{"id":11439,"date":"2021-10-10T19:43:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T17:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=11439"},"modified":"2023-03-06T15:51:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T14:51:41","slug":"columbus-and-italian-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/columbus-and-italian-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus and Italian Heritage &#8211; FCI 046"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It\u2019s October, and every year I find myself reflecting\u2014and maybe scratching my head a little bit\u2014about the connection between Columbus and Italian Heritage Month. At first glance, the connection seems obvious enough. But it\u2019s my contention that if we dive a little deeper into this discussion, the relationship gets cloudier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1139425030&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/rick-zullo-1\" title=\"Rick Zullo\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Rick Zullo<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/rick-zullo-1\/columbus-and-italian-heritage-month\" title=\"Columbus and Italian Heritage Month - FCI 046\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Columbus and Italian Heritage Month &#8211; FCI 046<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>These thoughts first occurred to me several years ago when I was passing through <a href=\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/celebrating-columbus-day-in-genova\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Genova, Christopher\u2019s hometown<\/a> in the Liguria region of Northwest Italy. Ever since then there\u2019s been this nagging question that I can\u2019t quite reconcile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here it is in a nutshell: If most Italian-Americans trace their roots to Southern Italy (ex. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), why do they identify so strongly with a historical figure that came from a different country (The Maritime Republic of Genoa) 350 years before the unification of Italy? Two different political entities, two different cultures, two different languages. Not to mention that his famous expedition was funded under the flag of Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m I the only one who finds this connection misplaced and a bit odd?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-columbus-and-italian-heritage-related-topics\">Columbus and Italian Heritage \u2013 Related Topics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>During the podcast, I also reflected on <a href=\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/reverse-culture-shock-little-italy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a visit to Little Italy<\/a> in Manhattan several years ago. Interestingly, this was a three day stop-off as I traveled from Italy to my home in Florida, so I had a fresh perspective having just spent the entire summer in the Old Country. Which might explain my \u201creverse culture shock\u201d when, during my stroll down Mulberry Street, I couldn\u2019t find a decent cannolo or a single person that spoke any Italian. (There is an excellent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.italianamericanmuseum.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Italian American Museum<\/a>, however.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"946\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/italian-americans-in-new-york-946x495.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/italian-americans-in-new-york-946x495.jpg 946w, https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/italian-americans-in-new-york-400x209.jpg 400w, https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/italian-americans-in-new-york.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 946px) 100vw, 946px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And I\u2019m often confused about the tendency of some Italian-Americans to exalt fictional mafia characters like Don Corleone or Tony Soprano. This was on my mind recently as I watched the new HBO movie, \u201c<em>The Many Saints of Newark,\u201d<\/em> which premiered, NOT coincidently on the first day of Italian Heritage Month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Side note: a few minutes into the movie, I realized that the title comes from the main character\u2019s last name, Moltisanti, who happens to live in Newark. The story is mostly about him, Dickie Moltisanti and his family, so the title could have been \u201c<em>The Moltisanti\u2019s of Newark<\/em>,\u201d but interestingly the producer chose to translate his last name to English. I\u2019ll give him points for cleverness on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, this sort of ties into what I was saying earlier. I often find these tedious discussions on Facebook about fictional mafia characters, attempts to translate \u201cItalian\u201d words (which are almost always a bastardized mixture of dialect and nonna\u2019s pidgin-English), and the great debate between \u201csauce\u201d and \u201cgravy.\u201d (The correct answer: it\u2019s neither of those; it\u2019s <em>sugo<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I realize that this topic can be contentious, but during this month of recognizing Columbus and Italian Heritage, I think we\u2019re overdue for an honest look at what we\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/italian-american.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">identifying as Italian-American<\/a> so we can focus on the real foundations of our ancestry that we should all take pride in celebrating. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Buona festa a tutti!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5862\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-11439-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.soundcloud.com\/stream\/1139425030-rick-zullo-1-columbus-and-italian-heritage-month.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/feeds.soundcloud.com\/stream\/1139425030-rick-zullo-1-columbus-and-italian-heritage-month.mp3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/feeds.soundcloud.com\/stream\/1139425030-rick-zullo-1-columbus-and-italian-heritage-month.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/feeds.soundcloud.com\/stream\/1139425030-rick-zullo-1-columbus-and-italian-heritage-month.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw(&#039;https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?powerpress_pinw=11439-podcast&#039;);\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/feeds.soundcloud.com\/stream\/1139425030-rick-zullo-1-columbus-and-italian-heritage-month.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" download=\"1139425030-rick-zullo-1-columbus-and-italian-heritage-month.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Download<\/a> (Duration: 14:33 &#8212; 16.2MB) | <a href=\"#\" class=\"powerpress_link_e\" title=\"Embed\" onclick=\"return powerpress_show_embed('11439-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Embed<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_embed_box\" id=\"powerpress_embed_11439-podcast\" style=\"display: none;\"><input id=\"powerpress_embed_11439-podcast_t\" type=\"text\" value=\"&lt;iframe width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;30&quot; src=&quot;https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?powerpress_embed=11439-podcast&amp;amp;powerpress_player=mediaelement-audio&quot; title=&quot;Blubrry Podcast Player&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;no&quot;&gt;&lt;\/iframe&gt;\" onclick=\"javascript: this.select();\" onfocus=\"javascript: this.select();\" style=\"width: 70%;\" readOnly><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribebyemail.com\/rickzullo.com\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe by Email\" rel=\"nofollow\">Email<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/subscribe-to-italy-podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_more\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"More\" rel=\"nofollow\">More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s October, and every year I find myself reflecting\u2014and maybe scratching my head a little bit\u2014about the connection between Columbus and Italian Heritage Month. At first glance, the connection seems obvious enough. But it\u2019s my contention that if we dive a little deeper into this discussion, the relationship gets cloudier. Rick Zullo \u00b7 Columbus and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[304],"tags":[141,277,239,448],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12278,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11439\/revisions\/12278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}