Towns throughout Spain are offering to give new homes to statues that were toppled in the United States by protesters, according to The Guardian.
In June, politicians in California said the statue of Queen Isabella and Christopher Columbus would be removed from the state's capital of Sacramento, calling it "completely out of place today." The statue has stood in the building's rotunda since 1883.
“Christopher Columbus is a deeply polarizing historical figure given the deadly impact his arrival in this hemisphere had on indigenous populations,” the state legislative wrote in a statement.
Officials in the 2000-resident town of Talavera de la Reina in north-eastern Spain sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom saying they were "deeply saddened" by the removal of the statue.
“We’re not ashamed of our history,” the Neighbors Association of Fray Hernando de la Talavera wrote. “We’re aware that mistakes were made, but we also know how unfair it is to judge the past from the point of view of today’s society.”
The group offered to adopt the statue, saying “We’ll take care of all the shipping costs.”
Another Spanish town of Boadilla del Monte, right outside of Madrid, reached out to San Francisco Mayor London Breed asking for possession of the city's statue of the Spanish priest Junípero Serra, which was recently toppled by protesters.
Javier Úbeda, mayor of Boadilla del Monte, said he was disappointed to see the statue toppled and another statue of Don Quixote author Miguel Cervantes defaced.
Úbeda called the men “architects in part of what we so proudly today call western civilization” and asked to take the statues if San Francisco couldn't protect them with the honour and respect they deserve."
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