Columbus Day in Newport is less about the explorer, more about the city's Italian Americans

Donato D’Andrea’s second cousin in Florence built the bronze statue, and his father built the original marble base it stood on. Shirley Ripa’s mother helped raise the funds to build the statue. Mike Russo’s great-grandfather, Gabriel Russo, chaired the commission that welcomed the bronze statue to the city.

Monday, 70 years after a statue of Christopher Columbus was erected in the City of Newport, Columbus Day celebrations focused less on the controversial figure and more on the Italian Americans who brought the statue ashore and the legacy they left their descendants.

“The monument is never going to bring the community into anything, so we try to focus on food or Italian music or the festival in the park or the parade so that we can bring in the greater community of Newport because it's the greater community that the monument was gifted to and for because of their acceptance of the Italians who came back in the late 1800s, early 1900s,” Newport Festa Italiana Committee Chair Diane McCaffrey said.

From 2018 to 2021, 40 monuments to Christopher Columbus were removed across the United States, according to a Washington Post article. There was a nationwide movement to remove statues and monuments seen as honoring historical figures with ties to white supremacy and slavery, such as Confederate soldiers. Newport’s statue of the explorer, which stands on the median between the east and westbound lanes of Memorial Boulevard, is one of about 130 that remain standing.

While the statue’s existence in town has been the source of some controversy for years, and some called on the city to remove it in 2020, the statue is celebrated annually by Newport’s Italian-American community, not necessarily because of the man it depicts, but because of the effort it took to put up the statue in the first place.

“As we come before the statue of Columbus, we recognize the many, many Italian families who have settled in Newport, bringing and sharing their gifts and talent with our community,” City Councilwoman Jeanne Maria Napolitano said to the small crowd that gathered by the statue on Monday. “For one day in this world of divisiveness, I ask all the citizens of Newport to come together to express their thanks and gratitude for the generations who have given so generously of their time and their families.”

A monument committee established had commissioned Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli, an artist in Florence, Italy, to create the statue as a gift to the city. The effort took decades, starting in the 1930s, and the work of several Italian community members and groups to complete in 1953.

On Monday, six placards with 30 last names of the families involved in erecting the monument 70 years ago, were placed in front of the speaker's podium next to the statue itself. One by one, the descendants of people who were on the monument committee came forward to address a small crowd of onlookers about their connections to the statue and what it means to them.

“(My grandparents) were a big part of getting the statue put here in Newport,” Forum Lodge 391 president Greg Gizzi said. “They were both very proud Newporters, Americans and Italians. They loved being a part of the Italian American community, very proud to be Americans, but also loved their Italian heritage.”

Other speakers included McCaffrey, who gave a history of the statue, D’Andrea, Russo, Ripa, School Committee member Sandra Flowers and former Newport Mayor John Trifero. Former U.S. Rep. David Cicilline watched from the audience.

While the Columbus statue is typically the site of the closing event for Newport’s annual Columbus Day Parade, McCaffrey said the Newport Festa Italiana Committee was unable to organize a parade this year.

“It’s gotten too big for us to handle in two weeks, so ... we gave up the parade this year,” McCaffrey said. “I think it actually worked out pretty well because we would have never been able to do this kind of celebration for the 70th, so in a way it turned out better than one would have expected with no parade.”

With help from a sponsorship from the Forum Lodge 391, the parade will return next year.

As a part of the festivities on Monday, the Festa Italiana Committee also buried a time capsule behind the monument to be opened on the monument’s 100th anniversary in 2053.

The time capsule holds dozens of pieces of memorabilia spanning 70 years of the statue’s history. Among the items are a medallion from Fonderia Artistica Ferinando Marinelli, sleeves of photographs depicting 20 years of Festa Italiana events, mementos from descendants, a City of Newport tile, medallion, pineapple lapel pin and medal of honor, and various documents showcasing events throughout the monuments’ history, including a 2020 Newport Daily News article on the movement to remove the statue.

“To us, (the statue represents) our family,” McCaffrey said. “This is our legacy, this is our family, and so we’re really attached to this statue.”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport Italian Americans skip Columbus Day parade, honor forebears