Columbus Day is Monday, October 9, and for many Italian Americans the annual national holiday now comes with the sting of having to fight for their place in American society all over again. “In this age of cancel culture, we’ve gone from perpetuating the contributions Italians have made to America to defending them,” Ron Onesti, President of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, the umbrella group of some 60 Italian American groups in the Chicago area, told the DuPage Policy Journal.

Part of that defense is countering the woke mania that is pushing to distort or outright erase parts of American history. In 2020, for instance, the city removed statutes of Christopher Columbus in Grant and Arrigo parks. Onesti, a big player in the battle to get the statutes back, says their removal represents more than a shot at erasing the legacy of the 15th Century explorer.