“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” -George Orwell, from his book 1984
These words are not a riddle or an abstract concept. For those of us who take pride in the millennial contributions of Italy to humanity, Orwell’s observation first hit home with the attacks of Christopher Columbus. Instead of a visionary who dared to cross the unknown Atlantic Ocean to link two halves of the globe, revisionists have made Columbus a skeleton in the Italian closet. History was turned on its head because we lost control of our own past.
While the more devoted among us fight to preserve Columbus statues and the Columbus holiday in cities and schools, other Italian Americans have no problem relegating Columbus to the dustbin of history in order to save “Columbus Day” parades. They mothball the Santa Maria and gas up the zeppole truck. It’s Italian Heritage Day sans the Admiral. That’s what Columbus Day is really about, so they tell us. So far, Columbus’s achievement is still recognized by the U.S. Congress despite calls to replace the federal holiday.
But we are fast losing control of the present. The American ‘mosaic’ is demanding more pieces of history. We have already witnessed on the local level how other ethnic groups control the present and have tinkered with the past, making Columbus the scapegoat for all Euro-American sins, and trashing 1492 as well as 1776 in favor of 1619 when the first Black slaves were brought here.
Everyone is revisiting the past. Israeli scientists claim that some modern Jews have Canaanite DNA, the indigenous people of Palestine whom Joshua smote during the Exodus. That would enhance Jewish claims that they were ‘indigenous’ people. Still, the search goes on, with little success, for Hebrew artifacts from that era. Ironically, the more they dig the more Italo-Roman homes, tombs, and temples they find. (Both Caesarea and Beirut were Roman colonies.)
We’re familiar with the Nordic claim that Vikings discovered America before Columbus. Fortunately for them, there’s no whistleblower that claims Vikings killed any natives or infected them with European diseases, so this paltry landing was enough to bring 1492 down a peg, and even overshadows Giovanni Caboto’s 1497 landing which is why we speak English and not Norwegian. In any event, archeologists have found no Viking burials or tools to suggest the Vikings stayed for very long. Nor did they bring the natives the wheel, wheat, iron, or horses as Columbus did. And they certainly didn’t inform the rest of the world of their ‘discovery.’
this iconic section of the Great Wall was built.
The Chinese are on a mission to revamp the past in order to prove ancient China was a light unto the nations and a benevolent neighbor. (Tibet was one of China’s many independent Central Asian neighbors until Communist troops marched in and never left.) The Chinese even have a Scottish shill named Gavin Menzies who wrote the book 1421 purporting that a Chinese fleet reached California that year. Menzies followed that drivel with 1434 suggesting that a Chinese fleet reached Venice to set in motion the Italian Renaissance. Even Orwell would wince at the gall of today’s gaslighters.
On cable TV, a Modern Marvels documentary revealed that the Great Wall of China was reimagined to glorify China’s past. “Only recently did the Chinese begin to regard this incredible structure with pride rather than shame.” First, the imposing wall we see on tourist posters isn’t very long or very old, only 500 years (compare that to Roman aqueducts, roads, and the Colosseum!). Second, it cost the lives of perhaps 400,000 Chinese laborers, many buried inside the wall. Third, the wall didn’t keep any invader out who had the money to bribe the gatekeepers. In fact, invading Mongols and Manchurians ruled China longer than the native Chinese did. Marco Polo actually worked for Kublai Khan the Mongol emperor.
As to the unification of China by Emperor Ch’in (Qin), it was one year after the Roman unification of Italy. Emperor Ch’in was as cruel and crazy as some of our Roman emperors but don’t expect any gruesome details of Chinese history to muck up Chinese New Year celebrations.
Unlike Italian Americans other ethnic groups don’t let anyone control their history. -JLM
Could not agree more with that last statement….I happen to be dong some Channel surfing and came upon a documentary on an Educational TV Channel about the tragic Triangle Shirt Factory Fire, in New Your around 1911, where immigrant workers were locked in a burning building several stories high. About 180 people perished. It highlighted many of the injustices towards immigrant labor of the time……the thing was it seemed to be produced from a Yiddish New York perceptive, and basically focused on Jewish immigrant labor, and excluded much mention of any Italian immigrant victims, They were a sizable number of victims. I believe all or most were woman. Event in the program when they listed some of the people who died, obviously many were Italian Americans. In fact, in labor history, the Triangle Fire helped foster a solidarity among immigrant labor, including Italian Americans. This program really changed the focus to basically one ethnic group…..I guess I expected more objectivity from whoever does a program on that horrible event….wrong again…..PS evidently, the building is still up and there are plans to design a monument to the victims…..I am now wondering how objective the monument will be.
As a community and part of the mosaic of American life, we have not done a good job at all in terms of how our heritage was a part of American History. It’s obvious from watching that TV program, no one is going to do this for us.
And now the latest Orwellian jargon , yesterday it was noted in the paper that in SF the city got a 3 M. grant from the Mellon Foundation to do an inventory of all the statues and plaques in the city, under a “Shaping Legacy project”(??????) . It may have started with Columbus but now we have added Lincoln, Washington, Francis Scot Keyes…U.S Grant. and the list is endless, reaching about 200 or so monuments. What a stupid waste of 3 Million dollars…..and will include recommendations , which of course begs the questions… By who’s standard and why, and if a statue is removed and one replacing it….who is to decide what is to replace it…..SF had a recall of 3 school board members because of this last year, and now comes the Mellon Foundation…..to just add more turmoil to an already fragmented city…
Another important aspect to remember in all of this is the Chinese do not allow any revisionist (aka de rigueur denigrations) of their storied past. All ancestors and historical figures are honored in their public schools including Genghis Khan. I think it safe to assume all statues in the country are graffiti free and still standing.
I have had a difficult time seeing how little political power we have and finding so many different opinions in the Italian American Community. Yes, we let others control our history.
We have more authors writing about the Italian American experience but not enough people reading those great additions. We have lost most of young Italian Americans because we do not have schools like other ethnic groups. Thank God there is a small core group like the Italic Institute that informs. We can’t afford to give up!