshal. Would one propose to have a descendant of a Jewish Holocaust victim join in a parade with a descendant of a Nazi, and celebrate the Third Reich?

1492 marked the beginning of a European invasion of this hemisphere, which brought on colonization, physical/cultural genocide and the enslavement of indigenous peoples and Africans. Europeans did not “discover” the hemisphere; that falsehood negates the presence and major contributions of the original peoples who inhabited these lands for perhaps 47,000 years. In a country that is increasingly made up of peoples of color, do we intend to continue promoting lies about our past and present? In ghettos, on reservations and in barrios, and wherever we come together, black, red and brown people living in the U.S. continue to suffer a war waged against our youths, families and struggles for self-determination. Just ask Rodney King, or Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier or the family of Arturo (Smokey) Jimenez.

As a member of the Los Angeles Chicano Moratorium Committee, I know firsthand that La Raza struggles day and night for social justice and empowerment. That is why the moratorium committee and others are calling for a protest of the upcoming Rose Parade should it include Colon and a quincentennial theme. In 1992 the only celebration should be that black, red and brown people of this hemisphere have survived 500 years of mass genocide and continue to struggle.

JUAN PARRINO

Temple City