NYC Columbus Day parade goers get saucy over new claim that explorer was Jewish, not Italian: ‘We don’t care’
Christopher Columbus wasn’t actually Italian? Paesan-NO.
Italian Americans and Columbus Day parade goers Monday saucily waved off the claim that new DNA evidence shows the controversial explorer was a Sephardic Jew, likely from Spain.
“We don’t care,” said Cherie Corso, who attended the Manhattan parade with an Italian flag wrapped around her neck.
“He’s always going to be Italian.”
Corso wasn’t the only one who cut up the new claims as if they were a cold antipasto.
Everyone from the mayor of Genoa to Italian-American heritage groups agreed: they don’t care what the DNA says, Columbus was as Italian as spaghetti.
The debate began with a new study that bucked the widely, but not universally, held theory that Columbus hailed from Genoa, an independent republic on Italy’s northwest coast, before he sailed on behalf of Spain in 1492 and “discovered” the New World.
Spanish researchers pulled DNA from bones of Columbus’ corpse that indicated he had Sephardic heritage, hinting he was born in Spain and either concealed his Jewish identity or converted to Catholicism to avoid religious persecution, according to the BBC.
But attendees at the Columbus Day parade, where thousands draped themselves in Italian flag colors while dancing, flag waving and marching along Fifth Avenue, didn’t seem to care.
“It would not matter to me, as long as we celebrate,” said Diane di Stazzio, who marched with a giant Italian flag. “Because, I mean, if he’s Jewish, that’s great, but he’s still an Italian. Italian Jewish.”
Cindy Trimble, who came from Cold Spring for the parade, said she was just happy the Columbus Day parade hadn’t been canceled altogether because of disputes over the explorer’s brutal actions toward native Caribbeans, which include sending hundreds into slavery.
“I’m a weird combination too: I am Sicilian and my mother is Swedish,” she said. “So as long as we celebrate Columbus!”
“He discovered America so he can be whatever he wants,” said an Italian tourist at the parade.
The National Italian American Foundation, which supports a Columbus Day holiday as “a source of dignity and self-worth for Italian Americans,” argued the genetic study isn’t the whole historical story.
“NIAF adheres to the statement of Mayor Marco Bucci of Genoa which reads, ‘The State Archive of Genoa preserves dozens of documents, mostly letters and notarial acts, which allow us to assert Columbus’ Genoese origin and to reconstruct his entourage. No DNA test will ever surpass historical documentation,'” a statement from the group reads.
