WHOSE COLUMBUS? WHOSE COLUMBUS DAY? - Part 1

(1) PHILADELPHIA 1876

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(1) PHILADELPHIA 1876

"Christopher Columbus? It's an Italian thing. You wouldn't understand!"

That is more or less true in Marconi Plaza. But it's also an American thing—and why stop there?

In South Philadelphia, Christopher Columbus is a home-town hero—born and raised right there in the 'hood.

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‍Meanwhile, what about that other Columbus, the one who lived five centuries ago?

On October 12, 1492 (according to the old Julian Calendar; that would be October 21, 1492 in the Gregorian Calendar that we use now), Cristoforo Colombo / Cristóbal Colón went ashore at Guanahani, an island in the Bahamas. He claimed all lands washed by that same ocean for the King and Queen of Spain—whatever those lands might be.

Columbus never set foot on the American landmass, so far as we know. Indeed, he probably never imagined that such a thing existed.

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For the Columbus who landed in Philadelphia, the 1876 World's Fair is the best place to begin.

The statue was officially dedicated on October 12, 1876 (the Julian date was inserted oddly into the Gregorian scheme). This was already an unofficial "Columbus Day" in Philadelphia, which Italian organizations celebrated with gala balls and other festive events.

There were four guests of honor at the dedication: John Frederick Hartranft (Governor of Pennsylvania),  William Stokley (Mayor of Philadelphia), Baron Alberto Blanc (Ambassador of the Kingdom of Italy) and Nunzio Finelli (President of the Columbus Monument Association).

We could argue that there were in fact four "Italians" involved—if we include the sculptor Emanuele Caroni and Christopher Columbus himself. Not one of them, however, was actually born  in a country called "Italy".

Ambassador Alberto Blanc hailed from Chambery in French-speaking Savoy (1835); he then shifted to the other side of a newly created border when his long-time rulers emerged as Kings of Italy.

Nunzio Finelli was born in that same year (1835) but over a thousand kilometers (650 miles) to the south, in Naples, then the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The sculptor Emanuele Caroni came from Rancate in Canton Ticino, Switzerland (1826); he then studied in Milan (an Austrian possession) and Florence (in the sovereign Grand Dukedom of Tuscany).

As for Cristoforo Colombo/Cristóbal Colón, he was probably born in 1451, in or near the city of Genoa, an independent "Republic" (merchant oligarchy, in fact). "Spain" was yet to become a modern territorial state. Columbus might have considered himself a subject of the Crown of Castile or else (in the feudal language of his time) "a servant of their Hispanic Majesties Ferdinand and Isabel".

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At the dedication, on 12 October 1876, National Identity was a work in progress for everyone involved—Italians, Americans and Italian-Americans alike.

Finelli's own story is stunningly American, with all its immigrant twists and turns. We can start at the end, with his obituary. (He died ten years later, on March 18, 1886.)

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Curiously enough, neither account connects him with the Columbus Monument, his most lasting achievement. The Times, however, offers a strong sense of his ebullient personality and involvement in community affairs.

While Finelli's "countrymen" were implicitly "Italian", he had relatively easy access to the local (mostly native) ascendancy. "Last night at both the Philadelphia and Union League Clubs his death was talked about with general regret."

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As noted in the obituaries, Finelli served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He joined the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, better known as Colonel Collis' Zouaves d'Afrique.

Mustered by Charles Henry Tucker Collis, a young Anglo-Irishman (b.1838), it attracted many European immigrants with its bold advertising and flashy North African-themed accoutrements.

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In two short years, Finelli emerged from the kitchen of the U.S. Constitution, passed through the kitchens of several select clubs, then into the kitchen of his commanding officer—for a time, at least.

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Nunzio Finelli was a particular favorite of Colonel Collis's wife, Septima Maria Levy—daughter of Jewish plantation (and presumably slave) owners in the South Carolina Low Country, later a popular author. She describes her young and consumately Neapolitan cook:

"Finelli was then a very young man, with a face as handsome as the famous "Neapolitan boy" in the picture [presumably Gustav Karl Ludwig Richter's, Neapolitan Fisher Boy] and a voice as sweet and sympathetic as [Pasquale] Brignoli's.

A most obliging disposition and a fondness for operatic music made him therefore a great acquisition to our little household, and many an omelette souffle was first beaten into snowflakes, while the dulcet and plaintive notes of "Ah che la morte" or "Spirito gentil," reaching the street, detained the spellbound passersby.

And sometimes when his friend and compatriot, Constantino Calarisi (another zouave), joined him in the kitchen, we were treated to a duet which even [Adelina] Patti would have applauded, for they were both very remarkable singers.

Poor Finelli! a few months later a bullet at the battle of Cedar Mountain [October 1862] terribly disfigured him, and when I next saw him the shape of his injured nose reminded me of the inhabitants of the Ghetto."

(Septima Maria Levy Collis, A Woman's War Record, 1861-1865; published 1889)

We can wonder what sort of Ghetto Mrs. Levy Collis had in mind, since she was born in Charleston, SC, to an affluent and privileged Anglo-Sephardic family.

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