The whole “Columbus Day vs Indigenous Peoples Day” is so misguided. A quick look at history in the United States tells us that Columbus Day is about celebrating Italians. The first Columbus Day was celebrated in New York City in 1866. The day first became a holiday due the lobbying efforts of Angelo Noce, a first generation American in Denver. According to Wikipedia, “Colorado replaced Columbus Day with Frances Xavier Cabrini Day in 2020, though that holiday is observed a week earlier.” Further in the Wikipedia entry we learn “For the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1892, following the lynching of 11 Italian immigrants by a mob in New Orleans, President Benjamin Harrison declared Columbus Day as a one-time national celebration.”
In 1941, nearly 2,000 Italians were put in internment camps because they were suspected of being “enemy aliens.” They were not freed until 1943. They have been prosecuted by the KKK and villainized in the media as gangsters and mafia. People forget that Italians were treated badly in our country and still are.
Other countries celebrate the day in other ways. In Argentina it’s a “Day of Respect of Cultural Diversity.” In Columbia, which is named after Columbus, it is “Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity of the Colombian nation.”
Perhaps we could reclaim the day as a day of Italian heritage and pride, much like St. Patrick’s Day celebrates our Irish heritage.
Rebecca Addison
Bernardston