This is the first story in a series covering the Italian-American experience in Portsmouth.
Two members of Portsmouth’s Italian American community spoke at the October 16, 2023 City Council meeting. They praised the Council’s proclamation establishing October as Italian Heritage month, while also decrying the loss of Columbus Day as a recognized City holiday.
Columbus Day was removed from the city calendar last year and replaced with Indigenous People’s Day, largely thanks to prompting by a social justice club at Portsmouth High School called We Speak.
Mayor McEachern read the proclamation that acknowledged the Italian presence in the community, dating back to the late 1800s. The proclamation honors the families “who have contributed so much to the rich Italian heritage of our city and the United States” and who “built Portsmouth and nourished their families and this city.”
The proclamation also noted the “misguided policy of urban renewal” that destroyed Portsmouth’s Italian neighborhood during the 1960s and 70s.
Local people of Italian descent still feel the sting of that loss. Mike Daigle, speaking at the Council meeting about the success of this summer’s Little Italy Carnival, said that 600 people visited the Friends of Italian Americans booth at the carnival.
Daigle said many people recalled the heartbreak of losing their homes and community during urban renewal.
A Renewed Interest in Local Italian History, Coupled with Disappointment
On one hand, Portsmouth seems to be taking steps toward acknowledging and appreciating its lost Italian community. The Carnival and the Italian language program for fifth grade students in the city demonstrate a renewed interest in the contributions of Italian immigrants.
Daigle said the Friends had facilitated the contribution of $1700 for books for the language program.
Additionally, a new mural is planned to adorn part of a new condominium project at 70 Maplewood Avenue, according to a story published November 6 in the Portsmouth Herald.
The mural will include a portrayal of Rose Fiandaca, a Sicilian immigrant and community leader in Portsmouth’s North End. The mural will also include text that notes the demolition of the Italian neighborhood.
On another hand, however, Italians in Portsmouth and elsewhere have expressed disappointment over the removal of Columbus Day from state and city calendars.
A local woman with Italian heritage, speaking after Daigle, read a letter she had written to the Council. She said, “I feel like I’ve lost the one nationally recognized day to openly celebrate my cultural roots because of the erasure of that in this fair city.” She said she’d learned a lot about Portsmouth’s Italian community and its displacement during the Portsmouth 400 celebrations. She said that “not having our day recognized here feels like one more slap…”
In a We Speak letter from May of 2022, students in the social justice group stated that “The main reason for this change [replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day] is due to the fact that we are continuing to celebrate a holiday that is distressing to Native American populations…”
Like those who spoke during the Council meeting, many Italian Americans have expressed their own distress about the change. The Friends of Italian Americans state on their website that the removal of Columbus Day “is a very hurtful discrimination against the Italian American community and, more broadly, to descendants of immigrants of all nationalities who appreciate and respect their heritage.” See: Friends of Italian Americans
A Unique Holiday for Italian Americans
Although indigenous groups have other celebrations (National Native American Heritage month takes place in November; Native American Day is celebrated in several Western states), Columbus Day is the only official day of recognition for descendants of Italian immigrants in the United States. President Benjamin Harrison declared a one-time observance of Columbus Day in 1892 – not to recognize Christopher Columbus as much as to promote reconciliation with the Italian community after the lynching of 11 Italians in the Crescent City hangings. In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt made a proclamation honoring Columbus Day, and President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation in 1968 that made Columbus Day a federal holiday, with observances beginning in 1971.
In changing the city calendar, the Council voted 8 – 1 in favor of removing Columbus Day and celebrating only Indigenous People’s Day. The one “nay” vote was Beth Moreau, who recognized the potential for hurt among Italian descendants. “I don’t want to discount anyone,” Moreau said, “so I guess my fear in doing this is, are we discounting other heritages of Portsmouth?” See It will be Indigenous Peoples Day only in Portsmouth.
The rest of the Council sided with the high school students, cancelling Columbus Day in Portsmouth.
