Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked Italian Heritage Month by not naming any of the towering figures of Italian-American history — not an inventor, not a jurist, not a soldier. He picked a congressman the FBI kept files on during the Cold War.
In a post on X, the mayor wrote: "Happy Italian Heritage Month, New York. Here's continuing to fight for Vito Marcantonio's vision of a government that works for all working people."
That single sentence set off a firestorm in New York City's Italian-American community, and Queens Councilwoman Vickie Paladino led the charge.
"Of all the great men and women of Italian descent who've contributed to New York City and the United States, this is the idiot he picks," Paladino wrote on X, according to reporting from Fox News Politics.
The councilwoman contrasted the mayor's tribute with her own family history. Her father fought in World War II against Italian forces under Benito Mussolini, she wrote, while her mother raised five children alone and worked in a button factory.
Who Was Vito Marcantonio?
Marcantonio represented East Harlem in Congress for seven terms. According to Fox News Politics, he was elected first as a Republican and later became the standard-bearer of the left-wing American Labor Party.
His record was not merely progressive. During the Korean War, Marcantonio opposed U.S. involvement — a position that put him on the wrong side of a conflict against communist expansion. He also did legal work for the Communist Party, which drew FBI attention. The bureau maintained files on him throughout the Cold War era, per Fox News Politics.
For the mayor of New York to lift up that record, on a month meant to celebrate Italian contributions to America, struck Paladino — and many others online — as propaganda dressed up as heritage.
Defending the Italian-American Story — Not Rewriting It
Italian Heritage Month is supposed to recognize the millions of Italian immigrants and their descendants who built churches, small businesses, unions, and neighborhoods in this city and across the country. It is a story of faith, family, hard work, and assimilation into a nation that — for all its struggles — offered freedom that Italy often did not.
That story includes men like Paladino's father, who put on a uniform to fight fascism, not to celebrate it.
Instead of pointing a spotlight there, the mayor pointed it at a man whose record includes opposing a war against communist aggression and providing legal cover to the American Communist Party.
It is not yet known whether the mayor or his office has responded to Paladino's criticism. As of this writing, no public comment from City Hall has surfaced.
What Paladino Is Really Saying
Paladino has represented her Queens district with a blunt, no-nonsense style that has made her a fixture of local politics. Her rebuke of the mayor wasn't just about one post. It was about what that post says regarding who the Left chooses to lift up.
She didn't invent the controversy. The facts about Marcantonio are in the historical record — including his party affiliation and the FBI's interest in him, per Fox News Politics.
The dispute broke out on social media, where the battle over American memory increasingly rages. According to Jammin 99.9 (WKXB FM), the mayor's post drew sharp criticism across the platform before Paladino weighed in.
For Italian-American families in Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx — many of whom lost relatives fighting Axis powers or who fled communist regimes in Eastern Europe — the timing and the choice were a slap, not a salute.
Our Take
This is the playbook, folks. Take a month meant to honor Italians — hard-working, church-going, patriotic Americans whose grandparents and great-grandparents came here with nothing — and hand it to a congressman the FBI watched for communist ties.
Why? Because the Left cannot celebrate America. It cannot say: this country, for all its flaws, was a light on a hill for millions escaping poverty and tyranny. So it hijacks the moment and rewrites the script. Your resilience becomes their revolution. Your father's WWII service — the man who fought Mussolini — gets erased by a post praising Vito Marcantonio.
Councilwoman Paladino gets it. She didn't read a poll or check with consultants. She said what hundreds of thousands of Italian-American New Yorkers are thinking: of all the great men and women you could have honored, you picked this one.
And notice the silence. No apology from City Hall. No clarification. That tells you it was not a mistake. This was a message to the base.
So here is the question for every Italian-American — and every American — voter in this city:
If the mayor will not honor your history, why would he honor your future? Remember that in November.
