The annual Columbus Day Parade returned to New York City on Monday after being canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Marching bands and floats traveled up Fifth Avenue as spectators waved green, white and red Italian flags as a crowd of 35,000 turned out to celebrate.
Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats, attended New York City's parade but received very different receptions.
De Blasio, who will leave office at the end of this year due to term limits, was booed and curses at as he walked down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue in the parade.
The mayor, who has feuded with the parade organizers previously, was not invited to the virtual event in 2020. And he sparked further outrage with the Italian American groups supporting the day when he announced that city schools were dropping Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Dancers were part of the annual event that celebrates the day that Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio (center) walks up Fifth Avenue past St Patrick's Cathedral during the Columbus Day parade
New York Governor Kathy Hochul attended her first Columbus Day parade as governor in New York City on Monday. All the other times she came for the festivities were when she served as New York's Lieutenant Governor
New York Governor Kathy Hochul attends the Annual Columbus Day Parade in New York City with other state and local officials, all wearing sashes made with Italian colors
'F*** you, you piece of s***,' a man yelled at De Blasio, followed by clapping from the crowd, according to the New York Post.
'F*** you, De Blasio. You piece of garbage… Get out of here, you piece of s***. You're garbage,' another crowd member shouted.
Meanwhile Gov. Hochul received cheers of encouragement as she made her way along the parade.
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan supported De Blasio, calling him a 'gentlemen.'
'All I can say is this: He and I have gotten along well. We talk candidly and disagree on stuff, but he's been a gentleman. We've worked together. Have there been controversies? Sure,' Dolan said. 'In general, I'm grateful, very grateful, that we got along so well.'
Republican mayoral candidate and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa said he anticipated De Blasio would face backlash from Italian Americans at the parade.
'I'm looking forward to Bill de Blasio being booed,' Sliwa said. 'He got elected saying he was 100% Italian, now watch the Italians boo him!'
Republican nominee for the 2021 New York City mayoral election Curtis Sliwa greets people during the annual Columbus Day Parade in New York City
Cardinal Timothy Dolan (left) defended Mayor De Blasio (right), who said he and de Blasio get along very well despite their disagrees over certain issues
FORZA ITALIA: People with Italian heritage were seen waving Italian flags on New York City's streets on Monday to celebrate Columbus Day
Participants walking who took part in this year's Columbus Day parade did not hide their proud Italian heritage as they walked down Fifth Avenue
Italian flags fly from floats during 77th annual Columbus Day Parade in New York City as members of the Catholic church joined in the celebrations
Decades-old vehicles bearing U.S. and Italian flags roll up Fifth Avenue during today's 77th Columbus Day parade
Hundreds of attendees cheered from the sidewalks as local politicians, high school bands, Italian racing cars and groups associated with Italian heritage were part of the parade's runway up Fifth Avenue
Before the parade, De Blasio said that he was proud of his Italian heritage and that he he'd like to see Italian-Americans shared Columbus Day with Native Americans, who now call the occasion Indigenous People's Day.
'Italian Americans, tens of millions of Italians Americans, came to this country, made this country a better place. You've got to honor the Italian American people. That's what the day should be about,' the mayor said in a statement.
'It doesn't have to be a contradiction. Let's love and respect Italian American heritage. I'm very, very proud of it. Let's also acknowledge the history of Native Americans and support them.'
On Friday, President Bien issued the first-ever executive order of Indigenous Peoples' Day, which was observed Monday along with Columbus Day.
The White House said it the order was created to shift efforts to help strengthen Native American tribal universities and colleges, as well as boost economic and educational opportunities for indigenous people.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden spent their holiday Monday attending the wedding of their nephew Cuffe Owens and Meghan King, a former star of the reality TV show Real Housewives of Orange County.
US President Joe Biden (left) waves as he walks to the White House with First Lady Jill Biden (right) and his granddaughter Naomi Biden (behind) upon his return from Delaware in Washington, DC
Billed as the nation’s largest celebration of Italian American pride, the Columbus Day Parade has faced criticism in recent years from activists who fault the 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus for his brutal treatment of Indigenous people in the West Indies.
Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa, part of modern-day Italy. He sailed from Spain in August 1492 and landed in an island in the Bahamas on October 12 of that year.
Many of the native people of the island were forced into servitude. Multitudes died of disease.
Spain repopulated the workforce with African slaves.
The first national Columbus Day was proclaimed in 1892 by Republican President Benjamin Harrison to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' 'discovery' of the Americas.
VROOM VROOM: A woman rides a Vespa during the Annual Columbus day parade in New York City
Marching bands and floats traveled up Fifth Avenue as spectators waved green, white, and red Italian flags
Christopher Columbus, (1451 - 1506)
Christopher Columbus, born in Genoa, Italy in 1451, secured his place in history by leading the first expeditions to make European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Sponsored by the Spanish monarchy, Columbus made four expeditions across the Atlantic in a quest to find a western sea passage to the East Indies.
Columbus had convinced Spain's Queen Isabella to fund his voyage by promising that the riches he'd collect would be used to finance a crusade to 'reclaim' Jerusalem for Christians. Instead, he found new foods, animals and indigenous people who, he wrote, were childlike and could be easily enslaved.
Even in his own time, Columbus was accused of cruelty and incompetence in his role as Viceroy and Governor of the Indies, and of brutal mistreatment of the native Taino people on the island of Hispaniola.
Columbus' supporters say that many of the claims are exaggerated or false, and that the matter is clouded by a contemporaneous smear campaign both against Columbus by his political rivals, and by northern European countries against Catholic Spain.
However, there is good evidence that Columbus brutally subjugated and enslaved the Taino people in the quest for gold.
In 2006, historians discovered a contemporaneous investigative report in Spanish archives, which revealed the results of an inquiry into accusations that Columbus ruled brutally as governor.
The report contained accounts of mutilation, torture and cruelty that were shocking even to Columbus' contemporaries, and resulted in his permanent removal as governor and temporary imprisonment by King Ferdinand.
'Columbus's government was characterized by a form of tyranny,' Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian who has seen the document, told journalists. 'Even those who loved him had to admit the atrocities that had taken place.'
Around 60 years after Columbus' arrival, the Taino indigenous population of the Caribbean had been reduced from an estimated 250,000 people to a few hundred because of slavery and death from new
