Every year around June 24th I write of the momentous event in 1497 when navigator Giovanni Caboto landed on North America (perhaps Newfoundland) and planted the flags of England and Venice. That small ceremony was the seminal event in the creation of our United States of America. Sadly, only a pitiful handful of Italian Americans even know it happened or what it meant.
Consider that the roots of our nation and society were transmitted by an Italian explorer who risked his life crossing the dark Atlantic using only one ship, paid for by him and his investors – including Italian merchants residing in Bristol, England. That voyage and landing gave King Henry VII the east coast of this continent which was ultimately divided into thirteen colonies governed by English laws, the English language, and upon a Greco-Roman-Christian foundation. Despite all the trials and tribulations that followed, we turned out pretty well. As proof, the world has beat a path to our door for centuries.
Caboto’s feat is only acknowledged in a couple of Canadian provinces. For us, Cabot should be in a pantheon of Italian demi-gods along with Columbus, Vespucci, and Verrazzano who sailing for different nations joined two worlds to unite the globe. But our pride is only a private matter.
Today’s America has redefined pride. It is no longer based on accomplishments. The year of American independence 1776 is now darkened by 1619, the arrival of the first Black slaves. The Civil War that cost the lives of 750,000 Euro-Americans and thousands more maimed over the issue of slavery has now been boiled down to “Juneteenth,” a day of notification – when slaves in Texas were brought word of emancipation by Union troops.
According to the PBS website, the Texas slaves “… had technically already been freed two-and-a-half years prior, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Slaveholders in Texas had kept the information to themselves…” FACT CHECK: The key word is “technically.” Lincoln’s proclamation didn’t free one slave until Union troops actually occupied slave states – Texas was the last one to succumb. No Blue Coats, no freedom.
Unlike Martin Luther King Day in January, which honors the achievements of a very heroic man who died for civil rights, Juneteenth is part of what I would term the ‘1619-Reparations Narrative.’ To wit: that America was only founded to preserve slavery, which continued unabated until Juneteenth, 1865; and that ‘slavery’ endured another century in other forms. Furthermore, until the victims’ descendants are fully compensated (“reparations”) the meter is still running. So, the backstory of Juneteenth is an annual reminder that the account hasn’t been settled. To reinforce this notion, the entire month of February has been designated Black History Month in schools and in the media.
Add to these annual reminders the daily dose of Black woes in health and poverty statistics, police confrontations, educational shortcomings, and abortion restrictions. America has been a hellhole for Blacks. It’s a miracle that such a thing as Black Pride exists.
No such problem exists in the LGBTQAI+ community. While Blacks are reorganizing American history, the queers (an approved term) and fellow travelers are taking on pronouns, vocabulary, and birth gender itself. The entire month of June is now dedicated to their PRIDE. Not the pride in some accomplishment, just the pride in being queer. They need a whole month to express themselves – last week one trans-lady being honored at the White House bared her new boobs on Biden’s front lawn – and create the illusion that they are far greater than 7% of the population. You would think half the country is queer based on the fawning media and woke corporations.
Now forgotten are the days of steamy bathhouses and anal orgies that led to HIV, AIDS, and now Monkey Pox. Here is what the LGBTQ coalition should be celebrating:
In 1995, [Dr. Robert] Gallo with his colleagues Paolo Lusso and Fiorenza Cocci published their discovery that chemokines, a class of naturally occurring compounds, are potent and specific HIV inhibitors. This discovery was heralded by Science magazine as one of the top scientific breakthroughs of the year. The role chemokines play in controlling the progression of HIV infection has influenced thinking on how AIDS works against the human immune system and led to a class of drugs used to treat HIV…” -Wikipedia
Dr. Gallo (now 86), like Giovanni Caboto, has no place in June celebrations while others control the narrative. -JLM
Thank you John for the timely reminder…regarding Giovanni Caboto. We know so little about him and his son and his significance in history. Considering too, the North Atlantic was a rough ocean only adds to his achievements. The Italian navigators’ role during the Renaissance corresponds to Silicon Valley today. It is amazing and hard to fathom the challenges these seafarers faced, and regardless of the nation, having navigators from the Italian Peninsula on board was more common than people may realize. Skill and knowledge were highly valued, and still are when something really counts…
I am reminded of the post-WWII think tank of former Nazi scientists that developed around Huntsville, a couple of years after the war. Just a mere couple of years earlier they were shooting missiles into the UK and their efforts were supported by slave labor, many included Italian prisoners and hostages of war. (A friend who is now in his 90s was one of the “guest laborers” and there is an oral history of his terrible experiences). It is amazing too how the sanitization process works, and then becomes official history
Ken
Another reason Cabot stands out is that he was originally from Gaeta, south of Rome. Gaeta was also the origin of Enrico Tonti who explored the American interior for the French. Some Italian Americans actually consider our explorers as all northerners and somehow different from we southern folk. It is a pernicious attitude that allows some to side with the anti-Columbus crowd – “Why defend a northern Italian?”
Isn’t it amazing that we have so little influence in the politics, the media etc. Other groups much smaller have greater influence.
Many of us know the reason, but it is very difficult to change the narrative. Education is one way and another important way is
to convince more Italian Americans to use their time, talent and money to educate the public. We have so many contributions but too many know about them.
the tragic sinking of the sub by the Titanic is a reminder of how risky the oceans really are….and it is often overlooked that Columbus sailed the “oceans blue” on some pretty bad ships….surplus from the reconquest… , and certainly seen better days…..it was only through his amazing skills as a navigator that he was able to make the journey and even return to tell the story…….all his critics couldn’t even row a boat in the ocean, much less navigate the Atlantic on sail power.