October 12, 1492 marks the beginning of an extraordinary story.

October 12 is the day of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492.

530 years have passed.

This anniversary is celebrated throughout the Americas, which takes different names depending on the country: in Costa Rica it is the Día de las Culturas (Day of Cultures), in the Bahamas it is Discovery Day (Discovery Day), Día de la Hispanidad ( Hispanicity Day) in Spain and the Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Indigenous Resistance Day) in Venezuela.

It was first celebrated by Italian immigrants in San Francisco in 1869, then in 1937 the then president Franklin D. Roosvelt proclaimed Columbus Day a national holiday throughout the United States of America.

In the United States this festival is very popular especially by Italian Americans: public offices are closed and shows are held such as the Empire State Building in New York illuminated with the colors of the Italian flag and the Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, from 44th to 72nd street.

However, since 2017 something has broken, since the Los Angeles city council decided to abolish the national holiday to replace it with a day in memory of the "indigenous, aboriginal and native populations" victims of the genocide, according to many supporters of this initiative ( evidently ignorant), by the Genoese navigator, considered a symbol of ferocious European colonialism. 

During the protests that erupted following the killing of African American George Floyd, some statues of Christopher Columbus were pulled down by the demonstrators or removed by the authorities. 

The statues of Roosevelt in Portland, Oregon and of Lincoln (the president who abolished slavery) suffered the same fate.

In the wake of all this, the Order of the Sons of Italy in America, together with other important organizations in support of Americans of Italian descent, the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the ISDA, the NIAF and the UNICO National, have formed the National Columbus Foundation for Education.

The President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella himself, during his visit to the United States, was able to underline how Christopher Columbus opened horizons of knowledge, connecting continents hitherto unknown to each other.

Some conclusions are in order: given that there is no historical evidence linking the Italian navigator to the massacres that began well after; that 530 years have passed and that at this rate we will see the Colosseum demolished as a symbol of slavery and imperialism, the attempted abolition of Columbus Day is just the latest attack on the history, culture, values ​​and lifestyle that made the The United States and the Western world what they are.

The stakes are much broader.

From that 12 October 530 years ago an extraordinary story began that must be defended, protected and handed down for our good and for the future of the next generations.