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New Haven Committee Selects Italian Immigrant Monument To Replace Columbus Statue

New Haven’s Wooster Square may soon have a new monument to represent the experience of Italian immigrants. It will replace a statue of Christopher Columbus — removed last year amid protests.

The monument is by Italian-American sculptor Marc-Anthony Massaro. It shows a family of Italian immigrants arriving in America with suitcases.

Frank Carrano is a historian and a member of the committee that chose the monument. He said the monument will also include panels that show the immigrant experience.

“From the point at which people left Italy, got on a boat and traveled here. And the hardships they endured, and also the successes they were able to achieve by hard work and supporting each other,” Cerrano said of the content of the panels.

Wooster Square is a historically Italian-American community. Its Columbus statue stood for more than a century until the city took it down during protests against racial injustice.

Officials said the new monument will take about 18 months to complete, and still needs approval from four other city boards.

Copyright 2021 WSHU. To see more, visit WSHU.

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He fell in love with sound-rich radio storytelling while working as an assistant reporter at KBIA public radio in Columbia, Missouri. Before coming back to radio, he worked in digital journalism as the editor of Newtown Patch. As a freelance reporter, his work for WSHU aired nationally on NPR. Davis is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism; he started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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