Chula Vista City Council has voted to change the name of Discovery Park to Kumeyaay Park of Chula Vista to honor the original inhabitants of the region the city was built on.
After years of protests by local Kumeyaay, other indigenous peoples, and supporters, the city voted on May 25, 2021, to permanently remove the Christopher Columbus Statue. The 6-foot-tall statue, created by the late artist Mario Zamora Alcantara and commissioned by developer The Corky McMillin Companies, was a landmark for Discovery Park since 1990.
Council members voted to return the statue to the artist’s heirs, who will receive a 30-day notice to retrieve the statue. While a Statement of Interest was not received by any other organization, the Task Force did receive public comment from Vincent Ferrer at McMillin Companies expressing interest in ownership of the Statue.
The statue will be returned to the developer if it remains unclaimed.
The statue of the Italian Voyager has remained in storage for three years after being vandalized with red paint. The Christopher Columbus Statue and Discovery Park Task Force was created on Sept. 28, 2021, to recommend terms for how to dispose of it, proposals to replace it with art or a marker, and proposals for renaming Discovery Park and a framework for naming parks and other city facilities.
“I think the council was very clear in their wanting to be a final resolution on this and that’s the work of the task force as well,” said Mayor Mary Casillas Salas. “To me, putting it in storage for three years and then bringing it back for more work is just a continuation of indecision.”
Kumeyaay Park of Chula Vista, nominated by Louise Maynard, a city Cultural Arts Commission & Task Force Member, is one of four recommendations presented to the city council. The Kumeyaay people are the original inhabitants of San Diego County and have resided in the region for more than 10,000 years.
Kumeyaay tribal members are divided into 12 separate bands: Barona, Campo, Ewiiaapaayp, Inaja-Cosmit, Jamul, LaPosta, Manzanita, Mesa Grande, San Pasqual, Santa Ysabel, Sycuan, and Viejas.
Tuesday’s vote also established the language that will be placed at the site of the former Columbus statue. It reads “We offer this in the spirit of not ‘erasing history,’ but rather as a necessary and reciprocal healing of the harms and injustice of colonial erasure and the distortion of history,” reads the language.
No further consideration or action was taken regarding a marker/art piece to replace the Statue.
