LA will recognize Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day after the Los Angeles City Council voted nearly unanimously to make the change on Wednesday.
The move is in response to criticism of explorer Christopher Columbus, who critics say is a symbol of genocide, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Some Italian Americans have criticized the City Council's decision, arguing that it erases an important part of their heritage.
"On behalf of the Italian community, we want to celebrate with you," said Ann Potenza, president of Federated Italo-Americans of Southern California. "We just don’t want it to be at the expense of Columbus Day."
The LA City Council voted 14-1 to replace the holiday, according to the HuffPost.
Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who introducted the motion in 2015, said replacing the holiday rights "a historical wrong of epic proportions."
"The historical record is unambiguous in terms of the atrocities that Christopher Columbus himself, and his men, enacted on Latino native peoples," O’Farrell said, according to CBS Los Angeles.
LA is not the first major city in the U.S. to make such a decision.
Seattle, Phoenix and Denver are among the American cities that have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.
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