As thousands of Italian Americans gathered to march down Fifth Avenue in New York City in celebration of Columbus Day, a small group of protesters gathered a few blocks away at Columbus Circle, where a statue celebrates the 15th-century explorer.

“If we’re going to remember him,” said Angello Medrano, 24, “we have to remember him as a murderer [and] a rapist who killed 90% of the native population.”

Medrano said he believed a violent far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August and ensuing national controversy had helped focus attention on the symbolism of oppression and energized efforts to have statues of controversial historical figures removed from public spaces.

“We should replace Columbus with local Native American chief,” he said. His friend Alfredo Zubieta said even a statue of one of the Viking warriors who reached American soil before Columbus would be more appropriate.

The small protest drew a handful of political figures, among them the state assemblyman and activist Charles Barron. He announced a new bill to change the designation of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.

“The land we are occupying now once belonged to indigenous people,” Barron said. “Columbus was a murderer, a rapist and a colonizer and he enslaved African people. We should not have a holiday named for an enslaver or for glorifying a murderer.”

Calling on Italian Americans to rename their event the Italian American Day parade, Barron said Columbus was not the only historical figure in need of reconsideration.

“People will say, what about [George] Washington? What about the Dutch? What about all these other people that have enslaved people? Well, they shouldn’t be honored either. We should tell the truth about American history and stop feeding our children lies.”

Protesters brave the rain at the 73rd annual Columbus Day parade in New York. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Earlier, New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, addressed the sensitivity of calls to remove the explorer’s statue from Columbus Circle, a busy traffic junction at the south-west edge of Central Park, and another monument in the park itself.

“You can debate the historic figure of Christopher Columbus but you can’t debate the contributions of Italian Americans,” he told reporters before the start of the Fifth Avenue march.

In September, the statue of Columbus in Central Park was vandalised, its hands painted bright blood red and “Hate will not be tolerated” spray-painted on its base. In recent days, the Columbus Circle statue, which sits on top of a 60ft column, was guarded around the clock by police.

De Blasio recently convened a panel to evaluate monuments and statues in the city.

“No one is moving these statues … in the short term,” the mayor said on Monday. “We need to think beyond any one historic figure.” Nonetheless, at the ensuing parade, De Blasio – whose grandfather came from Sant’Agata de’Goti, a village near Naples – was booed.

At Columbus Circle, Barron said he had received a letter from the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the group that hosts the Columbus Day parade, that called on elected officials to declare their position.

“They said, ‘If you don’t respond, we are going to tell millions of Italian Americans where you stand. These folks will remember you politically.’” Barron proceeded to tear up the letter, which he described as “threatening”.

In a statement published in August, Angelo Vivolo, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, said: “Columbus Day and the Columbus monument have played a vital role in Italian American acceptance and the celebration of Italian culture.

“As all nations do, we must continue to re-evaluate our history as Americans, and whom we choose to honor. That being said, we will not allow that reflection to come at the expense of a monument that has come to represent the many achievements that Italian Americans have accomplished.”

At Columbus Circle on Monday, Mark Gumbel, a member of the public who described himself as a quarter Italian, said: “The Indians were treated poorly, no question about it.

“But there’s no evidence Columbus landed [on the modern-day US mainland]. Then the Dutch came, the English, the French. So who’s to blame? Blame them all? Blame the French? Columbus just happened to be the first one. He’s an easy target, dead 400 years.”

Others present insisted the moment was drawing closer for Columbus to be removed from the pantheon of American heroes.

“Time can create the right moment for us in history, but this is bigger than Charlottesville,” said Tyrick Washington, co-chair of Operation Power, a Brooklyn community group founded by Barron and his wife, Inez. “The statues in Charlottesville need to be removed, just like Columbus needs to be removed.”