Mayor David N. Cicilline

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We are gathered today to honor the memory and the contributions of a man and a people. Today we celebrate the vision and deeds of Christopher Columbus, and the sacrifice and lasting contributions of the millions of Italians who followed him, over hundreds of years, to America.

Like many of you, I am the descendant of Italian immigrants, people who in the old world were peasants and artisans. Like many of you, I also look back into my ancestry and find people of other cultures and ethnicities.

But when we look back on Columbus’s legacy, we find that it is much wider than any of ours. In order to do him justice, we have to consider the lives of all those that he affected. A genuine tribute to Columbus embraces not only the Italians, but also the Irish, and the Africans… the Poles, the Mexicans, and the Chinese… the Portuguese, the Pakistanis and the Dominicans…

This is the true legacy of Columbus.

When we look at Columbus in this way, I think we can see four lessons pretty clearly.

Lesson Number One – There is Nothing Easy About the American Immigrant’s Way of Life. The experience of Italian-Americans in American history is often romanticized. These were good, honest people, who lived simply, worked hard, and prospered. And this is true, in the simplest sense. But behind this truth is the harsher reality -- that Italian immigrants came to America and found out that the streets were not, in fact, paved with gold.

Departing Italy amid waves of European economic, political, and social upheaval, hoping for a brighter future, Italians arrived in this country without wealth, family or special opportunity. They encountered great hardship, poverty, and discrimination. They were denied access to all but the most menial and dangerous jobs, reviled for their religious and cultural practices, and shunned by Americans of many other ethnicities.

The second lesson I draw from my ancestry is this: the key to success is building community. When the first Italian immigrants arrived in this country in large numbers in the 1880s, they immediately clustered in communities of other Italians. They formed neighborhoods and associations, built up local economies, preserved traditional values, and promoted education and culture.

The third lesson I draw from my ancestors is this: while it is true that looking after your own people is a cardinal rule, in the end, it is not enough. You must reach beyond yourself and your world. The full story of how Italians became Americans includes the Italian-American people’s increasing engagement in service to others, beyond their own community. As the years went by, and their resources and opportunities grew, individual leaders in the Italian-American community looked beyond their own community’s struggles, and sought justice for others.

They served in the military, defending the rights of all Americans. They supported the rights of workers of all ethnicities not to be exploited by harsh labor conditions. They backed universal suffrage for women. They opposed segregation. They participated in anti-defamation efforts on behalf of others who had experienced the sharp edge of prejudice. They became active in electoral politics. They became civic leaders and philanthropists.

This is the final lesson of the Italian-American immigrant experience: Given time and opportunity, immigrants and their children will become the leaders of the future. We need look no further than this podium to see leaders in government, public service, business, education, philanthropy, and the arts – each of whom draws on the rich, difficult and shared experience of American immigration.

This brings us to the present day. In the United States, roughly one in ten residents is an immigrant. In the state of Rhode Island, that figure is closer to one in eight, and in Providence, nearly half of all families speak a language other than English in the home.

The immigrants of 21st Century America are from all over the globe: from Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. They speak Cantonese and Tagalog, Spanish, Creole and Yoruba.

Ironically, despite many differences, over the past two hundred years, the experience of being an immigrant in America has not changed all that much.

Today, babies and young children in American immigrant communities are much more likely than others to become ill and die – just as they were in my great grandparents’ generation.

In America today, the educational opportunities for immigrant populations are inferior to those that other children receive. With few exceptions, the schools in which we educate immigrant children have the most strained budgets, the oldest textbooks, the least experienced staff, and the most decrepit buildings.

Now, as before, immigrant workers are far more likely than non-immigrants to be injured or killed in the workplace. Like the Italian workers of the 1890s, American immigrant workers toil in the most dangerous, life-threatening trades, with little training and no safety protections.

Worst of all, in a nation of people descended from immigrants, newcomers to America too often face cruel, racially motivated remarks, a bias in housing rentals, a hostile federal government, and behavior that demeans their culture and their origins.

Fortunately, many modern immigrants do what the successful immigrants of the past did: they draw strength from one another, build resources, and advance the welfare of their children and youth. Everywhere I go I see signs of the extraordinary industry and effort of our immigrant population. Many working immigrant parents are holding down two and even three jobs, all at minimum wage. In Providence and all over this country, immigrants are building community gardens, forming neighborhood associations, providing children with after school support, and pursuing educational opportunities.

One of the most remarkable things about immigrants to America is how much they are alike, even in their difference. Over and over, one encounters people whose features, native language, and nationality differ, but whose guiding principles are remarkably alike. Theirs is a culture -- and a life -- of unremitting hard work, devotion to family, and willingness to sacrifice for the benefit of others.

And so we have come full circle, back to Christopher Columbus, because when Columbus opened up the Americas to the rest of the world, he kindled a spark that still fires the imagination of the world’s people.

That fire was one of hope for a brighter future, and a willingness to risk everything to try for it. This is what moves the immigrant to leave his home for an unknown place.

That’s the challenge that Columbus really put in front of us. He opened a new world, and now that our ancestors and we have turned it into a nation with the greatest diversity in the history of the world, we need a new approach. What we need is something historically in short supply: we need the compassion, the intelligence, and the heart to treat the newcomers the way our ancestors should have been treated, the way we need and want to be treated ourselves.

So, as Americans whose families are no longer subject to the trials of immigration, what can we do? What does the legacy of Christopher Columbus compel us to do?

We must acknowledge that we are not finished with the job of realizing America’s promise. We must finish the task that our ancestors began, and make America a place where the newcomer is no longer mistreated.

We must listen with new ears to the stories and the narratives that we hear, and we must respond in kind.

The next time you hear someone say – “These darn immigrants, why don’t they work harder?” - think about the great grandfather in your family who perhaps worked building the roads we drive on, or the grandmother who never got a chance to get an education because she was looking out for her family from first light until well after dark.

Then recognize that they were subject to the very same sentiment you are hearing expressed about the Honduran family down the block or the Nigerians in the next neighborhood over. It is just as misleading and inaccurate now as it was then.

When you hear grumbling about the immigrant family that does not speak English, recognize that this is more of the same. In America right now, there are virtually no children growing up who do not learn to speak English within a year or two of arriving in the US. This is as true now as it was for our ancestors. You know how it works -- the children are always the ones who become bilingual first, and most easily. They then become translators for their elders. Over time, the adults acquire sufficient fluency to function in their workplaces and their communities.

This is how it has always been. And what is so terribly wrong about that? How many of us had a grandparent or a great grandparent who could speak English only haltingly, if at all? Was he or she any less a contributor to her family, any less valued a part of her community?

We can help to finish the task at hand. By our deeds and by our words, we can show the newest generation of immigrants the respect and the compassion that our ancestors were denied. By our recognition of the humanity and the decency of the vast majority of American immigrants, we can speed their movement toward the achievement of prosperity and opportunity that is one of our country’s many wonders.

As we remember Columbus today, I believe we do him the greatest honor by reflecting on the millions of immigrants from around the globe who followed him here, particularly those who have just arrived.

Ultimately, the best legacy of Columbus… of the Italian-American people… and of our nation… lies in the work we do, as a people, to support the newest families in our midst, and their movement toward becoming Americans.

Thank you.

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