The ship full of excuses for Christopher Columbus has sailed
“Happy Columbus Day!” was the refrain I remember every second Monday in October as the parade floats made their way down Dearborn Street, with people dressed largely in red, green and white and waving Italian flags of the same colors.
As a child, I often took part in Chicago’s Columbus Day celebration and remember it as a happy day for Italian Americans. “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” began the song we were taught as children. Back then, before the parade moved to Columbus Drive, it was more than a day to take pride in my Italian American heritage, it was a day to be proud of my family as well.
My grandfather, Fred Mazzei, was chairman of the Columbus Day Parade in Chicago from 1971 through 1991. I remember as a young child getting to meet the parade queen and dressing as Columbus, complete with tights and a plastic sword — and also that the weather was often cold and rainy. It was October in Chicago, after all. But mostly, it was also the day each year when my grandfather’s hard work came to fruition.
He was a man whose story is a lot like many other immigrants. He came to America as a boy, served in the U.S. Army’s Pacific theater in World War
II, went to school on the GI Bill and worked as a custom tailor. He moved his family from a three-flat on the
West Side of Chicago to a new home in Melrose Park where his success was further validated, living there until his death in 1994. He was a proud American and also proud to be Italian, doing a lot of advocacy work that resulted in many awards, including being knighted by the Republic of Italy.
I can’t speak for him, but I believe he and others of his generation latched on to Columbus as a way of being fully accepted as Americans. Simply put, having a national holiday was a way of getting the U.S. government to validate them as a legitimate, respected culture.
It’s important to remember that when they came here in the early 1900s, they were often discriminated against by other ethnic groups, just as the Irish, Polish and other groups were discriminated against by “real Americans.”
I also believe that if my grandfather were alive today he’d agree that the time to honor Columbus has passed. I believe he’d realize that while Columbus may have been useful as a way to have Italian Americans respected by mainstream America, it hasn’t been necessary for decades now.
We have known for a long time who Columbus really was. His journey was funded by Spain, not Italy. The closest he ever came to “discovering America” was the Bahamas. And when he returned to Spain he took enslaved native people with him. I’m not sure how those credentials add up to a hero for Italian Americans, or anyone else.
When faced with knowledge and facts, some people evolve and change. Others stubbornly double down or, in the case of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, the group who runs the parade in Chicago, they try to change the narrative.
The group issued a statement on June 13 to address the controversy about Columbus statues and the Columbus holiday in general. Of course, the issues I mentioned with Columbus were sidestepped in the statement. Instead, the Joint Civic Committee makes the preposterous claim that “willful defilement of Columbus statues … are acts of hate against Italian Americans” and writes they should be considered a hate crime.
I’m with them on one point — I’m not in favor of having an angry mob rip down statues. But to call it a hate crime against Italian Americans is laughable. We can debate how the statues should be removed and whether or not some should go into a museum, but it’s clear that they should be removed from public land. And Columbus Day should go away also. Italian Americans don’t need either one.
I’ll grant that it’s ironic that having the Columbus Day holiday may have contributed to Italian Americans being accepted as Americans, and that I have benefited from the privilege that comes with that — and that I’m now advocating for it to end. But it’s time to move on.
That doesn’t mean the contributions of Italian American’s should not or cannot be recognized, however. It doesn’t have to be through some lone “hero,” but if it’s done that way, there are many great Italian Americans who can be honored instead of Columbus.
And there are events, such as the many Italian street festivals in Chicago and other cities, that should continue (when our COVID-19 precautions allow). For me, the Little Italy Festa Taylor Street is a great one, as is the Oakley Avenue Festa Pasta Vino fest and the Taste of Melrose Park.
When they resume, I encourage all to come and enjoy the music, culture and food. I’ll probably be at all three, but I won’t be saving a seat for Christopher Columbus.