Politics

Park District Asks Chicagoans to Decide What Statue Should Replace Columbus in Little Italy

Chicagoans can vote through Sunday to pick a notable Italian to be honored with a statue in Little Italy’s Arrigo Park, where a statue of Christopher Columbus once stood.

Eight notable Italian Americans are finalists in a little-advertised contest for the honor:

• Amerigo Vespucci, the explorer after whom America is named.
• Antonin Scalia, a former U.S. Supreme Court justice appointed by former President Ronald Reagan.
• Enrico Fermi, the creator of the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago.
• Florence Scala, an activist who challenged the construction of the University of Illinois at Chicago in the early 1960s in Little Italy and served at Hull House.
• Maria Montessori, a physician and educator who developed a new way of teaching very young children through play and hands-on activities.
• Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, who served poor Italian immigrants in Chicago.
• Phillip Mazzei, who aided the American Revolution and is credited with inspiring former President Thomas Jefferson to include the phrase “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence.
• Renato Dulbecco, a virologist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering that some viruses can cause cancer.

Ballots can be cast here.

The nominees, selected after Chicagoans were invited to nominate people with Italian heritage who have been deceased for at least 10 years, all contributed to the nation’s civic life, left a legacy of “historical and cultural significance” while demonstrating “integrity and enduring impact.”

Scalia, who helped push the Supreme Court to the right, died on Feb. 13, 2016, making it unclear whether he is eligible to be considered since he has not yet been dead for a decade. Scalia served as a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School from 1977 to 1982.

An agreement between Chicago’s Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans and the Chicago Park District returned the Columbus statue that stood in Arrigo Park since 1966 to the group, which plans to display it inside a building in Chicago that the joint committee is redeveloping into a museum on Taylor Street honoring Italian immigrants.

That deal called for Arrigo Park to become home to a monument to someone “who is known for their contributions to Chicago’s Italian American community,” according to a statement from the park district.

Ron Onesti, president of the committee, told WTTW News he had voted for St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. The former nun is often referred to as Mother Cabrini because she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Chicago has few public monuments dedicated to women or people of color, and city officials have yet to make good on promises to correct that imbalance.

Officials said only Chicagoans should vote in the contest, and should cast only one ballot. While the online form created on a Microsoft platform asks voters for their name and ZIP code, there is no mechanism to prevent people from outside the city from casting a ballot by creating a false name and picking a random Chicago zip code.

Park District officials said “submissions are monitored for irregular or duplicate voting patterns.”

Onesti said the contest was “far from foolproof.”

After the online vote, officials with the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events will “evaluate the top three candidates and make a final selection,” according to the online ballot.

Onesti said he did not know how that decision would be made, saying “its parameters are unclear.”

All three finalists will be a “strong candidate in their own right, with broad public support and a demonstrable legacy still felt in Chicago today,” officials said in a statement, adding that they “will consider how each candidate uniquely demonstrates the values outlined in the qualifying criteria.”

The Columbus statue in Arrigo Park was one of three Columbus statues in the city; all three were removed.

The Columbus statue removed from Grant Park will not return to the lakefront, where it stood from 1933 to 2020, park district officials said. A “public process” will determine “which new public art will call this corner of Grant Park home,” park district officials said.

The city’s third statue of Columbus spent 100 years on a plaza near the intersection of 92nd Street, Exchange Avenue and South Chicago Avenue on the city’s Far South Side. It was also removed, and no plans to display that statue have been announced.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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