![]() federal holiday of Columbus Day-which falls on Oct. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Each year, the U.S. ![]() This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. SIMON: Joseph Sciorra of Queens College, N.Y., thanks so much for being with us.Ĭopyright © 2019 NPR. I know on Staten Island, this happened a few years ago where Italian Americans are opting for an Italian American heritage day and moving themselves away from the idea of a Columbus Day as a marker for Italian American identity. And so you see it in a number of different ways. I'm smiling because every year on Facebook, I celebrate a different Italian American figure - not an Italian figure, but an Italian American figure, you know? I think a number of Italian Americans have made that understanding, have made that switch that supporting Columbus and his, quite frankly, barbaric acts is not something that people want to associate themselves with. SIMON: I'd be proud to tell our daughters, well, you've got Yogi Berra Day off from school. Diane di Prima, wonderful poet out of San Francisco, has a fabulous poem called "Whose Day Is It" (ph) in which she lists a litany of possible alternatives, everyone from Yogi Berra to Connie Francis to Frank Sinatra. SIMON: Any calls for a Leonardo da Vinci day? And I think that's always important to keep in mind. It's not a versus - it's not a war that's going upon these two groups. I should say that, you know, this is not an issue of Italian Americans against Native Americans or Native Americans against Italian Americans. So there's a really emotional bond there. I see the sort of worker's hands in his hands. I've read poetry which has - says, you know, when I look at the figure of Columbus on a statue, I don't see Columbus. SCIORRA: There's an emotional bond to Columbus. SIMON: So what has the reaction been among many Italian American groups and Italian American families to the emphasis in recent years on seeing the racism and brutality and violence in Columbus' personal history? One has to remember the lynching in New Orleans of 11 Italian Americans in 1891 so that Columbus becomes this figure that Italians latch on to as a way to get a foothold in this incredibly hostile environment that they find themselves in. SCIORRA: One has to remember that when Italians arrive here in the late 1880s in mass - we're talking about 4 1/2 millions who come - Italian immigrants who come between 1880s and 1924 - they encounter America that is xenophobic, that is engaging in acts of violence against immigrants. ![]() SIMON: What did it mean to many Italian Americans to have Columbus Day established as a federal holiday back in the 1930s? JOSEPH SCIORRA: It's a pleasure to be here. ![]() Professor Sciorra, thanks so much for being with us. Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College in New York, and he joins us from New York now. Of course, Christopher Columbus was Italian, and his day has had special resonance for Italian Americans. cities in seven states in replacing Columbus Day with a day to celebrate Native Americans. Washington, D.C., has joined hundreds of U.S.
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