• José Ramón Bauzá, MEP (Renew Europe, Spain) stresses that “the wave of attacks has degenerated into an all-out offensive against anything that evokes the European legacy of the modern United States”

Renew Europe’s Spanish MEP José Ramón Bauzá, along with other Members of the European Parliament, sent a letter to the Acting Representative of the United States to the European Union, Ronald J. Gidwitz, urging him and US authorities at all levels “to ensure the protection and preservation of the European legacy in America” following a wave of attacks against the monuments of European historical figures.

Mr. Bauzá, original author of the letter, expressed his concern regarding some demonstrators in the US resorting to vandalism, as exemplified by the attack on the statue of the world renowned Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. He stressed that the author of Don Quixote “never set foot on American soil, or was in any manner connected to the Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas”. In fact,  “Cervantes himself was a victim of slavery, spending five years in captivity in North Africa”.

“This movement has transcended the debate on minority rights in the US or the critical revision of European colonialism, and has degenerated into an all-out offensive against anything that evokes the European legacy of the modern United States”, regretted Mr. Bauzá. He also deplored the attacks on the statues of San Junípero Serra in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, which were defaced and toppled, even though the friar from the Balearic Islands was very vocal in the defense of the native peoples of California.

The Member of the European Parliament highlighted that “this aggressive and unilateral revision of history constitutes an attack not only on the legacy of Europeans and Americans of European descent, but also on the Catholic faith of millions of Americans”. He concluded by inviting the Ambassador to protect both the common history and the values of freedom, justice, and equality, on which Europe and America’s friendship was built.

Letter to the US Ambassador to the EU – Protect the European heritage of America-3