Why Columbus Day of 1942 is so Meaningful Today
Beginning on December 8th 1941, over 600,000 Italian-Americans were branded “enemy aliens” and were firmly under the surveillance of the US intelligence community. Out of that number, tens of thousands were experiencing a very broad range of civil rights violations and massive economic losses, and a few thousand were being held in internment camps...
What Columbus Day means to me: An Italian-American appreciation
It’s unfortunate that this year’s Columbus Day Parade was canceled because of the pandemic. But it’s even more unfortunate that in recent years, an anti-Columbus movement has risen up attempting to eradicate history. Columbus Day is not a day to honor an individual, but rather a day to remember a courageous voyage, the catalyst that initiated over...
Italian-American history professor defends Christopher Columbus from critics
Dominic Candeloro, a former history and Italian-American studies professor, said that explorer Christopher Columbus’ legacy is not clearly an evil one, as some would argue. Candeloro (below), who also led the effort to create an Italian-American studies program at Loyola University Chicago, recently told The College Fix via phone interview that peo...
How Italians make our American day — Grazie!
If there’s a silver lining to a pandemic, it’s that it forces people to pause, take a breath and perhaps truly listen to each other. This definitely should be the case with respect to the annual “Is-he-a-saint-or-a-sinner?” rancor triggered by Columbus Day. So how about a different approach? Let’s consider instead how the achievements of Italians a...
A history lesson for Columbus Day
It’s said about 50 percent of students in the United States know little of European history and even less of Italian history. When we celebrate Columbus Day, most of us know little of the background of Columbus’ discovery of America in 1492. As a second generation Italian-American, I was taught about Italy and its interesting history by my father,...
Happy Columbus Day — say it loud, say it proud
Happy Columbus Day. There, I said it. And I mean it. I don’t wish you a solemn Columbus Day, nor a mournful one, nor still a guilty one. No, I wish you a happy Columbus Day. It’s a day to celebrate the contributions of Italian-Americans to our nation’s history. That was the original intent behind the holiday, after all, to elevate Italians at a tim...
Columbus Day And The Immigrant Nation
Let’s set aside technology and policy for a moment, and talk about America. In 1891 a mob broke into a New Orleans prison and lynched eleven men who had just been found not guilty on a murder charge. It’s not an unfamiliar tale in the Jim Crow South, except the eleven victims weren’t African-Americans. They were Italian immigrants, part of an Amer...
A Voice for Columbus
The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones. It is so easy to attack the dead, to misquote, to misrepresent motive, to manipulate the representation of past events. When the dead lack someone to speak for them they can easily become the victims of those more interested in promoting a cause than the truth. While...
Celebrate Italian Heritage Month with Vanessa Racci’s Virtual Jazzy Italian Show!
Growing up with her Barese (Southern Italian) grandfather in New York, Vanessa learned Italian American classics at an early age. After her grandfather passed, Vanessa was inspired to reinvent the Italian American classics that he taught her with modern jazz arrangements. So, she teamed up with Gianni Valenti of Birdland Jazz Club, NYC, producer, D...
Why I celebrate Columbus Day
America has always been a beacon for those brave enough to venture to her shores. Although, what they find might not always live up to their fantasies. Such was the case in the late 1800s, with wave after wave of Italian immigrants landing on the shores of America. The Italians brought with them their food, language and religion. However, early Am...
Proclamation on Columbus Day, 2020
More than 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus’s intrepid voyage to the New World ushered in a new era of exploration and discovery. His travels led to European contact with the Americas and, a century later, the first settlements on the shores of the modern day United States. Today, we celebrate Columbus Day to commemorate the great Italian who o...
Il linciaggio antistorico di Colombo, colpevole di aver scoperto l’America
È sperabile, ma poco probabile, che la furia iconoclasta di una parte della società americana si plachi nell’approssimarsi della Festa degli Italiani, così indicata nel Calendar Date: «Columbus Day is on the second Monday of October. It marks the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival to America on October 12, 1492. He was an Italian explorer...