nothin Alders Advance “Italian Heritage Day” | New Haven Independent

Alders Advance Italian Heritage Day”

Thomas Breen Photo

Will they be marching next in an Italian Heritage Parade?

In the mid-20th century, Italian immigrants Luisa DeLauro and Linda DiPaola Saracco operated sewing machines in a dress factory at State and Chapel Streets.

Thursday night, their politician daughters worked together to change Columbus Day in New Haven to Italian Heritage Day.”

DeLauro’s daughter, Rosa DeLauro, represents New Haven in the U.S. House of Representatives. Saracco’s daughter, Anna Festa, serves on the city’s Board of Alders. The pair convened at a Zoom meeting of City Services and Environmental Policy Committee, which Festa chairs, on Thursday evening.

After DeLauro and others testified in support of the new holiday, the committee alders voted unanimously in favor of the resolution.

Anna Festa (top) and Rosa DeLauro (bottom).

Italian Americans in New Haven have long treated Columbus Day, which falls on the second Monday of October, as an opportunity to celebrate Italian-American identity and culture. The historically Italian-American neighborhood of Wooster Square has hosted parades and celebrations on the national holiday, calling Christopher Columbus the first Italian immigrant” to the Americas.

In recent months, scrutiny has grown over this valorization of Columbus, who orchestrated the enslavement and genocide of Indigenous peoples including the Taino. In June, the City of New Haven removed a statue commemorating Columbus in Wooster Square Park —  amid resistance by some Italian-Americans from the county — and decided to rename the Columbus Family Academy school in Fair Haven.

The City Services and Environmental Policy committee has considered giving a new name to Columbus Day in the past; last year, it heard a proposal to call the day Indigenous People’s Day” and directly flip the celebration of Columbus’ colonization on its head.

More than 100 other municipalities across the country have recognized Indigenous People’s Day.

But at Thursday’s committee meeting, a series of testifiers argued that while Columbus Day may be an outdated moniker, the second Monday of October should remain an opportunity to celebrate their Italian-American community.

We’re not asking for anything other than what we’ve been celebrating for generations,” said Bill Iovanne.

Frank Caranno noted the particularly strong mark that Italian-Americans have left on New Haven, which is home to the highest percentage of Italian-Americans in the country. Italian immigrants played an essential role in New Haven’s historic manufacturing economy, he said, and powered Wooster Square’s world-famous pizza restaurants.

We now look and think differently [about Columbus], perhaps a little wiser and perhaps with a little more information,” Caranno said, but it doesn’t deny the fact that there is still much to be proud of.”

Columbus was chosen because he was a navigator, and we all came over,” said Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola. Now we know different.”

Still, DeCola criticized the challenge to Columbus Day. To strip us of our day was disrespectful,” he said. I’m still upset about that — but that’s my fight, my anger.”

Alders at Thursday’s meeting.

Many who spoke shared personal stories of parents who immigrated from Italy expecting a haven in America, only to face discrimination and poverty.

Speaking of her father, DeLauro said, he was filled with hopes and dreams, but he could not speak the English language nor write it. Laughed at, he left school because of that language barrier.” Her parents encountered job advertisements saying Catholics need not apply.”

Festa spoke of her mother, who literally thought the roads were painted gold” in the United States. When her mother arrived in New Haven, though, she was bullied for her Italian identity. She worked, Festa said, in the same dressmaking factory as DeLauro’s mother.

It’s significant for me to be able to cherish a holiday because of the sacrifices we had to make,” said Rosa Ferraro-Santana, an alder representing Fair Haven Heights. My mother and father came here with nothing. They had the clothes on their back.”

To the testifiers, celebrations of Italian culture in New Haven have been celebrations of persistence. Even as other immigrants assimilated, Festa said, her parents clung to their traditions. They continued to speak Italian and make homemade wine, pasta, and bread. They prepared meals that were at that time considered peasant food, and today are now appetizers and entrees at fancy restaurants,” Festa said with pride. Her mother still makes jars of tomato sauce each September.

As the alders discussed, Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes asked his fellow committee members whether the wording of the City’s labor agreements that guarantee Columbus Day off will need to change to acknowledge Italian Heritage Day instead.

Festa answered that if the resolution passes in New Haven, it won’t change the fact that Columbus Day remains a national holiday, so the contracts won’t need to be altered.

But renaming the holiday in New Haven would mean that future contracts would say Italian Heritage Day” rather than Columbus Day” when referring to the day off, DeCola added.

Newhallville/Prospect Hill/Dixwell Alder Steve Winter noted that while he supports Italian Heritage Day, he hopes that an Indigenous People’s Day will also be instituted. It is valuable to continue to honor Italian Americans’ contributions,” he said. At the same time, I don’t want to detract from the movement for Indigenous People’s Day … I think it’s important that we keep that in mind, if we’re moving forward with this item, that there’s still work to be done there.”

The resolution will go before the full Board of Alders with the committee’s unanimous recommendation.

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