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| Portrait bust of Giuseppe Garibaldi (left) and Antonio Meucci monument |
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My recent visit to the Staten Island Garibaldi-Meucci Museum did little to improve my opinion of Giuseppe Garibaldi. In fact, it confirmed a lot of what I already thought about the so-called "Eroe dei Due Mondi" or "Hero of the Two Worlds," and if anything, it actually lowered my opinion of him, something I thought impossible.
Not surprisingly, there was very little pertinent information about the Risorgimento, the forced unification of Italy, on hand. It was mostly the usual hyperbolic comparisons with George Washington and discredited propaganda about “liberating the South” and “Italian independence.” There was no shortage of illustrations, plaques and medals glorifying the exploits of the Red Shirts and their famous leader.
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| Masonic medal of Giuseppe Mazzini (left) and Antonio Meucci's death mask |
The museum also doesn't hide the fact that Freemasonry played an important part in Italian unification but does little to explain its subversive character. As usual, there is absolutely no mention of Southern Italy’s hardships and oppression following unification.
To the museum’s credit it actually has a few artifacts that belonged to Garibaldi. His red shirt and Turkish fez, along with a rifle, bayonet and saber from that period, are on display.
The museum's other namesake, Antonio Meucci, was a far more interesting figure to me, if only because I knew so little about him. The Florentine was a brilliant inventor, engineer and chemist, and according to the museum it was Meucci rather than Alexander Graham Bell who really invented the telephone. (Personally, I'm still not convinced.)
Like Garibaldi, Meucci was a Mason and conspirator in the Italian Unification Movement. He was imprisoned in 1833 and 1884 for revolutionary activities. In October 1835 he and his wife Ester fled Florence to Havana, Cuba. They left Cuba in 1850 for Staten Island, New York, and eked out a living as candle makers. It was here that Meucci befriended the exiled Garibaldi before his fated conquest of the independent and sovereign Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
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Masonic memorial plaque for Giuseppe Garibaldi Photos by New York Scugnizzo |
The museum also offers Italian lessons, which in itself is not a bad thing. Many people could benefit from them. However, it reflects a greater problem at large: so-called “proper” Italian is replacing the vernacular of Southern Italians. Often dismissed as vulgar dialects — Sicilian, Neapolitan, Calabrian, etc. — they are all in danger of becoming dead languages. It is simply another example of the cultural leveling taking place in modern Italy.
With all that said I would also like to point out that the history of the Meucci homestead and the relics it contains are interesting. The staff was courteous and professional. I only wish that they were more objective about Garibaldi and the Risorgimento.
