As far as Italian-American “heroes” go, they’re pretty few and far between. Mainly because all of them seek to represent an embarrassing interpretation of what an Italian is (this includes all involved in The Godfather). However, most embarrassing is the formerly-perceived-as-a-real-Italian Christopher Columbus constantly being claimed as a symbol of Italian heritage, regardless of how long his origins have been contested/questioned (even a New Jersey radio station was willing to admit Columbus’ wasn’t “Eye-talian” back in 2016).
This claim to Columbus has been made annually in various Little Italys throughout the U.S., but most especially in the so-called Little Italy of New York. And yes, plans for the Columbus Day Parade are still going strong despite the further confirmed revelation that Columbus wasn’t Italian at all, but a Spanish Jew who likely switched religions to avoid persecution (in what amounts to one of the biggest examples of irony ever). In fact, the parade is even more “auspicious” this year because it marks the eightieth anniversary of its existence (though the origins of celebrating Columbus extend even further back than that, particularly in New York).
And yes, it still insists that it “celebrates Italian-American heritage” despite the now irrefutable evidence that Columbus was not Italian, but born in the Kingdom of Aragon (a.k.a. Spain). Nonetheless, the repeated story is that he was born in Genoa. This despite the fact that there is no known documentation of Columbus ever writing in Ligurian, let alone Italian. His letters were always in Spanish. What’s more, being a Sephardic Jew, it made sense that he would conveniently choose to sail for the “New World” in 1492, the same year that Jews were ordered by the Spanish monarchy (via the Alhambra Decree) to either convert to Catholicism or leave Spain. For while no one might have known his “secret,” one can imagine the phobia of being “outed” as a Jew at that time in Spain.
Funnily enough, many of the Jewish people who did flee Spain in 1492 went to Italy, creating a new influx of Jewish last names that had never existed in the register before (e.g., Faraggi). Not Columbus though, even if Genoa was supposedly his “home.” Instead, he set sail for “Asia,” ending up in the Caribbean. But either way, it was a place where he could be the discriminator rather than the discriminated against.
Despite Columbus’ waning cachet as a “hero” and “discoverer of America”—and now as an Italian altogether—Italian-Americans haven’t bothered to let go of their “emblem.” Their “totem” for a parade meant to symbolize “Italian pride.” In fact, this clinging to Columbus as an Italian hero was immortalized by a 2002 episode of The Sopranos called, what else, “Christopher.” Opening with a shot of the usual congregants outside the meat shop, Bobby (Steven R. Schirripa) reads aloud a news report about Native Americans (then still being referred to as “Indians”) intending to protest the parade in Newark. Silvio (Steven Van Zandt) becomes irritable, pronouncing, “Columbus Day is a day of Italian pride. It’s our holiday and they wanna take it away.”
One wants to reach through the TV screen in this moment, shake him and scream, “Let them! Let them take it away!” Because not only is Columbus not Italian, but he didn’t really do much to warrant admiration. Never mind Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) screaming at his son, Anthony (Robert Iler), “Look, you had to walk in Columbus’ shoes to see what he went through. People thought the world was flat for crying out loud. Then he lands on an island with a bunch of naked savages on it. I mean, that took a lot of guts.” Anthony ripostes, “Like it took guts to murder people and put ‘em in chains.” The Soprano matriarch, Carmela (Edie Falco), then chimes in, “He was a victim of his time.” Anthony balks, “Who cares? It’s what he did.” Unwilling to listen to more of his son’s “sacrilege,” Tony finally declares, “He discovered America is what he did! He was a brave Italian explorer, and in this house, Christopher Columbus is a hero! End of story.”
Over two decades later since that episode aired, and there are still many Italian-Americans willing to die on this “Christopher Columbus was a hero” and “brave Italian explorer” hill. And yet, if any “day” should belong to Italians (read: Italian-Americans with zero conception of the real Italy) in America, the better choice/commemorative effort at this point is August 23rd, the day Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in 1927 without receiving a fair trial for a crime (robbery and murder) they may not have been responsible for. This due to the undeniable taintedness of America’s perception and treatment of Italians at that time. That Sacco and Vanzetti were unabashed anarchists also didn’t help their cause.
This is the better set of Italian “heroes” (/martyrs) to honor not just because it’s “chicer” to play up one’s historical victim status in the present, but because it’s one of the most well-documented instances of anti-Italianism in the U.S. That faux Italians should like to say that “taking away Columbus” from them is “taking away their holiday,” therefore an example of anti-Italianism, well, it just goes to show how fewer and fewer Italian-Americans (itself a dwindling population that only appears to delight in continuing to caricaturize itself for profit) seem to be in touch with their history. But if scientific evidence has officially proven Columbus wasn’t Italian at all, the reaction from Italians and Italian-Americans alike should be more pride than ever in the fact that their heritage has been wiped clean of this mostro.
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