Filled with enthusiasm over the Italian American distinction, New York State Assembly Member Michael Benedetto is being celebrated this year as the grand marshal of the Morris Park Columbus Day parade.
Benedetto has lived most of his life in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx and has been marching in the local Columbus Day Parade for more than 20 years. For the community stalwart, the Columbus Day parade is a way to celebrate his Italian heritage.
“I’ve lived in this neighborhood all my life and I’m very proud of my Italian heritage,” Benedetto told the Bronx Times about being selected grand marshal. “I am being recognized for my efforts over the years. It’s a very proud thing.”
His familiarity with the East Bronx tracks back decades and long before his political career took shape in the early 2000s.
“I think I’ve represented this area and want to continue to represent this area, an area I love and that is just great,” he said. “It’s a good feeling to say ‘Hey, I’ve done something for the area that’s given me so much.'”
Benedetto, 76, has worked as an elementary and secondary school teacher for 35 years at Our Lady of Assumption School and P.S.160, The Walt Disney School. He focused his work on helping students with disabilities, helping facilitate the first special olympics and helping instruct other teachers about special education. He also contributed to his school’s talented and gifted program.
Apart from his teaching career, Benedetto also started the Throggs Neck Community Players, a local theater group, in addition to serving on Community Board 10 from 1975-1979. He also co-founded the Bronx Times Reporter newspaper in 1981.
One of the groups marching in this year’s Morris Park parade is the Laborers Union Local 79, which participates in a Columbus Day parade every year. Lenny Anselmo, a Local 79 union representative, agreed that the parade is a way of celebrating Italian heritage.
“We participated in the Ecuadorian parade, because we have so many Ecuadorian members, we participated in the African American Day parade recently because we have many African-American members,” Anselmo said. “Now, we’re doing the Italian parade because we have Italians also. We’re a very diverse union … and we’re celebrating our heritage.”
The Bronx Columbus Day Parade, which first kicked off in 1977, will take place on Sunday, Oct. 8 at 10:30 a.m, and t-shirts and food will be distributed.
“Much has been said over the years about the man whose name is affixed to this parade and to the day, and of some of the sins that he performed,” Benedetto said. “I think that it’s not so much (Christopher) Columbus the person, as Columbus the Italian who had the courage to sail out to uncharted waters and change the history of the world.”
Benedetto added that Christopher Columbus, the famed Italian explorer, is a symbol of Italian heritage and “the people who have succeeded in all forms of life.”
“And that’s what we’re celebrating with this parade and the activities that go on in and around October 12 every year,” he said, “without celebrating necessarily Columbus.”
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