Massachusetts

Columbus and Erikson: the North End and the Southern beginning

Columbus and Erikson: the North End and the Southern beginning

Mary McCleary

Unlike many American cities, Boston's celebration of Columbus Day is a major event. With big parades and brass bands, the city's tributes to Christopher Columbus celebrate Boston's rich Italian-American immigrant history by honoring Italy's most famous explorer. So why is there a huge monument to Leif Erikson on Commonwealth Avenue?

In 1887, Harvard Professor and philanthropist Eben Horsford commissioned this bronze statue from sculptor Anne Whitney. Horsford believed that Erikson founded his legendary settlement Vinland in Massachusetts 500 years before Columbus landed in the Americas. Like the other prominent Brahmins of his time, Horsford adopted Danish historian Carl Christian Rafn's theories that Erikson arrived in New England. Rafn's ideas gained momentum when the American professor and diplomat, Rasmus Anderson, published America Not Discovered by Columbus in 1874.

Gloria and Emilio Estefan celebrate immigrants in musical
Immigration

Gloria and Emilio Estefan celebrate immigrants in musical

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — With some U.S. presidential candidates on the campaign trail demonizing immigrants, a powerhouse husband-and-wife team, who both happen to be immigrants themselves, hope they can offer some balance – and some pop songs.

Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio, are shepherding their musical biography "On Your Feet!" to Broadway this fall. It's a show that celebrates two Cuban-Americans who embraced the American Dream and now own enough Grammy Awards to fill a swimming pool.

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