EXPAT - 1 Luglio 2020 La città di Hartford, Connecticut, rimuove la statua di Colombo senza far rumore… Altre statue di Colombo sono state rimosse recentemente anche nelle città di Middletown e New London, mentre a New Haven, dopo la rimozione della statua, i manifestanti contro Colombo intorno al piedistallo della statua hanno festeggiato la vittoria...
News - 24 Giugno 2020 Public Monuments and Indro Montanelli: A Case of Misdirected Reverence? Although the issue of public monuments has been thoroughly examined in the wake of the recent anti-racism protests, the case of Indro Montanelli--and specifically of the defense of his statue in a park in Milan--bears a closer look. The unmitigated arrogance, hubris, and smugness with which Montanelli himself addressed the issue, once in 1969 and again in 2000, must lead us to question the limits of acceptable human behavior.
News - 17 Giugno 2020 In America’s “Novel”, Italian-Americans and Columbus Are “Cheated” and “Beaten” In Italiano It’s almost like a Pirandello play: loves and hatreds, admiration and disdain for a similar situation, but seen from different points of view, simply to remind us that absolute truth does not exist. And this very sick America, angry and instigated, takes it out on its symbols, its memories, its past–but not with […]
News - 12 Giugno 2020 NIAF Protests the Destruction of Christopher Columbus Statues in the US (Washington, D.C. – June 12, 2020) – The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) Board of Directors are united in their protest of the vandalization of the Christopher Columbus statues in Boston, Mass.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Richmond, Va.; and many other cities. There are also petitions to remove the Christopher Columbus statues in New York City and […]
News - 12 Giugno 2020 George Floyd and…. Columbus? The Twin “Original Sins” of the Conquest of America I’m not generally in favor of destroying historical statues or monuments—I’d prefer to see more of them, and more from recent times, too--but even if all the remaining monuments to him were to be destroyed, Columbus would still be with us. And the reason is straightforward: October 12, 1492 was the most important date in human history, at least since the invention of agriculture. From that date that the world we now live in had its beginning...
EXPAT - 29 Ottobre 2019 Spiegazione per gli italiani sul perché gli italo americani difendono Colombo Bisogna ricordarlo soprattutto a quei connazionali che in patria e negli USA hanno frettolosamente aderito al revisionismo spicciolo che sta demonizzando il Columbus Day. Ma se vogliamo capire davvero l’impatto dell’arrivo di Cristoforo Colombo in America, dobbiamo esaminare il significato esatto di tre parole: scoprire, invadere e conquistare. E quindi trarne le conseguenze
New York - 17 Dicembre 2017 The Columbus Controversy and the Politics of Omission In this case, Anthony Tamburri discusses the Calandra Institute’s stated policy of neutrality and how the Institute’s neutral position was mis-represented by the phrase, “Calandra is not supporting Columbus,” and nothing more. Hence the politics of omission!
New York - 12 Ottobre 2017 Down with Columbus! Then What? As a collective community, with many shared experiences, do we, Italian/Americans, need a unifying myth? During this historical moment, of deep alienation and ethnic insecurity, the answer seems to be – yes! All myths are artificial creations of the human imagination. But, they serve a purpose, and we should, together, construct a meta-mythology of Italiana/Americana.
Arts - 9 Ottobre 2017 Polemics over Columbus? I’d Rather Contemplate this New (Paper) Monument to Toscanini "Toscanini: Musician of Conscience", this definitive volume by Harvey Sachs, a brilliant writing that reads like a gripping novel, and which will likely rekindle the public’s interest in the greatest conductor of the 20th century. Arturo Toscanini is a model not only of Italian-ness, but also of loyalty without compromise to the ideals of democracy and liberty.
New York - 9 Ottobre 2017 Columbus, Our Lady of Loreto and the Ironies of Italian American History Ironically Columbus Day began as an attempt to reconcile the new immigrants with Americans and even Native Americans. A final irony: as the Italian American community gathers to celebrate and march past Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Ave, the beautiful neo-Renaissance Our Lady of Loreto church in Brooklyn, built by Italian emigrants in 1906 in their “spare” time, is being torn down.