Forget Columbus: Let's Remember Italian RadicalsTommi Avicolli-Meccabyline‚ Oct. 05‚ 2007In the late 1980's, I published an anti-Columbus op-ed in a South Philly weekly that received a lot of negative comments from readers who questioned why a “paesan” would attack their hero. It was precisely because I was a “paesan” that I questioned why Italian/Americans are so hung up on this man who didn’t “discover” a continent that already had many thriving civilizations. Though he was from Genoa, Christopher Columbus didn’t sail for Italy. There was no “Italy” at the time the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria left a Spanish port. Italy wasn’t a country until 1861. |