There are 17 million people living in the United States who, thanks to historical reconstructions of their family register, would be entitled to be Italian citizens.

It is another Italy that extends our borders, a widespread Italy. For each of them, Made in Italy is synonymous with something well done, with taste, elegance, to perfection. They show their love for Italy by showing off their roots, culture and history.

The Italian Americans have climbed the steps of the American social, economic and cultural ladder: their experience is made of sacrifices, struggles, humiliations, labour, trust in themselves and in the land that welcomed them.

It was not easy for them at the beginning: discriminated for their origin and their religion, penalized for the conditions in which they reached Ellis Island and long victims of stereotypes.

Every sector of the life of the stars and stripes country - from sport to the economy, from art to medicine, from military to culture, from research to food, from architecture to entertainment, from education to commerce and so on - has been improved and exceptionally grew thanks to the work of the Italian Americans.

To celebrate their identity, they chose the hero who "discovered" America as their flag bearer: Christopher Columbus.

A pioneer who introduced Western civilization in places where the use of the wheel was unknown, at the end of the fifteenth century, while in Italy we lived the most fertile era of the entire history of man: the Renaissance.

A hero of ours, a man for whom the process of sanctification had been concluded positively, then interrupted only because of a son, recognized and loved, but born out of wedlock.

President Reagan said that Columbus could be defined as "the inventor of the American dream", the creator of an innovative project, able to raise funds to support his adventure, motivator of a team of colleagues, overcoming skepticism and mutiny, who then led to the successful achievement of the goal.

An explorer who lived almost 6 centuries ago and who today some intend to judge by the parameters of the 21st century, a dangerous exercise in style which we reject and which would lead to the destruction of every symbol of Western culture, first and foremost the American culture.

Today, in the age of political correctness, there is in fact a growing movement that has elected Columbus as "fifteenth-century mass murderer", making him a scapegoat for a war on European values, which have given America so much.

For this reason, it is necessary to organize, in Italy and in the United States, an opinion movement that defends our identity.

A movement that supports those who, with a lot of heart and passion, without coordination and means, have spontaneously activated themselves in the Italian American communities scattered throughout all 50 States.

Those communities that erected the 144 statues of Columbus in America, often paying for their construction and restoring the vandalized ones at their own expense, defending a value without any intention of opposition.

The first Columbus Day in Colorado was celebrated in 1907; in 1909 in Denver the first Columbus Day Parade saw Italian and Native American parades together.

On these values was promoted the federal holiday, which the Americans honor with parades and demonstrations in which our two flags wave together, as a tribute of gratitude to Italy.

With this initiative we also aim to promote events, offering tools and platforms of communication, useful to spread alternative topics to the theses of the states, counties and cities that cancel Columbus Day to replace it with Indigenous Day.

Celebrating the roots of Western civilization cannot by its nature and history be a way to oppose to anything, but it must be an opportunity for discussion and dialogue to share values in respect of all.

For this reason, we ask you to subscribe to this Manifesto, an expression of individual support for the Italian institutions that have recognized October 12 as the "National Day of Christopher Columbus" among the national and international celebration days, and for the Italian communities in the United States with whom we share the pride of our identity.