At the Valley Regional Lodge of the Sons of Italy, their Columbus Day celebration included nods to both Italian and American heritage. At the annual celebration of Columbus Day, they raised the flags of both the United States and Italy and enjoyed some of the best culinary offerings of their Italian homeland. Here, this holiday is as much a celebration of their heritage as it is the man credited for “discovering” the Americas.

“It’s important in the sense of its heritage and what the Italian culture and heritage has brought to us,” said Lorenzo Durante, president of Valley Regional lodge of the Sons of Italy. But there are some who say the decades-long tradition of honoring Columbus dishonors the people who were already living in the land he discovered.