Essay written by Antonio Applauso

It’s January 6th and I jump out of bed, eager to see what gifts La Befana will bring. Much like the chocolates I received in the calza, every year, my Italian heritage is a gift, passed down to me by my parents, and to them by their parents. From the simple things like pulling ears on a birthday to Italian holidays like La Befana or Columbus Day, my Italian heritage has shaped me into the man I am today. My parents and grandparents have taught me many traditional Italian recipes, from bread and pasta, to fish and salads; recipes which I enjoy both cooking and eating. However one of the most important of all is my language, Italian. I grew up in a bilingual household, speaking both Italian and English. This duality means that I can communicate with two nations of peers. Thanks to my Italian, I can connect with Italian friends, family, and relatives on a much deeper level. I also have been involved in teaching Italian in the Italian learning center that my family founded in 2017.

Unfortunately, this was not the case for many Italian-Americans during the Second World War. America found itself on the opposite side from Italy. This forced Italian Americans to choose between Italy and the United States. Many chose to meet in the middle by keeping cherished values and traditions alive while deciding not to “speak the enemy’s language.” While this sacrifice prevented us from losing the bedrock of our beloved heritage, the distancing from the Italian language during the war left many Italian-Americans unable to pass it on to their children during the following Baby Boom. This wartime loss of language continues to haunt us today. Only 4.5% of Italian-Americans report speaking Italian at home, a far cry from the languages ubiquity prior to the war. Thankfully, there is a growing push from the Italian-American community to reclaim the language once spoken by our grandparents. I am grateful to have received the gift of language from my parents, but for me that is not enough. After all, the only thing I like more than receiving a present is giving one to someone else.

Weather I’m showing my girlfriend an Italian recipe, or teaching my students the nuances of Italian grammar, I am always eager to share my heritage with others as I enjoy to help other Italian Americans reconnect with their linguistic heritage. This year I will be moving to Louisiana as I will be attending the University of New Orleans to study Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. There, I plan to continue to promote the teaching of Italian, while engaging with the local Italian American community as I hope to forge lasting connections.

The second major challenge for the Italian American community is the gradual erasure of Columbus Day. As a central Italian-American holiday, Columbus Day gets a large amount of publicity, and is well known even outside of the Italian-American community. Unfortunately, Columbus has become unpopular as of late, facing numerous attempts to be replaced or renamed.

Many people assume Columbus Day is to celebrate Columbus the man, and by extension his accomplishments both good and ill. With the growing vilification of Columbus, people are erasing the holiday, not due to its relation to Italian Americans, but to object to the now tarnished image of Columbus. If these protesters were aware that Columbus Day was founded by various Italian communities nationwide as a reaction to the 1891 lynching of eleven innocent Italians in New Orleans, then Columbus Day would be seen in a different light. Columbus Day was created in opposition to violence and oppression to reinforce the link between Italian Americans and their belonging to the US during a time when they were considered both inferior and not Americans. One of the reasons for the current resistance to the holiday is due to a lack of awareness around the history of Columbus Day, and a misunderstanding of who the holiday is meant to celebrate: the Italian American communities across the nation. The best way to solve this problem is to advocate for the education of Columbus Day’s history.

My experience teaching Italian to in our family language learning center has shown me that telling people they are wrong rarely works when trying to correct any misguided behavior. Instead, you must show the student your reasoning, and allow them to reach their own conclusions. In the case of Columbus Day the best way to change people’s attitude on the holiday is to show them what Columbus represents to the Italian-American community. First, we must make the hardships and prejudice faced by many Italian American immigrants in the late 19th century better known, since these are the problems that inspired the creation of Columbus Day. We must explain that Columbus Day was founded in 1892, in opposition to numerous mass lynchings of Italians in the U.S. including the one in New Orleans the year before. The need for a holiday that promotes Italian American Heritage can be further reinforced through films about the Italian American experience like the recently released movie, Cabrini, directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, a film that explores the hardships faced by Italian Americans in the not-so-distant past. Lastly, we should consider distancing the holiday from Columbus the man, although it has not been proven that he personally contributed to the slaughter of native Americans, we must still be aware of the way many people in those communities view his arrival in America as the first domino that started their fall.

I believe we can preserve the legacy of Columbus Day in the same way we created it all those years ago. With patient understanding and a unified vision the Italian American community that is well poised to overcome these challenges. Even if our holiday needs to be reinvented, or rebuilt from the ground up (perhaps commemorating an Italian closer to the present like Cabrini), I am certain our community will prevail.

Essay written by Antonio Applauso

It’s January 6th and I jump out of bed, eager to see what gifts La Befana will bring. Much like the chocolates I received in the calza, every year, my Italian heritage is a gift, passed down to me by my parents, and to them by their parents. From the simple things like pulling ears on a birthday to Italian holidays like La Befana or Columbus Day, my Italian heritage has shaped me into the man I am today. My parents and grandparents have taught me many traditional Italian recipes, from bread and pasta, to fish and salads; recipes which I enjoy both cooking and eating. However one of the most important of all is my language, Italian. I grew up in a bilingual household, speaking both Italian and English. This duality means that I can communicate with two nations of peers. Thanks to my Italian, I can connect with Italian friends, family, and relatives on a much deeper level. I also have been involved in teaching Italian in the Italian learning center that my family founded in 2017.

Unfortunately, this was not the case for many Italian-Americans during the Second World War. America found itself on the opposite side from Italy. This forced Italian Americans to choose between Italy and the United States. Many chose to meet in the middle by keeping cherished values and traditions alive while deciding not to “speak the enemy’s language.” While this sacrifice prevented us from losing the bedrock of our beloved heritage, the distancing from the Italian language during the war left many Italian-Americans unable to pass it on to their children during the following Baby Boom. This wartime loss of language continues to haunt us today. Only 4.5% of Italian-Americans report speaking Italian at home, a far cry from the languages ubiquity prior to the war. Thankfully, there is a growing push from the Italian-American community to reclaim the language once spoken by our grandparents. I am grateful to have received the gift of language from my parents, but for me that is not enough. After all, the only thing I like more than receiving a present is giving one to someone else.

Weather I’m showing my girlfriend an Italian recipe, or teaching my students the nuances of Italian grammar, I am always eager to share my heritage with others as I enjoy to help other Italian Americans reconnect with their linguistic heritage. This year I will be moving to Louisiana as I will be attending the University of New Orleans to study Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. There, I plan to continue to promote the teaching of Italian, while engaging with the local Italian American community as I hope to forge lasting connections.

The second major challenge for the Italian American community is the gradual erasure of Columbus Day. As a central Italian-American holiday, Columbus Day gets a large amount of publicity, and is well known even outside of the Italian-American community. Unfortunately, Columbus has become unpopular as of late, facing numerous attempts to be replaced or renamed.

Many people assume Columbus Day is to celebrate Columbus the man, and by extension his accomplishments both good and ill. With the growing vilification of Columbus, people are erasing the holiday, not due to its relation to Italian Americans, but to object to the now tarnished image of Columbus. If these protesters were aware that Columbus Day was founded by various Italian communities nationwide as a reaction to the 1891 lynching of eleven innocent Italians in New Orleans, then Columbus Day would be seen in a different light. Columbus Day was created in opposition to violence and oppression to reinforce the link between Italian Americans and their belonging to the US during a time when they were considered both inferior and not Americans. One of the reasons for the current resistance to the holiday is due to a lack of awareness around the history of Columbus Day, and a misunderstanding of who the holiday is meant to celebrate: the Italian American communities across the nation. The best way to solve this problem is to advocate for the education of Columbus Day’s history.

My experience teaching Italian to in our family language learning center has shown me that telling people they are wrong rarely works when trying to correct any misguided behavior. Instead, you must show the student your reasoning, and allow them to reach their own conclusions. In the case of Columbus Day the best way to change people’s attitude on the holiday is to show them what Columbus represents to the Italian-American community. First, we must make the hardships and prejudice faced by many Italian American immigrants in the late 19th century better known, since these are the problems that inspired the creation of Columbus Day. We must explain that Columbus Day was founded in 1892, in opposition to numerous mass lynchings of Italians in the U.S. including the one in New Orleans the year before. The need for a holiday that promotes Italian American Heritage can be further reinforced through films about the Italian American experience like the recently released movie, Cabrini, directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, a film that explores the hardships faced by Italian Americans in the not-so-distant past. Lastly, we should consider distancing the holiday from Columbus the man, although it has not been proven that he personally contributed to the slaughter of native Americans, we must still be aware of the way many people in those communities view his arrival in America as the first domino that started their fall.

I believe we can preserve the legacy of Columbus Day in the same way we created it all those years ago. With patient understanding and a unified vision the Italian American community that is well poised to overcome these challenges. Even if our holiday needs to be reinvented, or rebuilt from the ground up (perhaps commemorating an Italian closer to the present like Cabrini), I am certain our community will prevail.