Monument Unveiling Sees ​“La Via Al Futuro”

Four years to the month after hundreds of people filled Wooster Square Park to cheer and jeer at the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue, neighbors and politicians and dignitaries returned — to applaud the installation of a new monument honoring the city’s Italian-American immigrant experience. 

The ceremony took place on Sunday at the southern edge of Wooster Square Park.

The Wooster Square Monument Committee (WSMC) officially unveiled the new statue celebrating Italian-American heritage, history, and contributions to New Haven. In attendance, among many others, were U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Gov. Ned Lamont, Mayor Justin Elicker, New Haven State Sen. and President Pro Tem Martin Looney, Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, New Haven State Rep. Al Paolillo, Jr., WSMC Co-Chair Bill Iovanne, and the monument’s sculptor, Marc Anthony Massaro. 

“[Italian-Americans] escaped discrimination, and yes, they faced discrimination,” DeLauro, who grew up in Wooster Square, said at Sunday’s event. ​“But there is one thing that unifies the experiences of all immigrants. That is their hope.”

The effort has been four years in the making since the Elicker administration took down the Christopher Columbus statue after protests for racial and restorative justice in June 2020. Elicker then organized the WSMC to replace the Columbus statue with a new work celebrating New Haven’s Italian-American immigrants and history. The committee wound up choosing Marc Anthony Massaro’s ​“Indicando la via al futuro,” or ​“Pointing the way to the future.”

“We knew that the community was the key to the success of this beautiful sculpture,” Iovanne said on Sunday. ​“So we began with the community, and the community gave back to us. They gave us the input. They gave us the ideas.”

While the statue took Massaro 14 months to sculpt, the WSMC has fought for some four years to replace the monument, fundraising and clearing permits for the new statue, even as some members of Greater New Haven’s Italian-American community have sued and sued to try to get the Columbus statue put back in place.

Sunday’s event, however, focused not on any years-long acrimony, but instead on celebrating Italian-American culture and history in New Haven, highlighting the work of both the WSMC and Massaro.

“This beautiful artwork represents the dreams,” Paolillo, a grandson of Italian immigrants, said. ​“It represents the ambitions, it represents the persistence and opportunities of all immigrant experiences into this loving, passionate and compassionate community and city that we are all so proud to call home.”

The statue portrays an Italian-American family arriving in the United States. Massaro’s grandfather and family moved from Italy to Wooster Square in 1910. He based the monument on photographs of them. ​“This is not a contrived family,” Massaro said. ​“This is my family.”

Massaro went on to explain certain symbolism in the monument. Depicting a family looking off in the distance, Massaro wanted each member to be represented in a different emotional rendering — the father as the ​“stoic breadwinner,” the mother as a relieved ​“protector,” and the little boy as the ​“excited” future. 

The daughter, who stands in between her father and mother, stands and holds a book. ​“There was a deliberate choice in making the older child the daughter and not the son, because I wanted her holding a book,” Massaro said. ​“That book represents her, her opportunity to get an education in this country that she wouldn’t have been able to in the country she came from.”

Giancarlo DeStefanis, a member of the Greater New Haven Italian-American Committee who attended Sunday’s ceremony, said the statue makes him think of future generations. 

“It’s important for the next generation to see what preceded them,” DeStefanis said. ​“All of these things remind people that they came here not only to find a pot of gold, they came here to work and to better themselves.”

And for City Historian Michael Morand, the monument has significance even for those not of Italian-American heritage.

“I am not, many people here are not, directly of Italian heritage, but I feel so enriched living in a place that has and has preserved its Italian heritage so strongly,” Morand said. ​“All of us in New Haven can proudly say we have some Italian heritage that we share, even if we weren’t born to it, because those who were born to it, keep it and share it so well with everyone.”

Iovanne, in closing remarks, emphasized keeping family close because they are ​“all you have.” After the unveiling, families crowded around the statue to take pictures. In the background, Tony Vermiglio sang a cover of ​“Fly Me to the Moon” on a stage while people danced beneath him.