In Columbus’ Wake, a Wave of Pride

Rose Pintozzi just couldn’t hold back. She heard the familiar rhythm of one of Italy’s most beloved folk dances, the tarantella, sprang up from her seat and twirled herself around, clapping her hands above her head.

“This is my tradition. This is me!” said Pintozzi. “This is a great holiday for Italians, and I feel spirited.”

Pintozzi joined about 300 other Italian-Americans who gathered Monday at the courtyard of the county Hall of Administration to celebrate their favorite son--Christopher Columbus. His discovery of the New World is significant enough to warrant a day off work for thousands of government and bank employees, leaving freeways pleasantly unclogged.

‘Deserves a Parade’

But it’s not popular enough for a parade, an omission Italians in Southern California are determined to change.

“We are working on that right now,” said Philip Bartenetti, president of the Federated Italo-Americans of Southern California, which represents about 50,000 members of 60 Italian social and civic organizations. “Columbus Day deserves a parade just like every other holiday.”

The target year for a Los Angeles Columbus Day Parade is 1992, which rhymes with 1492, the year Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

“It’s hard in Los Angeles because we are all so dispersed,” Bartenetti said. “We don’t have a focal point in the community like cities in the East.”

He said, though, that the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage has become a rallying point for federation members. Early plans call for a regatta and parade in San Pedro.

Cultural Pride

In the meantime, the organization’s annual Columbus Day gathering has grown in popularity from a handful of participants several years ago to a gathering Monday of hundreds of local Italian-Americans who used the holiday to showcase cultural pride.

With song, dance and pizza, the crowd cheered the Admiral of the Ocean Sea for his spirit of adventure and courage.

“We all need inspirational heroes,” said Norman Thrower, a professor of geography at UCLA. “Columbus lifted us up from the routine of life and showed us adventures of the world.”

Never mind that historians say other mariners--the Norsemen, the Swedes, the Danes--were the first to see the New World, or that Columbus really didn’t really discover a new continent but rather made landfall in the Bahamas.

‘The One That Really Counts’

“The important thing is that his discovery is the one that really counts,” said Alberto Boniver, Italy’s consul general in Los Angeles.

To honor the explorer, the Sons of Italy laid a wreath at the foot of a Columbus statue they donated to the courtyard in 1973. Members of the Italian Catholic Federation’s Burbank chapter performed a round of folk dances. Thirty children of San Pedro’s Italian-American Club came dressed in colorful costumes representing about 20 regions of Italy.

And the Woodrow Wilson High School Band learned to play the Italian national anthem.

“It’s a different kind of music--real short notes, kind of like a march,” said 16-year old Ralph Sanchez. “I always knew that Columbus discovered America, but I didn’t know how much it meant to Italians. They got into this thing, singing and dancing. I guess they are really proud to be Italian.”

In the end, it was a real estate attorney who stole the show: Rocco Liberio as Columbus. He wore gray tights, short pants that ballooned at his thigh, a white ruffled shirt, a long maroon-and-gold vest and a feathered cap.

“It must be my authentic Italian face and beard,” he said as Columbus fans crowded around him for pictures.