Columbus Day.  A day that most Natives hate—the reasons we don’t need to go into because we all know why.

Columbus Day.  A day that most non-Native Americans, especially Italians, love—or so we’re led to believe.

I’m Italian, okay, half-Italian—but very Italian in that I grew up surrounded by the aroma of sauce, flour and cheese from my father’s pizzeria. Very Italian in that I view food as the solution to grief, happiness, boredom and anger. Very Italian in that gesturing and shouting over one another is what we call conversation. 

I’m very Italian. But I don’t want to celebrate Christopher Columbus or his day.

Mussolini was Italian, so was Al Capone—and you know what? I don’t feel any pride for them either. I have much more affection for Al Pacino, Martin Scorcese and Rudy Guiliani.

Columbus was the first. Columbus was the first in a long line of European explorers and trappers and pillagers and settlers to “discover” the pristine land later called the Americas and come face to face with its people. The history from that point forward, from an Indigenous point of view, can best be described as 500 years of cultural and physical genocide.

Why do we celebrate this man? Beyond the evidence he personally murdered, raped and enslaved his Indigenous hosts whom he wrongly identified as “Indians,” what is the legacy that has so many Americans, especially Italian-Americans, parading through the streets each October in a macabre show of ethnic pride?

Because he was the “first??”

I don’t have the answer to this, but I do have a response.

Dump Columbus Day.

It—and he—are nothing to celebrate. It’s a repugnant reminder of past sins, and while I am not one to encourage people to revel in their victimhood, I hope our country and society has progressed to the point where it recognizes that honoring a symbol of conquest is not only uncalled for, it’s wrong.

It’s wrong.

And it has nothing to do with being an American, an Italian, and it’s an insult to our Native citizens. Most Italians in this country, like my own family, came to its shores long after the Indian wars and Manifest Destiny, so why some of my paisans become so defensive on protecting the memory of Columbus is beyond comprehension.

You want to show cultural pride? Put on a Sinatra record, make a huge dish of fettuccini alfredo with homemade bread and red wine, and invite the neighborhood. Don’t march down the street, cloaked in the Italian and/or American flag, and (I’m not making this up, this happened at a parade last year) shout epithets at Native protestors to go “back where they came from.”

Dump Columbus Day.

Instead, establish a day or a month to honor Native history and culture. That’s a much more constructive way to show pride in who we are today—as Americans, Italians, Natives, and as a people.