Chicago City Wire

After three statues of Columbus were toppled in July, another token to the city from an influential Italian, the Balbo Monument in Burnham has been flagged to possibly be removed.

Ron Onesti, president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans in Chicago, told Chicago City Wire that Mayor Lori Lightfoot put together a monuments and memorials commission consisting of approximately 30 community group representatives. He represents the Italian-American community on the committee. 

“First of all, they had to catalog the city’s art,” Onesti said. “If you went to the city, as a journalist, and asked them for a list of all the statues (before) they didn’t have that. Or all of the artwork, the plaques. They’ve been working on that.”

The committee identified 41 pieces that have questionable matters surrounding them. The three Columbus statues and the Balbo monument were on that list.

The Balbo Monument was a gift from Benito Mussolini to the city in 1934 during Chicago’s second World’s Fair (Chicago Century of Progress). It is a token in commemoration of the successful landing of Italian amphibious airplanes in Chicago in 1933 during the first year of the fair. The challenging transatlantic flight was spearheaded by Gen. Italo Balbo.

“Now we’re talking about should it stay up or should it come down and if it comes down, what will go up in place of it?” Onesti said.

“The Balbo statue was flagged … because it was done during Mussolini’s reign,” Onesti added. “(They say) it’s about fascism. That was the type of government at that time. The fact is … as opposed to being about the gift from Italy to commemorate the transatlantic flight, it is being turned into something from a fascist government. That’s not the story about it.”