The city of San Jose, California, is removing its statue of Joseph Fallon. During the Mexican War Fallon led a military force into San Jose and raised the American flag over the city. The statue depicted him on horseback hoisting the flag. Some years later, Fallon served as mayor of San Jose.
Hispanic activists said that Fallon represented “racism and oppression,” and called for removal of his “controversial” statue. Vandals defaced it on several occasions.
Fallon’s defenders said it was reasonable honor him, given his role in the city’s history, and particularly for bringing San Jose and California and into the United States. Certainly from an American point of view this is reasonable, but it is a view diluted in a California made diverse and multicultural by decades of mass immigration.
As this immigration continues to change our national identity, more and more of our American heritage will become “controversial.” The fate of Fallon’s statue points the way we are heading.
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