L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 20 L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018 LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers Ame- rigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy in 1451. In 1505, he became a naturalized citizen of Spain and later was awarded the office of "pilota mayor" (master navigator) of Spain. He died of malaria in Seville, Spain in 1512. As we all know, the Americas were named for Vespucci and not for Colum- bus, who is credited with the dis- covery of the "New World" in 1492. So, dear Readers, in the spirit of a bit of April foolishness, I would like to suggest to all Italo- American organizations in the US, and especially in San José, California, to use good old Vespucci to solve a problem. You may recall how, emboldened by over 35 confederate monu- ments being removed or relocated since 2015, Native American activists of the town called for the removal or relocation (preferably to the garbage dump) of the Columbus Statue located in the City Hall building. The statue was donated by the Italian Com- munity to the city in 1958. A sympathizer of the initiative said:"The statue offends me. I have relatives who are Native American and the statue doesn't belong here after all he's done to people. He came in, killed people and took over everything." So I say, it might be a good idea to save on moving expenses, just leave the Colum- bus statues where they are and change the signage to say Ameri- go Vespucci: after all I doubt if there is anybody still around able to say whether it is a good like- ness or not. *** The Italians Vespucci and Columbus first connected in 1496, after Columbus had "dis- covered America in 1492." In Italy Vespucci, from 1483 to 1492, worked for the Medicis, who were friends of his parents and, during that time, he learned that exploration for a northwest passage through the Indies was underway.  In 1496, after Columbus returned from his voyage to the New World, Vespucci had the opportunity to meet him in Seville. Their conversation stirred Vespucci's interest in seeing the world with his own eyes. By the late 1490s, he learned that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were funding more voyages so he decided to begin his new career as an explorer before more time passed. Vespucci, for his first voyage, set sail in 1497 from Cadiz, with a fleet of Spanish ships that sailed through the West Indies and made their way to the mainland of Cen- tral America in about five weeks. Explorers were looking for, during this time period, spices, silks, jewelry, anything extrava- gant, that Europe could no longer get from the East.  Sailing under the Spanish flag in May of 1499, Vespucci set out on his next expedition as a navi- gator under the command of Alfonzo de Ojeda. They crossed the equator, traveled to the coast of what is now Guyana, and went on the explore the coast of Brazil, at the same time discovering the Amazon River and Cape St. Augustine. In 1501, on his third voyage, Vespucci set sail for Cape Verde in service to the King of Portugal, Manuel I. Although Vespucci was not in command, when Por- tuguese officers asked him to take charge of the expedition, he agreed. His ships sailed along the coast of South America from Cape Sao Rogue to Patagonia, discovering present day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Vespucci and his fleets headed back believing they had discov- ered a new continent, basing their claim largely on Christopher Columbus earlier conclusion.  In 1498, when passing the mouth of the Orinoco River, Columbus had determined that such a big outpouring of fresh water must come from land "of continental proportions." In the early 16th century, scholars at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in northern France were working on a book of geography entitled Cosmographiae Introduc- tio, which contained large cut-out maps that could be used to create globes. German cartographer, Martin Waldseemuler, an author of the book, thought that the newly discovered Brazilian por- tion of the New World should be named America, the feminine ver- sion of the name Amerigo, for Amerigo Vespucci. His intent was to honor the person who discov- ered it. Years later, in 1538, the map- maker Mercator, working from the maps created at Saint-Dié, instead of marking just the sloughier portion of the conti- nent marked the name America on both the northern and southern parts, making Vespucci's legacy as that of having both North and South America as his name- sakes, although most would agree that Vespucci was credited with the discovery of areas that were first discovered by Christopher Columbus. *** Looking Back: President Ronald Regan was asked to help cool a tempest in a Pasta Pot, when "Buy American" spread, in 1983, from cars to can- nelloni. U.S. pasta producers asked president Regan to slow a surge in what they considered unfairly subsidized pasta imports from Italy. Vincent De Domenico, presi- dent of Golden Grain Macaroni Co., with headquarters in San Leandro, said: "It's getting so you can't turn around in a grocery store without seeing a new foreign label, but most of the impact is in New York and on the East Coast." Joseph Viviano, who heads San Giorgio, a pasta making sub- sidiary of the Hershey Foods Cor- poration, and chairman of the National Pasta Association, told reporters about the request. While reporters dined, Viviano said pasta importers have grown to about 118 million pounds a year in the United States - still just 5 percent of the U.S. market of about 2 billion pounds. But the imports, sold at relatively low prices because of the subsidies, are rising every year, "we're more concerned about where they're going than where they are today." The chief of the pasta group's complaint is Italy, where pasta is a major staple. Italy now accounts for 53 million pounds of U.S. imports a year, double the 1980 level. Italian producers say their gov- ernment legally subsidizes the production of durum wheat, from which the pasta is made, but not the pasta itself. The pasta producers asked the president "to take immediate and strong action to remedy the Euro- pean Economic Community's unfair export subsidies." U.S. Trade representative William Brock asked for a ruling from the international panel that operates under the General Agree- ment on Tariffs and Trade. That panel ruled in the Ameri- cans favor, but no action will be taken against the European subsi- dies until a separate GATT Subsi- dies Code Committee rules. The wheels of Justice move slowly...

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