In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Almost 600 years later, the Los Angeles City Council replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.

For the rest of the country Columbus Day falls on Oct. 9, but some cities including Los Angeles have now decided to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead.

Columbus is notorious for being the man who “discovered” America. However, many people do not believe that he deserves the honor nor should there be a day to celebrate him.

“Do we celebrate the genocide of the native people? You have to take all of [Columbus’] achievements and weigh it against what he did, which was essentially a genocide. I think that it is appropriate for the L.A. City Council to change it to Indigenous Peoples Day,” history teacher Kathleen Niles said.

Cameron Coleman, the new Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, agrees with Niles.

“I think it’s really great to recognize not only the existence, but also the accomplishments of indigenous people,” Coleman said.

However, the change is not supported by all Angelenos. Many Italian Americans voiced their displeasure over the change and fear it may eraser a part of their heritage.

“When the Italian immigrants came to America in the beginning they experienced nativism,” Niles said. In order to counteract this, east coast Italian American communities used Columbus as a symbol of their Americanism and need for inclusion. According to Niles, this celebration of  the explorer led to the creation of the holiday.

11th District Councilman Mike Bonin, who oversees Brentwood, is of Italian American heritage himself. However, he disagrees with the comments in favor of naming the day after Columbus.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Bonin said after the ruling to change the name,“This gesture of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day is a very small step in apologizing and in making amends.”

Correction (Sep. 20, 9:20): The original version of this article misquoted Cameron Coleman as, “I think it’s really great to recognize not only the existence, but also accomplishments of the indigenous people. This has been corrected to state, “I think it’s really great to recognize not only the existence, but also the accomplishments of indigenous people.”