As a proud son, through my beloved paternal grandfather, of the boot, I have to confess that I feel very conflicted about Columbus Day, a holiday set aside to honor a horrible guy of Italian, indeed (like myself) Ligurian descent, which has been reconfigured into a holiday celebrating Italian heritage. I have alternately proposed changing the holiday to Garibaldi Day or even Granata Day. Marconi would also be a great candidate to honor, if one had to name the holiday after a particular individual.
At any rate, I figure a great way to pay respect to my heritage is to post a video for a live 1980 performance by Claudio Villa of a beloved Italian standard, Cesare Cesarini's 1939 Sogna Firenze:
Those Florentine dreams sure are a lot nicer than the dreams Columbus had for looting the New World and enslaving its inhabitants! Here's a version sung by some guy named Pavarotti.
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4 comments:
You won't get Columbus day away from the Columbustians here in Ohiostan, anymore than you'll get their fireworks (or Santa Maria replica out of the Scioto River).
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Y'know, I might be missing some piece of historical arc, but I really don't think Columbus planned the whole thing. He really was small potatoes in the whole killing and looting thing, and by the standards of his day he wasn't too awful.
Hell, his crew didn't even know about the whole Smallpox immunity dealio...
Ah. My maternal grandmother (neé Campanella) was the first among her siblings to be born in these United Snakes. In Duluth. (Northern Italians.)
I'll rate for Marconi. We could all lie on the floor & listen to the radio all day.
P.S. In Duluth, Minn. in the 1880s!!
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