Why Mahopac’s Columbus Parade Is an Insult Disguised as Tradition

The Columbus Day Parade has returned to Mahopac, complete with banners, floats, and speeches about “Italian pride.” But here’s the thing: Christopher Columbus wasn’t Italian-American — and he wasn’t even working for Italy.

He sailed under the flag of Spain, funded by Ferdinand and Isabella, after being rejected by his fellow Italians and by the Portuguese crown. The result wasn’t discovery — it was devastation. The reason most of South and Central America speak Spanish today isn’t because of Italian exploration. It’s because of the empire Columbus helped launch for Spain — one built on conquest, slavery, and the erasure of Indigenous civilizations.

The Myth of the Hero

For generations, Columbus was cast as a symbol of courage and curiosity — the bold explorer who “discovered” a new world. But to the people already living here, he was the beginning of a nightmare.

Columbus enslaved Indigenous people, cut off the hands of those who failed to bring him gold, and bragged about shipping human beings across the ocean like property. He left a legacy of violence that paved the way for centuries of colonization and genocide. That’s not exploration — that’s exploitation.

To parade in his honor today is to celebrate the man who opened the door to mass suffering — and then to call it “heritage.”

A Parade of Amnesia

When Mahopac’s parade winds down Route 6, it won’t just be a community event. It will be a public act of forgetting or just plain misinformation.

The same man being honored is the one who initiated the transatlantic slave trade, claimed entire lands for himself, and set in motion the destruction of Indigenous nations across the hemisphere.

To Indigenous descendants, this isn’t a celebration. It’s a slap in the face — a reminder that their ancestors’ pain is still being dressed up as pageantry.

Imagine throwing a party to honor the person who burned down your family’s house — and inviting their descendants to wave from the sidelines.

A Better Way to Celebrate Heritage

Italian culture deserves to be celebrated — through its art, food, science, and enduring humanism. But Columbus represents none of that. He wasn’t a figure of enlightenment or discovery. He was a mercenary for empire, and his actions reshaped the world in the worst possible ways.

There are countless Italians who genuinely represent creativity, beauty, and courage. Columbus represents the opposite — a history of cruelty carried out under a Spanish flag that turned vast, thriving continents into colonies.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Columbus didn’t “discover” America — he invaded it. What he brought wasn’t civilization but catastrophe. Entire languages, peoples, and cultures were wiped out in the centuries that followed, replaced by the sound of Spanish, the catholic cross of conquest, and the myth of “discovery” that still gets paraded today.

So when Mahopac celebrates “heritage,” the real question is — whose heritage? The explorer who served Spain? The empire that conquered? Or the propaganda that made genocide sound like glory? Mahopac’s Columbus Day Parade isn’t just outdated — it’s tone-deaf. It celebrates a man whose voyages unleashed centuries of oppression, while ignoring the Indigenous voices still fighting to be heard today and watching in horror and disbelief.