![]() Berkeley, California, started a movement of cities voting to change Columbus Day to instead celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in 1992. Many cities in the United States, and even some states, have in recent years moved to change the focus of Columbus Day off its namesake to the Native Americans who were already living and thriving here prior to Columbus. Why celebrate such plundering and pillaging? Today, support for Columbus Day is waning, as recognition of the horrors of Columbus’ actions upon arrival to the Americas increases. In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt declared Columbus Day a federal holiday. ![]() Harrison wanted to draw attention to the positives that all Americans had to offer to the nation. The first official recoginition of Columbus Day came in 1892, when President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation that encouraged Americans to celebrate the diversity of America through the lens of the 400th anniversary. ![]() ![]() Since his arrival in the New World, the Columbian Exchange of goods and ideas started and has continued to today, with both positive and negative effects.Įven though Columbus sailed under the Spanish flag, he was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451, and his Italian heritage has been a point of pride for Italian-Americans since as early as 1792, the 300th anniversary of his journey across the Atlantic. Today, most school children learn about the different explorers that came to the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, including Christopher Columbus. Her new project deals with the history of Italian political exiles in the XIXth Century.“1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” It’s a rhyme many people remember from their elementary school days. Her book on the history of the Italian-American press ( Histoire de la presse italo-américaine du Risorgimento à la Grande Guerre) was just released. She is a member of the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique (LARCA UMR 8225) and her research focuses on the history of Italian immigration in the United States from the Risorgimento to WWII, the US ethnic press, and the diplomatic relationships between Italy and the US. He is currently an Andrew Carnegie Fellow.īénédicte Deschamps is associate professor at the Université de Paris (France) where she teaches US history, US Immigration History and Italian-American studies. His many publications include studies of Columbus, Renaissance Humanism, Machiavelli, and anti-Italian discrimination in the United States, and he co-edited the Routledge History of Italian Americans. William Connell, Professor of History and La Motta Chair in Italian Studies at Seton Hall University, studies a wide range of problems in Italian and Italian American History. ![]() Interviewees – William Connell, Professor and La Motta Chair, Department of History, Seton Hall University Bénédicte Deschamps, Associate Professor, Université de Paris, author of “Italian-Americans and Columbus Day: A Quest for Consensus between National and Group Identities, 1840-1910,” chapter in the anthology Celebrating Ethnicity and Nation: American Festive Culture from the Revolution to the Early 20th Century (2001) What are the origins of Columbus Day celebrations in the U.S.? Where and when was a holiday to honor Columbus as an American "founding father" first proposed? How did the holiday develop over time from local events to national and eventual federal holiday status? What role has the holiday played in the Italian American community? ![]()
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