Statue’s Approval Heralded, With History

(Updated) The group charged with coming up with an Italian heritage-celebrating sculpture to replace the long-gone Christopher Columbus statue in Wooster Square Park gathered at the site of the past and future monuments on Tuesday to celebrate a major milestone for the project — and to kick off a $300,000 fundraising drive.

That was the scene Tuesday afternoon in Wooster Square Park just a few feet in front of the still-standing plinth near Chapel Street that, for over a century, held a statue of Christopher Columbus.

That statue was removed by the city in June 2020 after protests called attention to Columbus’ brutality toward the Native Taíno people on the island he claimed to discover. 

On Monday night, the Board of Alders unanimously voted in support of ​“accepting” a new Wooster Square monument to replace that former Columbus statue and to stand a few feet north of the to-remain-empty stone plinth. (See more below for a full article about that vote and for more background on the monument’s approval process.)

On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Justin Elicker joined a dozen members of the Wooster Square Monument Committee, including Co-Chair Bill Iovanne, to celebrate the alders’ vote and the yearslong process that has led to the committee winning its final needed city approval before it can start fundraising to get Branford-based artist Marc Massaro’s design actually built and installed.

“The sculpture depicts an immigrant family newly arrived in America,” Iovanne said about the new monument that should stand in that very spot of the park roughly 18 months from now. ​“The father, standing proud, holding his baggage in one hand and his infant son, pointing to the New World, in the other. The mother — the central fig of every family — standing with her arm gently draped around her daughter’s shoulder. The young girl holding onto a book. All with expressions of wonderment and excitement on their faces.”

Massaro said he intends to ​“not sleep for the next year” as he works on completing the sculpture, which he said will be made ​“in the traditional, classical manner.” He’ll first craft it in clay, and then send the life-sized version of the sculpture to a foundry, which will make molds of the clay sculpture and then cast it in bronze.

During his opening remarks at Tuesday’s presser, Mayor Elicker thanked the committee co-led by Iovanne and the late Laura Luzzi, as well as ​“the Italian-American community. This has not been an easy process, but you created space for a shared understanding of the injustices that impacted early immigrants from Italy to fight for inclusion and equity for all, and to ensure a brighter future for all new immigrants who choose to make New Haven their home.”

New Haven Register reporter Mark Zaretsky asked Iovanne on Tuesday if he thinks that the two years’ worth of work that his committee has led has helped heal any of the hurt felt those who came out to protest and those who came out to support the Columbus statue’s removal on that tense day in June 2020.

“June 24, 2020 was a very difficult day for not only the Italian American community, not only the City of New Haven, but, if you recall, there was a lot going on in the world,” Iovanne said. ​“New Haven was a small part of that.

“But there is a strong emotional tie to the statue of Columbus that stood here for almost 130 years. I felt it myself. I grew up just across the street. So, yes, seeing that sculpture be taken down hurt, and it did cause pain and anguish for a lo of people. We understand this. That’s emotion. That’s what we’re all about.”

Reflecting on the past two years’ worth of work by the monument committee, Iovanne continued: ​“There has been so much more good that has come out of this, and we are in a much better place two years later than we were two years ago. The main thing is to communicate and to stay connected with each other. We’re all one community. There’s no one that’s really any different or any better than anyone else. Our role in this life is to figure out how to get along, and it’s really not that difficult. You just have to be willing to try.”

Below is an earlier version of this article. To contribute to the $300,000 fundraising campaign for this new monument, go here.

Columbus Statue Replacement Wins Final OK

A years-in-the-making plan to put up a new bronze statue depicting Italian immigrants in Wooster Square Park won a critical and final needed city approval, as the Board of Alders signed off on an artwork to replace a long-gone controversial sculpture of Christopher Columbus.

Local legislators took that vote Monday night during the latest regular bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The meeting was held in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

In a voice vote, the alders unanimously approved an order ​“accepting” a new Wooster Square monument. That monument will stand a few feet away from a permanently empty stone pedestal that once held up the Columbus statue.

Monday’s vote comes over a year after the Wooster Square Monument Committee selected a statue design submitted by Branford-based artist Marc Massaro. The final approved design depicts an Italian father and mother with their younger son, pointing skyward, and older daughter, who holds a book and wears a cross. 

The monument, which was designed over many iterations of feedback and after much public debate, is titled ​“Indicando la via al futuro,” or ​“Pointing the way to the future.”

The statue will replace the sculpture of Christopher Columbus, which the city removed in June 2020 after protests called attention to Columbus’ brutality toward the Native Taíno people on the island he claimed to discover.

Read more about the final design here, and read more about a recent aldermanic committee review of the project here. Monday’s Board of Alders approval also comes after the new design racked up approvals from the Historic District Commission, the Parks Commission, and the Cultural Affairs Commission, in addition to the monument committee.

East Rock Alder Anna Festa, who chairs the City Services and Environmental Policy committee (CSEP), praised the statue on Monday night for honoring Italian immigrants to America like her own family. 

“They made the journey not on luxury ships, at times on the bottom of ships where disease, hunger, and lack of sanitation facilities existed, with only hope on their minds. Hope for a better future for themselves and their families,” Festa said. ​“Upon arrival, they were faced with prejudice and discrimination,” from name-calling to violence and murder.

Three other alders spoke up in support of the new monument on Monday before the full city legislature took a final vote.

Annex Alder Sal Punzo observed that ​“the new Wooster Square monument will create thought, conversation, discussions about history.”

Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola declared that the Columbus statue was ​“put up for the wrong reason” in 1892. ​“This is being put up for the right reason. This is what should have been done the first time,” he said.

Westville/Amity Alder and Majority Leader Richard Furlow added, ​“It’s good to see something for every culture and every race, and I’m grateful that they settled on something less offensive to the broader community.”

In a voice vote, the proposed statue won unanimous approval.

Bill Iovanne, who chaired the Wooster Square Monument Committee alongside the late Laura Luzzi, observed the final vote from the public pews.

“I couldn’t be more proud of an all-volunteer committee,” he said on Monday. ​“All good things take time.”

Next, the Monument Committee aims to raise $300,000 to fund the creation and installation of statue. They have a hard deadline of dedicating the statue within 18 months, Iovanne said. ​“We hope to do it sooner.”

According to an email press release sent out by the city’s spokesperson Lenny Speiller Tuesday morning, Iovanne plans on joining Mayor Justin Elicker and artist Marc Massaro among others in Wooster Square Park on Tuesday afternoon for a press conference celebrating the alders’ vote and kicking off the private fundraising campaign.

The monument committee ​“will also announce the Wooster Square Monument Project, a new fundraising campaign to raise the estimated $300,000 needed to commission the sculpture and to underwrite the total cost of the monument and will also share new community engagement initiatives related to the project,” Speiller’s email press release reads. ​“Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has agreed to serve as honorary chair of the fundraising committee. The WSMC estimates it will take approximately 18 months for the funds to be raised and for the monument to then be sculpted and installed. More information about the project can be found and donations can be made at: www.woostersquaremonument.com.”