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# 84 OCTOBER 17 , 2016
# 84 October 17
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THE INTERVIEW:
DONA DE SANCTIS
Defending Christopher Columbus and the Columbus Day
In the United States there are 144 places named
after Columbus: cities,
towns, lakes, rivers, provinces, villages, townships,
counties and of course
the District of Columbia.
America also has more
than 200 statues, busts,
monuments, memorials,
bas reliefs dedicated to
him; while it's impossible
to count paintings and
other artworks. Nevertheless, in the United States
today Christopher Columbus is under attack. It is something growing fast year
by year: municipalities are
canceling Columbus Day,
replacing it with Indigenous People's Day; op-ed
in the main newspapers
call Columbus "the Hitler
of the 15th century"; statues of Columbus are vandalized in several parts of
the country.
To know more about this
fundamental topic that is
dividing the Italian American community, we welcome today Dona De Sanctis, who is the only person
to have worked – and with
important responsibilities
By Umberto Mucci
- for the two biggest Italian American organizations, NIAF and OSIA. We
are very thankful to her for
this opportunity.
In 2005 the Order Sons of
Italy in America published
th
2016
the study "Columbus: Fact
vs. Fiction". Dona, you
were OSIA Deputy Executive Director at that time,
and you were the one who
prepared the study. Please tell us more about this
I researched and wrote
this study about 12 years
ago because, like many
Italian Americans, I was
concerned about the way
Columbus was being taught in American schools. When I was growing
up in New York City, my
teachers presented Columbus as an intrepid
explorer, who believed in
himself and his abilities.
He proved the earth was
round and that one could
sail across a huge ocean
and survive. His character
was something we were
supposed to admire and
emulate.
Today, however, he is depicted as a cruel, bloodthirsty exploiter of native
cultures and has become
the poster boy for man's
inhumanity to man. His
character was defamed
and his accomplishments demeaned. I wanted to
set the record straight.
This study is now on the
osia.org website and can
be downloaded for free. I
have heard that some teachers use it to give a more
balanced portrayal of Columbus than is now found
in the textbooks our children study from. Parents
should download the study and discuss it with their
children … especially in
October.
The study also stresses
how unfair it is to judge a
15th century man by 21st
century values. In Columbus's time, Europeans suffered often-gruesome fates: they were drawn and
quartered; burned at the
stake (Joan of Arc), thrown
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WE THE ITALIANS | 33
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