纽约市市长缺席布鲁克林哥伦布日游行，意裔社区组织者失望
纽约市市长佐赫兰·马姆达尼10月10日（周六）缺席了布鲁克林一年一度的哥伦布日游行，也未回应皇后区阿斯托里亚类似活动组织者的邀请，引发纽约意裔社区的不满。据《纽约邮报》报道，这是马姆达尼与意裔社区之间的最新一次摩擦。
组织皇后区阿斯托里亚活动的意裔组织 FAIO 皇后区分会执行主任安吉·马卡姆表示，市长不出席“不会决定我们活动的成败”，但她强调：“人们总想改写历史。西班牙裔有一整个月，非裔有一整个月，我们只有一天。别动我们的这一天！”游行主席、刑事法院法官杰里·伊安内斯则批评市长等极左政客对哥伦布的蔑视是“被误导的”。
FAIO 布鲁克林分会副主席卡洛·西苏拉不愿直接评论市长的缺席，只表示为能主办这场“弘扬意裔传统、骄傲与文化的盛大庆典”而自豪。不少参加本森赫斯特游行的居民表示失望但不意外，一位72岁的退休教师说：“很失望，因为我们选他当市长，他本应代表每一个人。”
马姆达尼与意裔社区的龃龉由来已久：他2020年6月曾在社交媒体上对着皇后区一座哥伦布雕像竖中指并写道“拆了它”；今年7月，市政府发布的移民聚居区新地图漏掉了小意大利等知名族裔社区，引发抗议后市长才称名单“并非详尽无遗”。截至发稿，市长办公室未回应置评请求。
NYC Mayor Skips Brooklyn Columbus Day Parade, Ghosts Queens Organizers; Italian American Community Disappointed
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani skipped Brooklyn's annual Columbus Day Parade on Saturday, October 10, and ghosted organizers of a similar event in Astoria, Queens, drawing frustration from the city's Italian American community, the New York Post reported — the latest friction between Mamdani and Italian Americans.
Angie Markham, executive director of the Queens chapter of FAIO, which organizes the Astoria event, said the mayor's absence “isn't gonna make or break the event,” but added: “People wanna change history… The Spanish have a whole month. The blacks have a whole month. We have one day. Leave us alone!” Parade chairman Jerry Iannece, a criminal court judge, said the disdain for Columbus shown by Mamdani and other far-left politicians is “misguided.”
Carlo Scissura, vice chairman of FAIO of Brooklyn, declined to address the snub directly but said organizers are proud to host the annual parade, “a powerful celebration of Italian American heritage, pride and culture.” Many attendees at the Bensonhurst parade said they were disappointed but not shocked; one 72-year-old retired teacher said: “It's very disappointing because we elected him the mayor, and he is supposed to be representing everybody.”
Mamdani's friction with Italian Americans goes back years: in a June 2020 social media post he gave the middle finger to a Christopher Columbus statue in Queens and wrote “Take it down”; and in July his administration left Little Italy off a newly released city map of immigrant enclaves, prompting an outcry before the mayor insisted the list wasn't “exhaustive.” The Mayor's Office did not immediately return requests for comment.
图片来源：Ad Meskens，CC BY-SA 3.0（Wikimedia Commons）
