L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 8 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019 L'Italo-Americano THOMAS VESCE F or many Americans of Italian descent, this is perhaps the month of the year that most expresses their charac- ter. And how is that, one may ask? Here's the answer: for the first part of the month practically all their attention is given to the expectations connected with the arrival of the great Christopher Columbus holiday. As the feast day approaches, many organizations prepare to stage massive parades down along the main avenue of their towns and cities. In New York City, it is traditional to precede the grand march down the length of Fifth Avenue by a mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral. As the peo- ple start to fill up the pews, it is usual for a famous celebrity from a Broadway show or the Metro- politan Opera to open the festivi- ties by singing the national anthems of both the United States and Italy. This happens as soon as the city's mayor escorts some other famous personage(s), who is the current year's Grand Mar- shal of the Parade, to their seats. In recent years, these Mar- shals have included the descen- dants of Columbus, the noble Colons of Spain, and the fabu- lously gifted Sophia Loren. Of course, various officials of the Italian Consulates in the country also grace similar festivities all over the US, many times being accompanied by outstanding per- sonalities from Italy who are sim- ilarly invited to lead the wonder- ful parades in honor of our most exceptional explorer. There is always a dance of some high-school or college organization or a fraternal soci- ety to be organized; there is almost always a parade to march in or a party to go to. Yet, amid all this festivity, not a year passes without some journalist writing an article that pokes fun at all these goings-on and suggests instead that the Italian navigator should not be honored as the dis- coverer of America by saying something like, "Columbus was not the first to come to these shores, but a man called Lief Erikson, or even another one, known to historians of the ques- tion as Saint Brendan." Well, the reasonably-minded Italian American does take these possibilities into consideration. Columbus was definitely not the only captain of the high seas in the world. Yet, what a lot of people seem to forget is that Columbus' brave undertaking was soon followed by other enterprising men. Some of these leaders were escaping religious persecution while others may have sailed in order to acquire new natural resources, like gold, silver, plants and rare woods. In fact, among all of the other European explorers perhaps a case can be made that Marco Polo was the most outstanding. Yet, like all these other so-called "Pre-Columbus" pioneers, who followed Polo to China? Nobody. Instead, Columbus was fortunate in truly being a man of action, in the right place, at the right time, and this label of being the "Man of the Hour" can never be stripped from him. So, when the vast and myste- rious ocean did not devour Columbus' ships and the success of his voyage reached Spain, only to be disseminated like lighting throughout Europe, other men also dared to cross over the wide (no longer "flat earth") seas. One of these was the Florentine Giovanni da Verrazzano. While Columbus' travels took him to the Caribbean, Verrazzano also explored the rivers and bays of the United States eastern seashore. Despite the many accomplishments of other adven- turers who would follow, Cristo- foro's courage remains para- mount because he was first to show these others the way for- ward out of ignorance and fear. Today, those who may yet have to be convinced about the first-place rank of Columbus in the discovery of the New World should read the subtle and witty book published by Michael A. Musmanno, Columbus Was First (New York: Fountainhead, 1966), which centers on the con- troversy stirred up by the publi- cation of the Vinland Map by Yale University a few years prior. As part of his conclusions, Musmanno invites the reader to note the infinite number of cities and American societies that have made use of the name of the Genoese explorer, beginning with the District of Columbia; Colum- bia University; the Republic of Columbia; the innumerable cities called Columbus in almost every one of the United States; some thirty geographical names on the American continent named after Columbus; and then the Knights of Columbus, the Colombian Exposition of Chicago, etc., etc... It is only too true that when a momentous event occurs, there are always two or more interpre- tations about the why, the where- fore and much more about its importance and value. No matter what side of the question one may take, the fact remains a fact. Cristoforo Colombo and his crew, came, saw, and returned to their communities with new knowledge about new horizons and it was incumbent upon his contemporaries to make the effort to learn all about it — HO! The Italian tricolor will fly high this month around the US to celebrate Italian Heritage Month (Ⓒ: Dreamstime) Italian Heritage Month: bringing together the Italian American community LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE

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