Just before starting her workday Tuesday at the Villabate Alba confectionery, famous for its cannoli coming straight from Sicily, Sharon Vitale read on Instagram that Governor Andrew Cuomo was stepping down. ‘I was immediately happy,’ says Vitale (20) as she puts puffs in a box in a bright blue apron, behind the shiny display case in Little Italy, Brooklyn. “If Cuomo kissed me unintentionally, I’d slap him.”
Andrew Cuomo, 63, who has been governor of New York state since 2011, announced his departure on American television on Tuesday with a lump in his throat. He thus circumvented impeachment proceedings that had already been initiated against him. Eleven women stated in a report by Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, that they had been sexually harassed or touched by Cuomo. Party members of the prominent Democrat, including US President Joe Biden, said Cuomo should leave.
Some people have loose hands, Cuomo appeared to suffer from a loose finger in the 165-page report. He ran it over the neck and spine of one of his female security guards in an elevator. He ran his finger along another woman’s breasts. Pushed it between a subordinate’s buttock and thigh.
No, that was not meant to be sexual, Cuomo responded in a pre-recorded video. He was just amicable, cuddly. In a slideshow he showed pictures of himself cuddling with relatives, colleagues and other politicians, sometimes with a kiss on the cheek. “That’s how I am with everyone.” The etiquette varies by culture, Cuomo said, and he’s just “an Italian.”
Sicilian, not Italian
Little Italy, a neighborhood full of Italian cafes, restaurants and flags, is actually called Bensonhurst. They laugh at that statement. ‘Cuomo? An Italian? Stop it!’, says Manny Alaimo (46), owner of the bakery Villabate Alba. He himself is of the third generation, he would never dare to call himself Italian. However, with most of his clients he does not speak English, but Italian. “No,” he corrects sternly, “Sicilian.”
According to Alaimo, Cuomo has no idea what Italians really are. ‘You kiss your grandmother, your mother, your sister, maybe your cousins too. But you’re not going to kiss or hug strangers or colleagues, are you? Italians treat women with respect.’
Andrew Cuomo is the son of former politician Mario Cuomo, who was governor of New York State from 1983 to 1994. Mario Cuomo was born in Queens, New York, the son of Italian migrants who ran a supermarket here.
Italian or not, even before all the scandals, Alaimo was not a fan of Andrew Cuomo. “Not a fan?” Alaimo expresses it more strongly. ‘I hate that man. The first generation of Italians built New York. Cuomo just destroyed the city.”
Fireplace New York
At the start of the corona pandemic, New York was the American hotbed of the virus. As governor, Andrew Cuomo took firm measures that quickly made him immensely popular, especially among Democratic Americans. President Biden called Cuomo a “golden” model of leadership.
However, that same performance angered the Italian community in New York, where many work in the hospitality industry. During the quarantines, they saw their turnover drop. Also, many think the Democrat is just too left-wing. For example, Staten-Island, home to many Italian-Americans, was the only borough of New York where a majority of residents supported former President Donald Trump.
In a matter of months, Cuomo has gone from being a big Democrat star to someone who gets puked by his party. That says something about the zeitgeist: politicians no longer get away with sexually transgressive behaviour, certainly not in a party that likes to pretend to be progressive. Shortly after the damning report came out, Cuomo refused to resign, but didn’t last long.
Authentic restaurants
Most Italian-Americans have disappeared from Manhattan’s Little Italy, but the authentic restaurants have remained. “I found it annoying that Cuomo immediately went into denial and threw it at Italian culture,” says Jaeden Fontana (22), who runs Café Napoli. On the wall hangs a photo of Fontana’s grandmother, next to the late Argentine footballer Diego Maradona, who came to eat here. ‘You can’t punch someone and then say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m Italian. That doesn’t make it any less bad, does it?’
He tells about a friend whose father died of corona in the nursing home. His son didn’t hear about it until weeks later, something Cuomo is also being blamed for. Because before all the sexual harassment scandals, there was another issue that nearly cost the governor his head. His administration had deliberately concealed the actual figures of corona deaths in care homes for a while. Fontana’s mother had written on Facebook that Andrew Cuomo should therefore have resigned earlier.
Cuomo will officially retire in two weeks and will be succeeded by his running mate Kathy Hochul, 62, who will become New York’s first female governor. “Hopefully someone who won’t become the center of weird controversies,” Fontana says. ‘We are still in a time of crisis, then you need serious leaders.’
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