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Italian Heritage Day Celebrates One of the Communities Who Defined New York City

Italian Heritage Day in New York City - Mulberry St in Little Italy around 1900 (Library of Congress)
Italian Heritage Day in New York City – Mulberry St in Little Italy around 1900 (Library of Congress)

Italian Heritage Day (formerly Columbus Day) celebrates Italian culture and contributions to the culture of New York City and America. And there’s a lot. Many Americans follow an Italian religion. Italian food has become American food. There are many great Italian American artists and scientists.

Italian Heritage Day in New York City

New York City’s big Italian Heritage Day celebration is the Columbus Day Parade. 🇮🇹

Columbus Day Parade NYC (Laurence Agron/Dreamstime)
Columbus Day Parade NYC (Laurence Agron/Dreamstime)

Italians are the Original Latins

Italian culture is core to who we are as Latins, New Yorkers, and Americans. Italian contributions to European culture, American culture and World culture cannot be understated.

Two of the civilizations that define European and World culture, the Roman Empire (27BC – 476CE) and The Renaissance (ca 1420-1600s), were Italian. The third important civilization was Islamic Spain (711-1492), but that’s another story.

During peak Italian migration (1880-1920), rich Italians migrated to Argentina and poor ones migrated to New York City. Who do you think got the better end of the deal?

In the United States, Italian Americans faced the same White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) violent racism as New York’s African, Jewish, Irish, and Puerto Rican communities. Columbus Day was established in the United States to try and change that. It worked. The association changed the perceptions of Italian Americans from “others” to just Americans. That’s why Italian Americans are so attached to Columbus.

Unfortunately, Columbus was a particularly evil man who unleashed an apocalypse on the Americas in the name of Christ. He took over 500 Indigenous Taíno to Spain and tried to sell them into slavery. Many died. He was so abusive of Indigenous Peoples that his own sponsors called him back to Spain, jailed and tried him. Columbus made them rich, so they let him go, but never let him have power again. The latest scholarship based on Spanish DNA studies indicates that Columbus was a Spaniard, not a Genoese Italian. There was a historic Genoese Italian with that name, but it probably wasn’t the sailor. His own writings suggest that Columbus was not a Christian. It’s absurd that the Italian association with Columbus was promoted by the Catholic Church. The more we learn about this man, the worse it gets.

Anyway, Italian Americans have a lot to be proud of, just not that guy.


Published October 13, 2024 ~ Updated October 13, 2024.

Filed Under: FESTIVALS, Italian, October

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