L'Italo-Americano

NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 3 O n July 26, at City Hall East, Press Conference Room, it was held a dis- cussion among representatives from the Indigenous Community and the Italian-American one, in Los Angeles. The first motion, filed by L.A. Council member Mitch O'Farrel (who represents the 13 th District of the City) in November 2015, aims at establish Indigenous People's Day as a legal City holyday. As an implicit side effect, the city holyday of Columbus Day, held the s econd M onday in October, seems destined to be wiped out from the calendar and replaced by the newly instituted holyday. Los Angeles would not be the firs t to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous people's Day. Other US cities, the likes of Berkeley, in California, M inneapolis , M innes ota, A lbu querque, N ew M exico, Seattle, Washington, Phoenix, Arizona (just to name a few), took the same measure. Such a hot topic generated a heated debate, barely kept under control by Francisco Ortega, Adviser to the Human Relations Commission – Los Angeles. Other two moderators of the meeting were: Gaspar Rivera- Salgado, Commissioner of the just mentioned HRC in L.A., as well as Professor and Project Director at UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, and Professor Shannon Speed, A s s ociate P rofes s or of Anthropology and Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS), at UCLA. The first contribution to the discussion was the one by Ann Potenza, President of Federated Italo-Americans of Southern California (w hom L 'Italo- Americano had the pleasure to interview recently). She talked about the three main motivations, why preserv- ing the celebration of Christopher Columbus' feast is a must. First and foremost, Colum- bus' voyage of discovery sym- bolizes the purs uit of one's dream, even against great odds. The s ymbolic and ideal power, emanating from his fig- ure, is such, that the cinematic/ TV industry could not remain indifferent. Not only there are, to date, myriad films and TV s eries inspired by Columbus' endeav- ors , but als o the names ake Italian-American filmmaker, Chris Columbus, has been dedi- cating his own production com- pany, 1492 Pictures, to ignite s park s of imagination in the minds of zillion of view ers around the globe. Secondly, his journey consti- tutes an essential threshold in the history of the American conti- nent. That is the birth of European immigration towards the Americas. We don't have to forget that the United States of America is a nation made by immigrants. Native Americans have exten- sively been victims of marginal- ization and racism, throughout history. As rightly voiced by attorney James W. Michalski, President of Italian American Lawyers Association (IALA), Italian-A mericans , w rongly assimilated tout court to Mafia mobsters, have experienced a similar discrimination and rejec- tion within the US society. Third point is that Columbus' journey initiated a prolific exchange of goods, ani- mals, technology between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemis pheres , know n as the "Columbian Exchange." This last point, in my opinion, is the w eakes t, becaus e Indigenous people traded among themselves for millennia, and the concept of technological progress is debatable, because it is seen exclusively through the Western World's lenses. Moreover, unwillingly, the phys ical con tact betw een Europeans and Indigenous peo- ple, caused the widespread of lots of unprecedented infectious diseases. The second speaker, Maylei Blackwell - Associate Professor at the Cés ar E. Chávez D epartment of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Department of Gender Studies, UCLA - dealt with the second motion, again advanced by O'Farrel, consisting in mapping out Los Angeles' s acred places , part of the Indigenous peoples' heritage. Maylei, of Cherokee ancestry, pointed out how the phenomenon of migrations among Indigenous tribes was present long time before Europeans came to the Americas. The Tongva - a.k.a. the G abrieleño and F ernandeño (names derived from the Spanish missions built near their territo- ry) – were the first inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin. The maps that are being delineated - grouped under the name Indigenous L.A. - show how this area was divided among four distinct Indigenous tribes, the just mentioned Tongva, the Chumas h, Tataviam and the Luiseño. Matter of fact, it goes beyond that. The website, soon to be fully launched, is going to show- case the richness and complexity of the local history, including interview s w ith members of these tribes. The most conservative esti- mates talk about 120,000 Indigenous people, including over 50,000 Pacific Islanders from Oceania. In US schools, they teach kids about the system of Spanish mis- sions, but they don't mention that the Indigenous people built thos e. That creates a dis tort vision of history in the youngest generations. This last point generated an echo of similar concerns about how to rethink the curriculum in terms of the mixture of cultures and ethnicities, which have been populating and stratifying the US territories. What I found really unaccept- able was the widespread igno- rance, from both sides, about Christopher Columbus and the motivations that urged him to embark on a perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean. I can see how "saying that Columbus w as a man of his time" and, therefore justifying his violent acts in the context of the larger colonialist interests, is not fair. In 2006, it was discovered a 48-page report in the s tate archive in the Spanish city of V allad olid, containing tes ti- monies from twenty-three people - both enemies and supporters of Columbus - about the cruel treat- ment of colonial subjects, includ- ing torture and mutilation as a way to put down native unrest and revolt, by the colonizer and his brothers during his seven- year rule. At the same time, how could anyone call the explorer a perpe- trator of "genocide." That is very inappropriate and historically inaccurate. One thing is to talk about exploitation of the lands and enslavement of the people, that follow ed for centuries , after the first contacts between Europeans and N ative Americans. With all due res pect and empathy for the Indigenous peo- ple, who endured plenty of suf- fering and, for centuries, have been almost entirely downplayed by American institutions and fel- low country people, we cannot call Columbus' actions a "geno- cide." Columbus never planned, nor executed, any programmatic extermination of an ethnic group, like Adolph Hitler did with Jews (about six million innocents) not only in Germany, but also in the other occupied territories, or the Ottoman government did with the Armenian minority (about 1.5 million innocents). In Italy itself, allied to the Nazis, between 1938 and the end of WWII, the fascist regime put in execution the s o-called "Italian Racial Laws," which enforced racial discrimination in Italy, against the Italian Jews and the native inhabitants of the colonies. The only programmatic plan by Columbus and the Spanish Crown, under which he served, was to Christianize Indigenous people. To notice how nobody i n t h e r o o m e v e n m e n t i o n e d that. Indigenous People's Day vs. Columbus Day? I t d o e s n ' t h a v e t o b e t h a t way. This could be a chance to find a positive common ground of coexistence. That's not just Ann's wish, but the desire of our whole community. U s u a l l y , I a b s t a i n m y s e l f from any political consideration. However, I can almost see a w i d e r p o l i t i c a l v a l u e i n t h e recognition of Columbus Day, as a celebration of inclusiveness and acceptance of the myriad of immigrants, who were and are forced to face hardships and prejudice, as they leave their h o m e c o u n t r y t o w a r d s t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s o f A m e r i c a i n search of better opportunities. Columbus Day today is a public celebration open to all those who share the warmth, the flavors, the history, and the values of Italy in the United States Columbus Day vs. Indigenous People's Day? VALERIO VIALE

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