By Albert J. Cupo
Many efforts have been launched to eliminate Columbus Day. The Dante Alighieri Society, however, firmly believes that the voyages of Christopher Columbus represent a tremendous human achievement. Collectively, they symbolize a documented “first encounter.” That being said, the importance of Columbus’s voyages should never be trivialized. For that reason, The Dante Alighieri Society vehemently opposes any effort to rescind Columbus Day as a holiday or the removal of any monuments erected in Columbus’s honor.
Columbus Day was first celebrated in New York in 1792, the 300th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage. A century later, Congress designated Columbus Day a national holiday to be celebrated each October 12; and, in 1971, Columbus Day became a federal holiday observed on the second Monday of October. Throughout the years, Italian-Americans, Hispanics, and other groups have embraced this holiday as an occasion to celebrate their culture and ethnic heritage.
Unfortunately, Columbus has become a controversial figure and that controversy, many times fanned by political winds, has tarnished the seafarer’s reputation. Many proudly proclaim Columbus as a visionary who opened up a new land of opportunity for the oppressed masses. Others see him as an avaricious opportunist who massacred and spread disease among the indigenous people and institutionalized the slave trade in the Western Hemisphere. Without a doubt, there are those who would like to see Columbus erased from the annals of history.
The Dante Alighieri Society is not attempting to diminish the tragedies that happened during Columbus’s voyages to the New World. However, for many, the journeys of Christopher Columbus epitomize the voyages to freedom and a better life.
Columbus operated under different principles, convictions, traditions and societal norms that would be offensive by modern standards. Consequently, we should be careful about applying 21st-century thinking to the prevailing morality of the 15th and 16th centuries. As with all the great figures of the past, we need a deeper understanding of the person’s flaws. But we shouldn’t forget the tremendous changes that were made — changes that benefitted humanity as a whole.
Columbus truly is an inspiration to all immigrants: People from far-away lands who possess the courage and determination to take a chance, to start over, by coming to the “New World” with only a glimmer of hope and a sincere desire for a better future for themselves and their posterity. Never before have so many owed so much to just one individual: Christopher Columbus.
Yet, there is much more to Columbus than his voyages.
Columbus’s legacy and spirit represent inspiration, imagination and intensity. These three i’s of human achievement accompanied American pioneers such as Admiral Richard E. Byrd when he explored the polar regions; Doctor Jonas Salk when he founded a vaccine for polio; Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., when they struggled for equality and civil rights. Neil Armstrong demonstrated them when he became the first Earthling to walk on the lunar surface, and they were with Barrack Obama when he became the first Black American to be elected president, and they are currently with Kamala Harris when she became the first Black woman of South Asian heritage to hold the office of the vice presidency. Those three simple — yet powerful — words help us to reach our own dreams, goals and aspirations. Taken collectively, those three words mean hope for a better future.
The zeal of Columbus is with those dedicated professionals arduously seeking a cure for COVID-19 and with other visionaries searching for those answers that will benefit humanity. Columbus’s vigor and spirit of exploration are truly with those who boldly go “where no one has gone before.”
Christopher Columbus wasn’t about conquest; he was no conquistador. Columbus’s persistence to obtain support for a risky enterprise yielded results that went well beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. He opened a New World with unlimited potential and possibilities. For those reasons, we commemorate Christopher Columbus on the second Monday of October. His ingenuity, imagination, and inspiration have fostered a period of discovery that is still very much alive today.
Albert J. Cupo is president of the Dante Alighieri Society of Jersey City.
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