Like today's event, the invitation to celebrate Columbus Day at the White House with First Lady Jill Biden on October 12th “was all about heritage,” said Ralph A. Contini, national president of the Italian American service organization UNICO, told his audience in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.

The October 14th event held in my hometown, which has an Italian American community from Montazzoli, Italy dating back to the 1870s, was sponsored by the Scotch Plains-Fanwood UNICO chapter, the Italian American Club, and the Knights of Columbus. You can listen to the program here, which included stories from several Italian American residents, presentations on winemaking and Italian cooking, and essays read by two middle-school students who won UNICO's Italian Heritage Essay Contest this year.

Like many others, I didn't know that our First Lady was Italian American. Her great-grandparents, Gaetano and Concetta Giacoppa, from Messina, Sicily, "left everything they knew to chase the hope of this country's unlimited promise," said Mrs. Biden. "It wasn't easy, but they had faith that if they worked hard, they could create a good life in America." You can listen to her presentation here, which drew over 5 million views.

I was impressed when Dr. Biden brought up an important chapter in Italian American history at the White House dinner. "Our heritage is much more than our hospitality and food, isn’t it?" Her audience knew the answer to the question, but most Americans—and many Italian Americans—don’t know why Columbus Day was created. "It’s the Sicilians who were dragged from their cells and killed in New Orleans by an angry mob," she said. You can read more the horrific event that occurred on March 14, 1891 in my blog, “A Halloween Story More Shocking Than the Exorcist."

I looked up as Ralph Contini, UNICO's president, was wrapping up his remarks. There was a slight catch in his voice when he began talking about how his parents lived apart for the sake of building a new life in America and his eyes grew moist. At last year’s Columbus Day celebration in my hometown, I couldn’t control my tears when I began talking about my grandfather, Concezio Perrucci, and the hard work he did digging track for Central Jersey Railroad for a dollar a day.

As the program drew to a close, I thought back to the opening remarks given by Tom Donatelli, the event's master of ceremonies. The Columbus monument in front of town hall may be dedicated to Columbus, he said, but, “Our ancestors' journeys—their acts of courage, their fortitude, and their drive—were no less than that of the early explorers that found this part of the world. I wholeheartedly feel that this statue represents the voyages of our people—even more so than those of Columbus."

His words seemed to echo a little later as I listened to fifth- and sixth-graders Elena Nizzardo and Dominic Soliola read their essays on the grandparents and great-grandparents who started their families' stories in America.

What do you know about the immigrant ancestor who started your family’s story in America? Have you shared their story with your children and grandchildren? Would you share their stories with me?

 

 

 

 

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