Reflections on Heritage and Historical Perspectives

My grandmother, Giuseppina Scianna, was born on October 12, 1893, in a small town called Lercara Friddi in Sicily. In 1910, she, along with her mother Rosa Barbusia and two siblings, made the journey to America, seeking to join their father Giuseppe Scianna, who had gone to New York to create a better future for the family.

Even though Grandma spoke limited English, I remember her expressing pride in being American. She often shared how, in her hometown, people thought America was a place where streets were paved with gold. One detail that always stuck with her was her birthday being on Columbus Day; to her, Columbus symbolized the opportunities that her family found in this new world.

But, you know, there’s a certain irony in how history treats figures like Christopher Columbus. Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York has not been shy about voicing his disdain for Columbus, famously expressing it in 2020 when he posed next to a statue of Columbus and proclaimed, “Take it down.”

This brings up an interesting question: who could we possibly choose to replace Columbus? Maybe someone like Mehmed II could fit the bill? After all, a notable piece of art, Michelangelo’s Pietà, made its way to New York via a ship named Cristoforo Colombo for the 1964 World’s Fair. It might seem fitting to install a statue of Mehmed the Conqueror in Astoria as a nod to historical consistency.

Of course, Mamdani’s viewpoint stems from a deep-rooted anti-colonial perspective, influenced by his father, a prominent scholar on colonialism, and his mother, a filmmaker highlighting themes of displacement and identity. It’s not a new lens he’s using—yet, the application of such views often feels a bit inconsistent.

Let’s consider the historical context: in January 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain. Subsequently, they sponsored Columbus’ journey across the Atlantic. History is messy, and such moral narratives can’t quite capture the complexity.

Columbus made four journeys across the Atlantic, first landing in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. Those voyages didn’t bring about the immediate existence of the Americas but initiated a prolonged encounter between Europe and the Western Hemisphere that irrevocably changed both. The Library of Congress has noted that while these encounters were often brutal, they were also transformative.

While Columbus was undoubtedly a skilled navigator whose journeys expanded European knowledge of geography, they also prompted the Columbian Exchange, moving crops like tomatoes and potatoes in one direction and introducing European plants, animals, technology, and diseases in the other. His writings reveal a strong Christian mission, and yet acknowledging the blemished nature of his legacy doesn’t mean we have to vilify him entirely.

What Mamdani proposes to replace contempt with reflection, though, is a broader question about the history of colonial conquests. If we’re holding Columbus accountable, then what about other conquests throughout history? Consider Sicily, where Muslim forces began their conquest in 827 and ruled until the Norman conquest in the 11th century. If conquest is the point of condemnation, history has its fair share of defendants.

The moral ledger Mamdani seems to miss is strikingly empty.

Now, his relationships with New York’s Italian-American community haven’t been the smoothest. With almost half a million residents claiming Italian roots, his administration’s immigrant map initially left out Little Italy. After backlash, he promised to rectify that, but it almost felt like an afterthought.

Then came the events around Columbus Day. This year, while Mamdani found time to recognize Italian Heritage Month by honoring socialist Representative Vito Marcantonio, he skipped the Columbus Day parade after attending a plethora of other cultural celebrations. It feels like a deliberate snub, perhaps suggesting that holidays honoring St. Patrick, Puerto Rican heritage, and Labor Day were worthy of his presence, while Columbus was not.

When Mamdani issued a statement on the recent Hamas attacks, he unequivocally condemned the violence while quickly pivoting to accusations against Israel, decrying “genocide” and “occupation.” It leads to a familiar comparison: Western powers are held under a magnifying glass, while conquests elsewhere fade into historical footnotes.

Interestingly, Mamdani actively supports Muslims achieving political representation, yet there seems to be a contradiction when considering the implication that they would desire to overthrow established American values. If my grandmother, Giuseppina Scianna, were alive today, she would likely honor Columbus during the parade, appalled at a mayor who might romanticize the Islamic conquests of Sicily yet refuses to recognize the great nation discovered by an Italian explorer that ultimately opened doors for generations of immigrant families like hers.