Oct 13, 2008 6:16 pm US/Central
Italian Immigrant: 'I Felt Like Columbus Felt'
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
As the city celebrated Columbus Day Monday, even Chicago's most famous Irishman, Mayor Richard Daley, was out at the 56th annual parade in his red, green and white. On Columbus Day, seemingly all the world's an Italian.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports the anniversary has special significance for one Chicagoan. On Columbus Day 54 years ago, Sam Farinella and his family felt like they were following in Columbus' proverbial wake when they sailed to Ellis Island. He was just 10 years old when they left Sicily for the three-week voyage.
"I never was within 20 miles of our town so to be out on the ocean for 21 days with no land in sight, I felt like Columbus felt," Farinella said.
He says he'll never forget seeing Lady Liberty as they floated into New York Harbor.
"I was impressed. I saluted it. We all did our little salutes," Farinella said.
And then the young Farinella tried to explain the meaning of the Statue of Liberty to his four younger siblings.
"I told them that this is America," he said. "This is what America represents, this statue right here."
It's an Italian-American story, but above all an American story made possible when an Italian navigator more than 500 years ago set out to discover a passage to an old world and instead found a new one.
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