Happy “Vespucci Day”!

Columbus Day is being observed in the U.S. today and is generally seen through his “discovery” of the New World. Yet there has been a dark side to Columbus’ legacy since he was a harbinger of disease and death to millions of natives.

Columbus Day is commemorated as a day of Italian-American pride with celebrations being held nationwide. Those of Italian heritage deserve a day to honor their background but would “Vespucci Day” be more appropriate? As I wrote two years ago today:

The reality is that it is very difficult to extricate the positive myths surrounding Christopher Columbus from the American psyche...

Nonetheless, I propose renaming Columbus Day in favor of Italian explorers whose contributions were not as tainted as Christopher Columbus (who may not have been Italian by birthright). A case could be made for cartographer and explorer Amerigo Vespucci, whose name gave birth to calling the western hemisphere “America.” Why not Antonio Pigafetta who was one of a handful of survivors from Ferdinand Magellan’s famed voyage around the world between 1519 and 1522 or Giovanni da Verrazano- the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America. Surely a strong case could be made for Giovanni Caboto (more commonly known as John Cabot) who was Genoa-born and lays claim to being the first European explorer to set foot on the North American mainland since the Vikings.

These gentlemen are not only sources of Italian pride but also beacons of discovery and exploration whose legacies carry far less of a stigma than Christopher Columbus.

What do you think?

Image- MSNBC
Sources- The Latin Americanist, CNN, Wikipedia, America.gov, Thinkquest, BBA Communications