Filo - Pusteria - Volume 26

FILò

A Journal for Tyrolean Americans Volume 26

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An Introduction . . .

My Dear Tyrolean Friend...

For the past 25 issues, for the past 10 years, I began the presentation of the Filo` pages with an introductory letter to set the tone and speak with you directly and personally. I am differing my tradition of greeting you to the hand written letter of Cardinal Archbishop Joseph Bernardin, truly our brother, our “Joe” composed 25 years ago on the day before he left us and passed on. It is a Christmas greeting and his thanks and his pledge to make his passage with us in his heart while we honor him with his memory in our hearts.

Lou

The Filò is to be published and distributed several times each year and is targeted to the children of our immigrant parents. The Filò (pronounced fee-lò) was the daily gathering in the stables of the Trentino where the villagers met and socialized. The intent is to provide a summary of our culture, history, and customs in plain English to inform and provide you with the background of your roots and ancestry.. If you wish to contact us, call Lou Brunelli at 914-402-5248. Attention: Your help is needed to expand our outreach to fellow Tyrolean Americans. Help us identify them, be they your children, relatives or acquaintances. Go to filo.tiroles.com and register on line to receive the magazine free of charge. You may also send your data to Filò Magazine, PO Box 90, Crompond, NY 10517 or fax them to 914-734-9644 or submit them by email to filo.tiroles@att.net.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please understand that COVID related circumstances prevented us to publish and distribute this issue prior to Christmas since some content related to the Christmas holiday.

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Introduction to the Val Pusteria

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he Puster Valley: Val Pusteria in Italian: Pustertal in German; Val de Puster in Ladino is one of the most popular and most beautiful valleys in the Alps. It is also one of the largest longitudinal valleys in the Alps that run in an eastwest direction between Lienz in East Tyrol in Austria, and Mühlbach near Brixen (Bressanone) in South Tyrol.

The towns in the Puster Valley are located 2,460 and 3,870 ft above sea level. The most important of these towns in the western valley are Toblach/Dobbiaco, Welsberg-Taisten/Comune di Monguelfo-Tesido, Olang /Valdaora , and -Bruneck/Brunico; the most important in the eastern valley are Innichen/San Candido, Sexten/ Sesto, and Sillian. It is situated in the heart of the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009.

Some of the Puster Valley’s top natural attractions include Braies Lake (Pragser Wildsee), the Three Peaks of Lavaredo (Drei Zinnen), and the Prato Piazza tableau (Plätzwiese) within the natural park of Fanes-SennesBraies.

Prato Piazza high plateau, or tobogganing on Mt. Croda Rossa, where Italy's only reindeer herd live.

Several holiday regions are located in Pustertal in Italy: In the far west, there is ski and alpine region of Rio Pusteria / Gitschberg. In the centre of the Pustertal valley, there is the Plan de Corones / Kronplatz ski region, and right in the middle the Alta Badia / Val Badia, whilst in the east Alta Pusteria / Hochpustertal.

In the warm season of the Puster Valley, there are the opportunities for hiking, mountaineering, climbing, The eastern part of the valley is called the Upper Puster cycling, and swimming. There are numerous excellent Valley (Alta Pusteria-Hochpustertal), precisely at Prato hotels in Puster Valley that attract and serve many visiPiazza, whose precious alpine ecosystem at 6500 feet of tors. In winter, Val Pusteria typically provides snow and altitude is protected by UNESCO. perfect slopes as well as cross-country skiing, snowshoeWhile gentle Alpine meadows, forests and sun-drenched ing or a trip with touring skis. high plateaus characterize the Lower Val Pusteria, the Upper Val Pusteria mainly attracts attention by the rough The Puster Valley was inhabited from prehistoric times pinnacles of the Sesto Dolomites, above all the Three specifically in the Iron Age. In Roman times, the area Peaks of Lavaredo. Natural highlights such as Lake inhabitants from derived from Illyrian stock and were Braies and Lake Anterselva - famous beyond the borders referred to as “Saevates” by the Romans (hence the - bring numerous visitors in this part of the Val Pusteria name "Sebatum" of the Roman station of today's Saint Sesto Dolomites, Fanes-Senes-Braies, Vedrette di Ries, Lawrence. In the VI century, the Celtic invaders merged Puez-Odle.These nature parks in the valley provide for with the Illyrian population. Around the end of the I the protection of this unique landscape. Equally varied is century B.C, the Rienz valley was mainly used by the the offer in winter: skiing on Mt. Plan de Corones, a ski Romans as an arterial road to connect the north-eastern tour in the Braies Dolomites, snowman building on the regions of the Empire.

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over 73,000. According to the 2001 census, 80.96% of the population of the valley speak German, 13.40% Ladin, and 5.64% Italian as their native language. Among these 26 municipalities, Brunek (Brunico), Innichen (San Candido) and Toblack (Dobbiaco) stand out for their locations, histories and activities.Innichen (San Candido) is a village in the South Tyrol on the border of Austria.

It is part of the Tre Cime Natural Park in the Dolomites.

The town center is home to the Romanesque-style Innichen Abbey, with a frescoed dome, and the DoloMythos Museum that explores local natural history.

Mount Baranci has ski slopes, accessible directly from town. Southwest, a path circles the lake of Toblacher (Lago di Dobbiaco). Toblach (Dobbiaco) borders the following municipalities: Gsies, Innichen, Niederdorf, Prags, Auronzo di Cadore, Cortina d'Ampezzo and Innervillgraten (Austria).The prominent mountain peaks the Tre Cime di Lavaredo (the Drei Zinnen) are located nearby. The Drava/Drau also flows from the nearby mountains; other rivers in the municipalities include the Rienz. Here, in a tiny wood cabin in the pine forests close to Toblach (Dobbiaco), in the summers of 1908–10 Gustav Mahler composed his ninth symphony, the last he completed, and Das Lied von der Erde, and also began work on his tenth symphony.

The Filo’ readers throughout the USA owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Vincenzo Fiore, the CEO of Auriga, Informatica Bancaria for his generosity in funding the printing and the distribution of the Filo`.

The Puster Valley belonged to the imperial province of Noricum. During the four centuries of the domination of Rome the local populations began to assimilate the customs, the language and finally the Christian religion.

In the V century the Goths, the Baiuvarii and the Slavs decided to descend in this area, engaging in consequent conflicts between them ending with the victory by Baiuvarii. In the X century, the Puster Valley started to belong to the Pustrissa countship; in 1091 the countship was ceded by the Emperor Henry IV to the Bishop of Brixen thereby beginning the reign of the Prince Bishops that lasted for 800 years. In the XVI century, the Hapsburg joined the Bishops in the governance of the Tyrol. During the Napoleonic era, following the Austrian defeat at Austerlitz and the treaty of Pressburg in 1805, the entire region passed to the Bavaria: In 1809, Andreas Hofer, the great hero of the Tyrol led his citizen farmers to repel the Bavarian and French invaders. Bravely and remarkably, they beat the Franco-Bavarian forces three times. After Napoleon's fall in 1815, the Puster valley was reunited with the Tyrol and Austrian sovereignty becoming again under the aegis of the Austrian/Hungarian Empire.

The Puster Valley District (Italian: Comprensorio della Val Pusteria; German: Bezirksgemeinschaft Pustertal) was founded in 1969 with the merger of 26 municipalities. Its combined area is 1286 miles and its population is

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The Mountains of the Val Pusteria

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he mountains of Val Pusteria (Pustertal, in German) are among the most beautiful in our region and the whole natural environment is of considerable value. It is no coincidence that there are three natural parks in this valley: the Sesto Dolomites Natural Park, the Fanes-SennesBraies Natural Park and the Vedrette di Ries-Aurina Natural Park.The most famous Dolomite peaks are located in the Sesto Dolomites Park: Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Punta dei Tre Scarperi, Popera, Croda dei Baranci, Paterno, Cima Una, Cima Undici and Cima Dodici. The Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Drei Zinnen, in German), are the most famous and represented Dolomite mountains. Epic episodes of mountaineering took place on these walls, starring the best climbers in the world: Grohmann, Innerkofler, Preuss, Dibona, Comici, Hasse, Brandler, Piussi, Redaelli, Couzy, Desmaison, Mazeaud, Cassin and many others. In particular, the north face of the Cima Grande and the Cima Ovest are coveted goals for the best mountaineers in the world.

Cavallo, Picco di Vallandro and Croda del Becco.

The Glaciers of Ries-Aurina Natural Park is one of the largest protected areas in Europe because it is directly connected with the Hohe Tauern National Park located in Austria.The Glaciers of Ries (Rieserfermer Gruppe, in German), are located along the Italian-Austrian border.

The main peak is Monte Collalto (Hochgall, in German), of 3436 m / above sea level. Another important peak is Mount Nevoso (Schneebiger Nock, in German), a little lower: 3358 m / above sea level. The hiker can follow many paths, of varying difficulty. There are also many refuges where you can stay overnight and eat: Locatelli Refuge, Auronzo Refuge, Zsigmondy-Comici Refuge, Tre Scarperi Refuge, Pian di Cengia Refuge, Pederù Refuge, Lavarella Refuge, Sennes Refuge, Fanes Refuge, Vallandro Refuge, Roma Refuge and Brigata Refuge Tridentine.

Monte Paterno, on the other hand, is famous above all for the fighting that took place during the First World War. Located in a strategic position, it was occupied by Italian soldiers; in July 1915 the Austrians attempted the conquest, during the attack the famous mountain guide Sepp Innerkofler, a native of Sesto Pusteria, died.

Other peaks, the scene of fierce fighting during the First World War, were the Croda Rossa di Sesto and Cima Undici. The Austrian troops were stationed on the Croda Rossa di Sesto, while Cima Undici was garrisoned by the Alpini of the Italian Royal Army. The main Dolomite peaks of the Fanes-Sennes-Braies Natural Park are: the Not only are the mountains precious natural treasures, in a side valley there is Lake Braies (Pragser Wildsse, in Croda Rossa d’Ampezzo, Cima Cunturines, Monte German), a wonderful place, which has become a sought-after tourist destination. The highly successful television series "A step from heaven", starring Italian actor Terence Hill, is set here and has greatly contributed to making this beautiful place known. Written by Riccardo Riccardo Decarli - Biblioteca della Montagna, Trento Attention: The Filo` website provides the 26 issues produced and distributed in the past 10 years. Do visit it:filo tiroles.com.

Consider referring sons and daughters and relatives to register on the website.

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Tre Cime...The Three Peaks

he Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Italian for Three Peaks of Lavaredo, also called the Drei Zinnen in German are three distinctive battlement-like peaks, in the Sexten Dolomites of northeastern Sudtirol. They are probably one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps. It is to be noted that the Dolomities while in the Alps and surrounded by the Alps have developed a separate and distinct identity. They are set apart by virtue of their contents and shapes.

Dolomites have ages in the million of years. The Dolomites are made of dolomitic limestone, a rare material that gives the mountains their signature spires, sheer cliff faces, and crags. The unique composition of the Dolomites is tremendously valuable to geologists, who study the range to learn more about the forces that shape our world. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the erosive force of wind, ice and rain finally sculptured the characteristic Dolomite landscape, creating a multitude of spires, towers, cliffs and pinnacles, also shaping cornices, edges, overhangs and plateaus. Another special feature is how they reflect the sun and light. Check the front cover of this issue and take notice of the color of the Tre Cime. This is referred to as Enrosadira. Enrosadira is a ladin term literally meaning “turning pink” Ladin is the ancient language of the inhabitants of the Dolomites.

The Enrosadira phenomenon of the peaks in the Dolomites, at dawn and dusk, take on a pink/reddish color, which gradually turns into violet. The reason behind the changing colors is due to the calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate of the dolomite, the mineral found in large quantities in the rocky walls of the Dolomites. At sunrise and sunset, the rocky cliffs take on hues that vary from light yellow to bright red, to different shades of pink and violet, until the mountains disappear in the dark of night. Enrosadira can vary greatly depending on the time of the year, and

even from one day to the next. This is due to the different position of the sun throughout the year and to atmospheric conditions. The Rosengarten group in the Fassa Valley of Trentino-Alto Adige is especially famous for the pink shade it takes on at sunset and sunrise. You can best admire it from Pozza di Fassa, located in an area popular with outdoors lovers both in winter and summer.

Tre Cime at Sunset

The three peaks, from east to west, are Cima Piccola / Kleine Zinne ("little peak");Cima Grande / Große Zinne ("big peak");Cima Ovest / Westliche Zinne ("western peak"). The Three Peaks rise on the southern edge of the extensive pinnacle plateau with the Langen Alm (La Grava Longa), an alpine plateau at around 7217 ft to 7874 ft, which here forms the end of the Rienz Valley (Valle della Rienza). There are three small mountain lakes, the Zinnenseen. This area north of the mountains to the peaks to the municipality of part Toblach/Dobbiaco in South Tyrol and the Natural Park Three Peaks (up to 2010 ft. it was known as the Sesto Dolomites Nature Park), the since 2009 is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. No other mountains in the world have such a prestigious distinction and recognition..

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The ridge of the battlements, which runs in a west-east in the province of Bolzano, region of Trentino-Alto direction, forms the border with the municipality of Adige/Südtirol.

Auronzo di Cadore in the province of Belluno, now part of the Veneto, once part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. It also also represents the German-Italian language border. To the northeast, this ridge continues to the 7395 ft. high Paternsattel (Forcella Lavaredo), where it turns north to the mountains Passportenkopf (Croda di Passaporto (8920 ft) and Monte Paterno, (9002 ft.). In the west it sits across the Forcella Col di Mezzo (7595 ft.) transition to the Zinnenkuppe (Col di Mezzo, 9002 ft) and on to the 7322 ft high Katzenleiterkopf (Croda d'Arghena).

Tre Cime Natural Park is named after the famous peaks. Since the front line between Italy and Austria-Hungary The visitor centre provides information concerning the during World War I ran through the Tre Cime peaks, trails, natural and man-made landscapes of the Sexten there are a number of fortifications, trenches, tunnels, Dolomites and it is located at the former Grand Hotel in iron ladders, and commemorative plaques in the area.

Toblach/Dobbiaco. Numerous well-marked routes lead There was intense fighting throughout the so-called War" between 1915 and 1917. from the surrounding communities to and around the "White peaks. The most common route is from Until 1919 the peaks formed part of the border between Paternkofel/Monte Paterno to the alpine hut Auronzo at Italy and Austria-Hungary. Now they lie on the border 7621 ft, over Paternsattel (Patern Pass) to the Locatelli between the Italian provinces of South Tyrol and Alpine hut (Dreizinnenhütte) at 7,890 ft), and then to the Belluno and still are a part of the linguistic boundary peaks. There are a number of other routes as between German-speaking and Italian-speaking well.Nearby communities include Auronzo di Cadore in majorities. The Cima Grande has an elevation of 9,839 the province of Belluno, region of Veneto, ft. It stands between the Cima Piccola, at 9,373 ft, and Toblach/Dobbiaco, Sexten/Sesto, and the Puster Valley the Cima Ovest, at 9,754 ft.

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The Tyrolean P.O.W.`S

he 20,000, Tyrolean P.O.W`s who fought bravely against the Allies in the Great War and were captured and imprisoned in Siberia present us with witnesses and chronicler’s of who and what we were plain and simple …without the filter of Italian Irredentism and Nationalism. From their recruitment, combat and imprisonment they reveal to us the very character of their culture, citizenship and allegiances. In an effort to understand and appreciate who and what they represent has been a challenge given my inability to travel there as I have done previously twice a year. The further challenge is to overcome the distortions of our non-Italian or Tyrolean history and experiences. While Italy only became a nation in 1861, the Tyrol had had a long and consecutive history of 1000 years…800 years within the theocracy of the Prince Bishops and then the Austrian Hungarian Empire. In the literature that I have discovered, there is a presentation of our people as “Italians of Austria”. Such a reference is a gratuitous and inaccurate imposition of the “newly formed Italy who referred to the Tyrol as “Italia Irredenta”, un-redeemed Italy. As such it is a ridiculous and an ideological, revisionist improvisation. The old timers used to refer to themselves as “I taliani ciapi con il sciop”…the Italians captured with a gun (war) given the absence of a plebiscite of the citizenry.

The Filo` does not wish or desire the return of the Tyrol while it does try to articulate clearly and accurately the Tyrolean identity of our people punctuated by the willing combat and subsequent imprisonment of our people.

In 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria declared war on Serbia initiating the Great War. The Call to Arms was promulgated not by the Empire’s officials and clerks but by the parish priests reading the Emperor’s proclamation

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from the pulpits of their churches. In the meantime, the newly formed nation of Italy was pledged to neutrality by their commitment to the Treaty of the Triple Alliance.

Nonetheless, as Italy has often done, treacherously betrayed the commitment and tiptoed furtively over to London to broker the acquisition of the Tyrol for their new pledge to ally themselves with the Allies against Austria Hungary. They combined with an imperialistic, anti-Catholic Protestant Britain, the Church adverse France, Irredentist Italian ministers and a racist American President Wilson. This was the 1915 Treaty of London kept secret and only revealed by Russia in 1919.

Given Italy’s inaccurate conjecture that the Tyrol was the “unredeemed” annex of itself, there was the clear historical incoherence when 70,000 Tyroleans of the Welch Tirol (now the Trentino) heeded the Call to Arms along with their fellow citizens of Sudtirol…along with the citizens of the affiliated nations that formed the polyglot Empire of Austria-Hungary. As such they fought bravely, died and were imprisoned as citizens of the Empire.

What can be derived from this undisputable history and demonstration of their allegiance and citizenship? The bravery, the loyalty, the self sacrificing of themselves for their then homeland or hiemat is evidence, proof and the assertion of who they were and we in our American community can identify our selves with our usual shibboleth…Who we are is Who we were…accordingly we whose forbearers came here as immigrants and citizens of the Empire are entitled to appreciate, praise and admire those who fought and defended their homeland in that moment in history.

In 2019, the anniversary of the conclusion of the war, the demise of the Tyrol and Austria Hungary, the Province celebrated with great pomp and circumstances in the city of Trento the Alpini, the Italian forces that invaded the Tyrol, bombed its villages, and beat the defending armies. In its singular recognition and celebration of the Alpini who historically were neither Tyrolean nor Trentini, there was no reference nor recognition of the relatives, the paesani, the noni who were the dedicated and legitimate stakeholders of their communities and their valleys…and the forbearers of so many of our Tyrolean American families in the US who do remember them, applaud them and recognize their contributions. dissociation with the Filo`.

I am eager to learn more about our people as prisoners of war in the deep cold and inadequate housing of Siberia. Many died, suffered frost bite and were forbidden whatsoever communication with their families.

Many of their families or entire valleys had been evacuated by Austria to safe havens in Bohemia as their villages were bombed and destroyed by the Italian forces.

I have made one useful contact with a now defunct organization …”I Recuperanti”…translated “the recoverers”. They were centered in Mezzano of the Primiero and had done some research about the conditions and suffering of the POW’s in camps of Siberia. The few that are still available are quite sympathetic to this pursuit regarding the prisoners. To repeat, it is difficult finding narratives and account of those prisoners since their Tyrolean governance was destroyed, eliminated so that the means of chronicling their prison experiences had no sponsor, no witness. With the Italian annexation, there does not seem to have been the curiosity, the scholarship and the will to document the circumstances and suffering of their adversaries.

I am particularly interested in what and how they did once released. The hints I have so far discovered are the following tidbits and questions. When the war ended, the doors simply opened and it seems they scattered throughout Europe walking home, begging, working for their meals, sleeping in hay barns. What if anything might have been provided as they left as regards clothing or a stipend.? One such ex-prisoner with no communication with relatives for the duration of the war appeared in the Val di Non leading several cows with him. Others took trains and got back to Trento or Bozen. If so, who paid for their travel? Was there a stipend? The more amazing occurrences, many went Vladivostok, Russia. From there they got to China and from China they got to the US and from the US they shipped back to the Trentino. How did they integrate back into their villages? Years ago, I interviewed Beppi, a coscritto (classmate) of my father Agostino…both from Rango in the Bleggio of the Val delle Giudicarie.

He explained to me that when the Tiroler Kaiserjaeger

prisoners returned to Rango, they were met with a bill board proclamation that all returning prisoners were to meet in piazza, the town square. They were arrested and sent to a series of jails throughout Italy. Finally, Beppi Sarto, Pope Pius X intervened and gained their release. These recriminations caused additional suffering and grief. It would seem that the Catholic Church again remained indifferent and did not offer the help that was needed as the Church pretty much had abandoned nor followed the waves of immigrants to America. Dear reader, what do you make of all of this?

I am proud of these honorable paesani, forbearers. I feel that they represent the culmination and punctuation of our Tyrolean history, culture and identity. We can assert that twice in history they fought and shed their blood for their Tyrolean lands and culture. Once, they did along with Andreas Hofer in the Insurrection of 1809 defending their lands and beating the Napoleonic armies three times. And they did so again in the Great War when they heeded the Call to Arms and fought and died bravely. They are the very counter point to all the current Tyrol denying and ignoring all too omnipresent in this day and age. I wish I had the talent, resources and energy to write a sequel to Bolognani’s Courageous People of the Dolomites. Its title would be the Courageous Warriors, Patriots and Prisoners from the Dolomites.

An Appeal…might you who are subscribed to the Filo`, might you have some narratives of relatives of yours that endured the whirlwind of the Great War and its aftermath. Please share them! Many thanks

ATTENTION: CONNECT TO THE TRENTINO The address of the Il Trentino Nuovo is www.iltrentinonuovo.it. It is written in Italian and by right clicking on the drop down menu to Translate to English , you will be able to navigate the entire site and read the articles including four of mine own articles. I serve as the American correspondent providing an insight as to who we are and who we were. While distinquishing them from us in our history and experienes, we enjoy so many commonalites that make us …family. Alberto…bravo and congratulations…and thank you.

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The Immigra nt’s Wall of Honor

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ashington DC is replete with a multiplicity of statues and memorials but none that remembers its immigrants notwithstanding we are a nation of Immigrants. Each of us individually carry within us a a memorial of our of our immigrant forebearers and possibily in our lives and personalities. But America has fittingly created such a memorial as well as an archive that details those moments when they first stepped foot in the US. The Emigrant Wall of Honor is situated in what historically was the portal, the Gateway for the over 20 million emi- who had family or friends make a donation in their name grants: Ellis Island that in words of Statue of Liberty to the Ellis Island restoration fund. beckoned to the world…to come..you tired, you poor, Ellis Island is indeed the depository, the national archive with billions of records and records of all the immigrants that came through and these records are available to the public. From the earliest settlers to the immigrants of today, the 775,000 names are inscribed upon the American Immigrant Wall of Honor As such, the Wall is symbol, a remembering of those brave and hopeful persons who indeed enriched and developed our country represent the journey of every person yearning for the promise of a better life.

In the shadow of the skyline of Manhattan, where my you huddled masses yearning to breathe free, you parents lived and worked and among those 775,000 wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the names there are the names of Agostino and Adele homeless, tempest-tost to me.

Brunelli, my mom and dad. In the waters of the harbor, The Wall of Honor commemorates families who came my dad’s ship Adriactic and mom’s ship the Rex sailed here by ship, by plane, and by foot; honors those who through the harbor passing the Lady of the Harbour, endured forced migration from slavery; and remembers Miss Liberty. Dad after working in the coal fields of our own earliest settlers, America’s indigenous peoples. Western Pennsylvania, dug and bridged the tunnels of The monument is located on the grounds of Ellis Island the New York subways, and then worked as a longshorejust opposite the Lower Manhattan skyline. The man in the very same harbor unloading ships for all over American Immigrant Wall of Honor encircles a field on the world. I feel that I have both honored and celebrated the backside of the Main Immigration Building at Ellis them.Reader’s of the Filo…consider using the resources Island It is of no particular interest to tourists, but most of Ellis Island’s databases and possibly the inscribing of people wonder what is its purpose. It is not a listing of your family. all immigrants who came through Ellis Island but those

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Tyrol’s Acropoli s: Säben Abbey

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he Sabiona Monastery- "Kloster Säben" in German, "Monastero di Sabiona" in Italian towers up a striking rock spur, known as "Acropolis of Tyrol". The complex lies embedded in vineyards and forest, about 200 metres above the town of Klausen (Chiusa). This area was already settled in the Neolithic period. Later on, instead of the monastery there was a late Roman settlement.

Furthermore, archaeological findings testify that from this place the Christian faith was spread all over South Tyrol. The still existing Church of the Holy Cross, which can be visited today, was seat of the bishopric of Sabiona Still today, nuns live here according to the rule of Saint until around 1000 AD when the seat was transferred to Benedict of Nursia: "Ora et labora et lege" (Pray and Bressanone and its Principato. work and read). The monastery itself is not open to the Between the 6th century and about 960 there was a bish- public, but the beautiful churches can be visited. opric (episcopatus Sabiona) seated here. The church "im Although the nunnery was repeatedly looted during the Weinberg" dates from that time and its remains have Napoleonic wars and stripped of its assets during the been excavated along with a large burial ground in recent secularization of the Principati of both Trento and times. Bishop Ingenuin is documented as a participant in Brixen in 1803, the community survived although in an the Synod of Grado in 579. On 13 September 901 King impoverished state through the 19th century until it Louis the Child granted Bishop Zacharias the farm of gradually revived from about 1880, when, during the Prichsna, later to become Brixen, to which the bishops period of the Kulturkampf in Germany (1871–1878), the monks of Beuron Abbey were in exile in the county had moved under Bishop Richbert (around 960).

Säben later became a fortress of the bishops. In the 14th of Tyrol and were in contact with the nuns at Säben. At and 15th centuries Säben Castle (Burg Säben) was the this time new premises were built in the ruins of the casseat of the judges of Klausen (Chiusa) and the centre of tle on the mountain. The nuns of Säben adopted the administration of the southern territories of the Diocese Beuronese mode of life, although the abbey was formally accepted into the Beuronese Congregation of the of Brixen (Bressanone).

Benedictine Confederation only in 1974.On the Sabiona A community of Benedictine nuns was established here rock spur, also known as Mt. Sabiona or Holy Mountain, in 1686 by the local priest, in premises at the foot of the there are the Anniversary Fountain as well as four mountain. The abbey church was dedicated by Johann churches: the Chapel of Mercy (Lady Chapel), the Franz, Count Khuen von Belasi, then Bishop of Brixen.

Monastery Church, the Church of Our Lady and the He was therefore yet another Prince Bishop of the two Church of the Holy Cross.. In 2021, the last three nuns Principati (bishoprics): Trento and Brixen. It was first left the abbey. inhabited by the nuns of Nonnberg close to Salzburg. In 1699, the Sabiona Monastery was elevated to a convent and Maria Agnes Zeillerin was elected the first abbess.

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The Ancient Pilgrimages

very three years, at the beginning of summer, the Ladins of Val Badia made a three-day pilgrimage to the Benedictine abbey of Sabiona, perched on a mountain, in the narrow Isarco valley in Klausen(Chiusa). It was probably the oldest pilgrimage in the Eastern Alps. In 1988, the thousand years

march, one is struck by their feet and their hands: the strength of the pilgrimage is concentrated in the gait, and the shoes seem to become bigger than they are; that same force emanates from the crowns which, turning and turning in the hands, seem to stretch and swing ever closer to the ground ”.

Delegations from the twelve centers of the valley took part, each group with the crucifix leading the procession, and with the priest on horseback. The trip to the Sabiona monastery was devotional. More than sixty rosaries were recited along the way; Psalms are sung and prayers are sometimes in Ladin, the ancient language of the people of the Dolomite valleys. In the villages crossed by the parade, the bells ring in celebration. The Säben Abbey(Sabiona), the destination of ancient pilgrimges in the Val Pusteria women, who watch the procession as they pass along since the start of this community devotional act were the road, mark their foreheads. In years of misery, chilcelebrated. The only one who re-proposed and main- dren begged. The participants in the procession tained the medieval processions resisted fashions and dropped a candy or a few cents into their little hands. cars. Pilgrims from Val Badia and Pusteria descended on Arriving at the walls of the Sabiona monastery, the foot from their valleys to climb the abbey path, after a devotees were welcomed by the Abbess and some nuns day of walking and a night in the stables and barns. At who, for the occasion, can leave the cloister. Refreshed, one time women also took part, but the two nights they listen to a mass in the chapel of the Crucifix, and (between the outward and return journeys) spent in the receive bunches of blessed grass from the nuns. They barns of Val di Funes had sometimes favored the birth will wear it on their jacket or hat. A bundle of grass will of some children. Therefore, over the centuries it has be placed on the cross that will guide the way back to the become a male-only pilgrimage. Wrote prof. Manuela valley.

Renzetti, anthropologist: "Looking at these men on the

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The journey resumed with the banners and banners moved by the wind. The last cloistered nuns left the monastery in May 2021 after having lived there for 335 years. In 1996 when Maria Ancilla Hohenegger was elected abbess, the monastery had 18 nuns. In 2021 there were only three left. Sabiona is the ancient episcopal seat of the diocese. The first bishops resided on Mount Sabiona until the Middle Ages when they moved their headquarters to the nearby city of Bressanone. A castle was built in Sabiona, but when it fell into ruin the Christian community decided to build a monastery. The first cloistered nuns arrived in 1685 from the Benedictine monastery of Nonnberg near Salzburg, Austria.

In South Tyrol, propitiatory processions are not uncommon, between fields and on mountain paths. Among the long processions, notable is the one from Casteldarne to Predoi (50 kilometers on foot) with the cross of Santo Spirito. Aldo Gorfer wrote: "From time immemorial, on the Friday after Ascension Thursday, the crucifix of the Holy Spirit is carried in procession to the Kornmutter, the Mother of Wheat, in Casteldarne in the lower Pusteria. Two days of walking; fifty kilometers to go and

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fifty kilometers to return. Those who walk the most are the keepers of the crucifix, that is, the peasants of Predoi. The others come together in the respective villages of the Ahrntal and Tures valleys ”.

The painting of the Madre del Grano was inside a chapel of the Schönbichel farm. A flood came and swept away the chapel. The painting of the Mother of Wheat, floating on the mud, was brought by a farmer to the church of the Assumption in Casteldarne. The crucifix that the peasants carry in procession to Casteldarne was punctured by the bullets shop against the statue by a man who was training in target practice. He was on his way to participate in a shooting competition that featured a bull as a prize. He fired at the Christ and then went to the competition. The the prized bull on the way back, when he found himself near the crucifix he had punctured with bullets, the bull went wild and with his horns killed the man who had committed the sacrilege.

Written by Alberto Folgheraiter, Author, Journalist, Editor of the Nuovo Trentino

The Alpen Glow-King Laurin

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warves creep out from deep caves, crooked and suspicious.

Kings alight on the crags, bejeweled belts securing reign, wearing mantles of magical powers. Each surveys the vast spires and day slides into night. The chill settles in after the last purple rays sink into pitch. The roses and the Stelle Alpine nod their heads in slumber. Below, in the hollows of the mountain, precious quartz, gemstones and ore of all kinds fill a mysterious and magical realm-the grounds of a palace-the boundaries encircled by nothing more than a thin thread of silk. This is the land of King Laurin.

King Laurin ruled over a population of dwarves in the place we know as Catinaccio Mountain, east of Bozen.

During the day, the dwarves mined for crystals, gems, silver, and gold. King Laurin’s pride and joy was a beautiful garden of roses. It encircled his kingdom, ripe with deep red color, tender blossoms, and delicate buds. The fragrance from the countless roses as were as enchanting as the mountain’s majesty.

Not far from King Laurin’s realm lived the King of Adige. That king decided that the time had come to invite nobles to a feast. He intended to find a proper suitor for his beautiful daughter, Similde, so he called out for knights and aristocrats to visit his land. The King of Adige invited all the eligible noblemen, except King Laurin. This enraged King Laurin, who with great determination to attend the festivities, wrapped himself with his magical mantle. The cloak made King Laurin invisible. He could attend the festivities and gaze at the pretty Similde, without being seen. And so he did just that.

Cloaked in invisibility he rode to the land of King Adige and looked for Similde. Instantly he fell in love and wanted her for his own. He intended to kidnap Similde.

Hidden by his mantle of invisibility, King Laurin snatched the bewildered Similde, flung her upon his

horse and thundered away to Catinaccio, where his subterranean quartz palace, colorful gemstones, and carpet of red roses awaited.

In hot pursuit, knights and soldiers galloped toward King Laurin’s land. He was gone! There was no trace of the kidnapped princess or the horse and king. All were hidden from sight. King Laurin was convinced that no one would ever find him, and he pranced about through his rose garden. Unaware of King Laurin’s invisibility, the knights continued their quest to find and rescue Similde. It wasn’t long before they recognized a path of trampled red roses-only one thing could have created such a disturbance in the garden. The warriors broke through the silken thread perimeter and into the rose garden. King Laurin’s roses had betrayed his whereabouts and it was easy enough for the knights to find him. They followed the swaying roses, uncloaked King Laurin, making him visible to all, and

rescued Similde.

King Laurin, infuriated at the betrayal by his dear roses, turned to his garden and his mountain and shouted a curse upon the place. "Neither by day nor by night will any human eye be able to admire you anymore!” His curse changed the roses into rock, such was his rage. In that anger, he had forgotten one detail-his curse vanquished his roses only daytime and night. There is a magical time between day and night, a time when dwarves and kings step into the veil. Twilight.

Today when you cast your eyes up to our dear Dolomites, you may see the alpenglow-the enchanted garden of rose light upon our mountains. That glow reminds of all that is beautiful and good in the world.

Such is the mystery of our steeps-the spires that poke into the stars, deep in the pinks of the setting sun, magical, mysterious, Dolomites.Written, adapted and retold

by Maria Teresa Garber, Katonah, New York

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Zugher D`Orz

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In May of 1948, my mom Adele, sister Margaret and I went to visit our noni in the Bleggio of the Val delle Giudicarie. It was just the conclusion of the war, there were shortages of many things. I struggled to find good old American candy stores and candies… Zia Angelina, my one and only unmarried aunt, had a special affection for me and on a rainy day seeking to entertain me, she said…”Femte il Zugher d`orz..” (let’s make Zugher d`orz’). She took 1 cup of sugar and chopped some walnuts from our very own walnut trees. In a pan, heated over the wood burning kitchen stove she began to carmelize the sugar along with the walnuts…a walnut brittle in our vocabulary. Orz or orzo is barley that they would toast to make a kind of coffee…Since both the orzo and the sugar turn brown, our people referred to it as the “sugar of barley”. Another time, to indulge her Luigino (me) she bartered a couple of rabbit skins for carob pods from an itiniterant peddler. Then, at make shift mini stores in people’s houses, I remembered buying the memorable caramela…a sort of cough drop produced in the town of Valda in the Val di Cembra.

The recipe will not follow the process outlined on line for an all American peanut brittle that suggests corn syrup, candy thermometer, baking soda and butter. For the sake of authenticity, I typically try to replicate the atmosphere of our Tyrolean kitchens with little light, a wood burning stove, no refrigeration, water drawn from the fontana and carried into the kitchen...and possibly a nono or nona sitting in kitchen The recipes are not scientifically precise. They are characterized by the dialectal “micolin” measurement (a bit or a little). A micolin of this and a micolin of that...The other measurement in diciphering their recipes is “etto”. One etto is equal to 100 grams. So..this recipe calls for 2 etti or 200 grams or 1.6 cups. Use a wooden spoon and have a pan coated with butter or a piece of baking parchment Preparing: Use a taflon pan. Have your sugar and chopped walnuts ready Ingredients as well as a wooden spoon. Place sugar in the pan on a low heat and stir 1 cup of granulated sugar (2 etti) 1/2 cup of roughly chopped walnuts and stir. The sugar liquifiies and begins to boil, keep stiring,, insert walnuts.

It turns brown, plaee on pan or paper & stretch it using two forks. Let it

Coat a baking pan with butter

Pour onto the plan & spread with 2 forks

Place the sugar in a pan at medium heat and stir As the sugar browns, insert the chopped walnuts. contantly.

When cooled, break the product into pieces Plate and enjoy! !

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Tyrolean Chardonay

here continues to be speculation as to whether the origins of Chardonnay are to be sought in Dalmatia or even in Lebanon. But according to the current state of findings, neither of these is correct. The variety originated from an accidental hybridization of Burgundy grapes with Gouais Blanc.

Since a village in Màcon (Burgundy) also bore the name Chardonnay, the home of the variety is presumed to be there. It was first mentioned in 1685.For a long time, it was cultivated in a mixed planting with Pinot Blanc and also frequently mistaken with it.

The quality potential of Chardonnay was recognized relatively late; the differentiation of characteristics only took place in 1872 in Lyons. The worldwide reputation of Burgundy white wines, with the top locations at the Côte de Beaune (Montrachet) as well as in Chablis, is based upon this grape variety. Today, with regard to the white wines from Burgundy, but also with respect to the sparkling wines from the Côte des Blancs, Chardonnay enjoys an untouched preferable position. In Alto Adige, the variety came into cultivation incognito, as it were, and in fact it was erroneously called “yellow Pinot Blanc”.It was presumably plant material from the more southerly regions which unconsciously came to be planted in Alto Adige. But it may be the case that the variety arrived here mixed with Pinot Blanc stocks. The earlier name of Morillon for Chardonnay continues to be used in Styria, Austria to this very day. Archduke Johann brought the plant material from Styria at the time for his estates in Tyrol.

tions, Pinot Blanc is preferred.

The range in variation of the clones makes it possible to bring different stylistic directions of wine into the bottle. The spectrum covers the gamut from wines that are reminiscent of Pinot Blanc (with tones of apples and pears) to the aromaintense Muscat.In general, Chardonnay wines often show notes of pineapple, banana, and melon. When planted at higher elevations, a scent of herbs (chamomile and lemon balm) may often be ascertained.

The color ranges from lemon-yellow to golden yellow.

When aged in small wooden barrels, smoky aromas and tones of vanilla are also added. In order to not change the typical characteristics of Alto Adige Chardonnay, the aromatic Chardonnay clones are only used up to a total of five percent. It is above all else the fine yet multilayered aromatic quality, the full-bodied feel, and the longlasting flavor in the mouth which distinguish the variety in these parts.Just as with Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay is not found as often on local wine lists as it should be entitled in correspondence to its distribution. This is also due to the fact that Chardonnay grapes from the Bassa Atesina are traditionally often vinified by wineries in the neighboring province of Trentino. In addition, Chardonnay is a favorite blending variety, either within the framework of the fifteen percent with other white wine varieties (especially the Burgundy varieties) that is allowed under the local wine regulations or else for cuvee wines such as Terlano Bianco and Alto Adige Bianco.

Furthermore, the demand for Chardonnay is also growThis variety flourishes under the most varied of condi- ing on the part of local sparkling wine producers. tions: the spectrum ranges from extremely warm loca- Submitted by Thomas Auschöll-IDM Suditirol tions to comparatively cool climatic zones (such as Champagne). The loose structure of the grapes of individual clones reduces the risk of rot. The medium-sized bunches of a yellow to golden-yellow color mature at a medium-early date. When fully mature, the berries appear to be sprinkled with a rust-red. Then the grapes have to be harvested immediately, though, because otherwise they will break apart. At higher elevations, the variety may drop its blossoms. For that reason, the Chardonnay vineyards in Alto Adige are limited to lower hilly areas or else to the valley floor. At the higher eleva18

Family Story:Gabos /Fondriest

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egend has it that the name “Gabos” originated with three brothers who settled in Val di Non after serving in the Napoleonic army. My Gabos ancestors were known as “Collodini.” My dad, Silvio Gabos, was born in Drifton, PA in 1897. He was the son of Ferdinando Gabos from Dres and Maria Zuech from Cloz. They immigrated to the US in the late 1880s and became American citizens. Ferdinando worked in the coal mines in PA. My dad’s parents returned to Dres when my dad was about three years old and left him there to be raised by his grandparents (a common practice at that time.)

About ten years later my dad’s parents went back to bring him to the US.

States. They resided in a section of Brooklyn favored by immigrants from Val di Non. After the birth of their first three children (Mario, Dolores and Fred) they purchased a corner store with a back room which served as a meeting place for fellow Trentini. The store was Silvio Gabos eventually sold and the family then moved to a brownstone in Brooklyn, NY where two more children were born — Eleanor and In 1914, just prior to WWI, the family returned to Dres Emma Louise. All five children attended St Ambrose for a visit. My dad and his brother Joseph were forcibly Elementary School located at De Kalb and Thompkins conscripted into the Avenues.

Austrian-Hungarian army During the Depression when jobs were scarce my dad despite declaring they always managed to support the family by doing odd jobs were American citizens. for neighbors and others. At the age of 60, as his My dad spent the war in carpenter arm gave way, he secured temporary the trenches on the employment with a city agency after passing a Civil Russian front where he Service exam, notwithstanding his language deficiency sustained a minor injury (he spoke mainly Nones.) My dad prided himself as a — a flesh wound to his cook. His specialty was spinach ravioli from dough to arm by a bayonet. When the finished product. Also, each year, he made wine. the war ended the I remember my dad as a man of integrity whose only Austrian government did goal in life was to provide for his family and ensure their not provide a means of happiness. He was kind, considerate, humble, Carmela Fondriest returning the soldiers hardworking and religious. He had a great sense of home. My dad and others made their way back to Dres humor and an infectious smile. Carmela, my mom, was on foot. the backbone of our family. She instilled in her children, Upon his return to the United States, my dad found mostly by her own actions, a sense of responsibility for employment as a rough carpenter in the construction one’s behavior. She was also extremely devout and often industry. In 1927 he returned to Dres to get married. stated that everything we do is “per l’amore di Dío.

There he met Carmela Fondriest, the daughter of Luigi My siblings and I were raised with moral principles, good Fondriest and Emma Mengon. Carmela had a similar work ethics and respect for authority. We were taught to background to my dad’s—born in Barton, Ohio in 1906 look for the goodness in people, treat them with kindness and raised in Cles where her parents, who had settled and understanding and never speak ill of anyone. there, returned permanently.

My parents were proud people from a culture which Documents surfaced that the name Fondriest was embraced individualism and rejected any government originally Frondrieschi who were a family of horse handouts.Despite their language barrier they always merchants from Germany or Poland and settled in Cles Silvio provided for the family without any government during the 17th century. My Fondriest ancestors were assistance.Their children were all successful as were their known as “Palloti.” grandchildren, all engaged in professional careers.

My parents were married in Cles and left for the United Written by Mario Gabos, Annapolis, Maryland 19

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The Mother of Exiles

In an article for the Trentino Nuovo, I types of luggage they used. Hence, with these continued my efforts to define the mindset, experiences I will try to improvise and imagine their persona and ideation of our Tyrolean feelings, expectations and their arrival to our shores…as they encounter the magnificent lady in the harbor, the Statue of Liberty, the Mother of Exiles.

emigrants, those pre-annexation citizens of the Empire to the Trentini of the Trentino community of today.

Since the emigrant experience is an experience unknown, unfamiliar and foreign to them in today’s Trentino, I presented them with the well known experience of the two fictional characters created by Alessandro Manzoni in the Promessi Sposi, the Betrothed…. Renzo Tramaglino and Lucia Mondella. Manzoni was the famed Italian author whose Tuscan grammar and syntax in his novel Promessi Sposi was adopted by Italy in 1863 as the official Italian language of the newly established nation.

In his novel, Renzo and Lucia, although betrothed, are profughi, exiles separated full of nostalgia for themselves, their families and relatives, their villages, valleys and their way of life. Given the image of this couple, I reminded them that Renzo and Lucia were fictional, simply make believe yet they could recollect and really knew of and were linked to real exiles, emigrants…those relatives and friends who left them to live a new life in another world. All they knew was that I e` nadi in merica…they left for America and those left behind had no clue of their struggles, their challenges and motives…what was to be the saga of the emigrant.

Lacking and without the need for Manzoni's imagination, I can say that I have known these emigrants in my life, in my family, among my paesani .And then through my frequent contacts with the readership of the Filo` I continue to hear the stories and narratives regarding our emigrants from their descendants, truly witnesses. More than just imagining as did Manzoni, I have come to know which valleys they departed from, which ports they sailed from, which ships they sailed, how they were dressed, what dialects they spoke and the 20

Between 1880 and 1920, a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization, America received more than 20 million immigrants. Beginning in the 1880s, the majority of arrivals were from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The great wave of European immigration that began around 1880 overlapped with the rise of major steamship lines that competed for immigrant fares. By 1900, the average price of a steerage ticket was about $30.Each steerage ticket cost about $30; steamship companies made huge profits since it cost only about 60 cents a day to feed each immigrant--they could make a net profit of $45,000 to $60,000 on each crossing. In the sailing ships of the middle 19th century, the crossing to America or Canada took up to 12 weeks. By the end of the century the journey to Ellis Island was just 7 to 10 days. They were processed typically in New York’s Ellis Island, the gateway to America. Despite the island's reputation as an "Island of Tears", the vast majority of immigrants was treated courteously and respectfully, and was free to begin their new lives in America after only a few short hours on Ellis Island. Only two percent of the arriving immigrants were excluded from entry.

The immigrants were poor sacrificing whatsoever asset or borrowed from friends and relatives the funds to pay for a steamship ticket. They came from villages and towns where they lived simple lives with their customs and traditions and faith. They brought very little with them and were anxious and fearful as to what they would encounter yet hopeful, courageous and determined.

The ship’s passengers were a Babel of races, languages, and faith’s all seeking a new life and escape from some common causes be it poverty, persecution or displacement.

welcome to the tired ones, the poor ones, the cold masses eager to breathe free, the miserable waste of your crowded nations. But not only a welcome, but they are invited to become her children, citizens, Americans. An Here is a combination of my recollection of my dad invitation, an agreement extends to the new citizens of Agostino`s narratives and my own imagining as his ship, the Empire. They are accepted with a provision in the the Adriactic, approach New York…The sea crossed, the form of an oath. Here is the oath declared by any Adriactic passes through the Narrows , the portal, the emigrant who seeks American citizenship. entrance to New York’s Harbor bay, the then Gateway to "I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce America. The passengers, the emigrants are a and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, combination of the many and various nations with its potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore different languages, cultures and religions. The Tyrolean been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the immigrants are mixed and integrated among this great Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all diversity of races and languages ... With anxiety and enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and anticipation, all of them gather on deck for the first sight allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the and the first meeting with “Merica” ... The ship goes on United States when required by the law; that I will perform ... and from a distance they see the heralded skyline of noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States the city and then a great sigh and a cry of joy because she when required by the law; that I will perform work of national appears almost like a vision of a Madonna of some importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and apparition or shrine ... the triumphant woman of the that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or harbor with her torch raised like a hug and a welcome purpose of evasion; so help me God." greeting ... Who knows how many stories the migrants Disembarked, dispersed throughout the USA, they swear will have heard of this perhaps best known encounter and are transformed and accept a new homeland with this statue.. My parents had told me about this first comforted in the knowledge that they do not have to give contact… the first meeting. What were the feelings of up their Tyrolean heritage. In fact, they become citizens the 20 million as the ships approached the port of New of a nation of emigrants from every corner of the world.

York? Perhaps they were anxious, fearful, uncertain, and The oath is the social contract offered and accepted by insecure but they become invigorated by the intense joy every immigrant to the USA. The American gift is to see the Mother of the Exiles! Behold the Statue of offered to the new emigrants and at the same time they Liberty with mute lips but nevertheless making it felt and come to understand that they will be allowed and understood in the authentic hopes of the migrants and in encouraged to combine their origins and heritage with the words written by the Jewish emigrant poet Emma the American identity. Our forbearers in Merica were not Lazarus which are engraved in a plaque at the foot of the to lose their identity. We were to be neither integrated statue. nor fused with all the other emigrants as in a melting pot where everyone is fused into one, amorphous, unspecified whole. The Melting Pot suggestion was the theory of the sociologist Nathan Glazer that has been abandoned for years. (Continued on page 22)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

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Continued...

The precise name, the specific identity for our community and for me is that we are Tyrolean Americans .... The two identities are not divided by a hyphen but combined ... integrated.

Texan daughter in law with less articulated ethnicity.

Everyone is proud and feels complete in this contract or agreement. I hope that my 12 grandchildren will enjoy the same respect and place ... right here in our new hiemat. This phenomenon and dynamics is observed in the combined or rather integrated nomenclatures with all the other American communities, whether German Americans, African Americans, Irish Americans, Jewish We became principally Americans, French Americans. Who they are is Who and essentially American they were. Therefore for us, in these developments, but we are specified, fruits of our historical separation, a cultural division or individualized, and enriched by our Tyrolean origins and distinction occur, creating a WE and a You , between us heritage. It was an American gift not to be known as an in the US and those in the Trentino... yet remaining our amalgamated American but rather a certain and specific American. Hence, the nomenclature Tyrolean American describes a legitimate and specific citizen of the USA. Meanwhile then and even now, the Trentino Province ignorantly or arrogantly would like to impose and accept their new identity that they evolved through a cultural transformation created by Italy’s inititative to “Italianize” the Tyrol by virtue of their Irredentism, Nationalism and Fascism. In effect, they insisted that we who left, abbandon our historic identity and citizenship of the Empire and become who and what they became.

This type of imposition was in evidence with the outright persecution of the South Tyroleans who were brothers and sisters, our relatives and friends, villagers offered the horrific choice of denying and rejecting their and friends both of us stakeholders of our historical and historic culture and become “totally” Italian or leave and mutually connected lands. In the words of Manzoni`s go elsewhere. These choices were referred to as the famed Addio Monti reminiscences of Lucia and in the “Ozioni” or Options, a choice crafted by Mussolini, name of the thousands of our courageous emigrant Hitler and Himmler. In my very own house and family, I forbearers we can hope and conclude. with the words of can point to this identification.I have a Chinese Renzo e Lucia in the Promessi Sposi… Dio non turba mai American daughter in law, a Filipina American daughter la gioia de’ suoi figli, se non per prepararne loro una più certa e in law, another daughter in law who is half Irish and più grande. God does not disturb the joy of his children other than Italian, a Mexican American son in law and finally a to prepare for them a joy greater and more secure.

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Tyrol Suppression

he annexation of the historic Tyrol to Italy occurred in 1919 but in secret it was schemed in 1915 in the Treaty of London where the recently unified state of Italy in 1861 brokered their joining the Allies in exchange for the Tyrol and Dalmatia without any plebiscite of the people of the Tyrol. To understand this geopolitic, one needs to understand the ideology and politic of Irredentism. Irredentism is a policy of advocating the restoration to a country of any territory formerly belonging to it. In 19th-century Italian politics it became a policy of advocating the return to Italy of all Italian-speaking districts subject to other countries. The Tyrol never belonged to the non existent and only recently unified Italy. The Tyrol had a history of 1000 years of Germanic sovereignty, 800 years of the Prince Bishops followed by the Austrian Hungarian Empire. The illogic of returning Italian speaking districts would suggest the USA should be returned to any of the other English speaking countries: England, Canada or Australia.

Inno al Trentino is considered a sort of Stars Spangled Banner anthem for the Trentino of today. One can hear it sung by simply Googling it. There is an “official” version and its original history reveals the true “official” version and its actual history. The “official” version was allegedly written by Ernesta Bittanti, from the Valsugana and the widow of the Arch-Irredentist, Cesare Battisti. What we know now is that she adapted the true original version and added the Irredentist expression Italica cuore, Italica mente, Italica lingua qui parla la gente. Italic heart, Italic mind, Italic language here speaks the people. This anthem had a number of different versions, one by Don Livio Rosa of 1915, another before World War 1 when Trentino was part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. The version below - with no political attitude is not usually sung at present. The "official" story says that the text was written by the widow of Cesare Battisti, Ernesta Bittanti, and the music added by Guglielmo Bussoli in 1915. But it seems the origins were in a folk song that existed in South Tyrol in the Austrian period (until 1918). An anthology

by Don Livio Rosa, a refugee in Mühlhöffen, Bohemia, includes also an "Anthem to Tyrol", very much similar to South Tyrol version. A further Italian nationalistic stanza was added in the 1930's and is usually omitted by mountain choirs. After the annexation to Italy, there ensued a process of Italianization. Its chief architect was Ettore Tolomei who among many other impositions changed all town signatures both German and Italian.

Irredentism morphed into the heinous Ozioni (Options) wherein the populations of the South Tyrol were offered the horrendous choice to totally abandon their historic Germanic culture, language and history and become totally Italian or leave the Sudtirol. This same intolerance can be seen in their relations to our very own Tyrolean American community so that we are prompted to forget who we were and adopt who they became.

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Translation Original Version Compare & Analyse Si lanchian nel cielo le guglie dentate, The toothed spiers launch in the sky, the The original... green valleys descend gently. They perfu- il Tirolo nella mente, fortezza e cordiscendono dolci le verdi vallate.

Profumano paschi, biancheggiano olivi med pastures, whiten olive trees, the raggio possiede la gente.(The Tirol in crops rejoice, the lives on the hills. esultan le messi, le vite sui clivi. mind and people possess the strength Or pure white of snowy peaks, sweet and courage...gets change to Italico O puro bianco di cime nevose, soave scent of vivid flowers, reddening on wild cuore, Italica mente, Italica linolezzo di vividi fior, rosseggianti su gua parla la gente (Italic heart, coste selvose, dolci festa di vari color. coasts, sweet feasts of various colors.

A tenacious people produces the earth, Italic mind, Italic language that Un popolo tenace produce la terra, che which indomitable senses reserve in the people speak here) indomiti sensi nel cuore riserba. La heart. The homeland in the heart, the “ patria nel core, il Tirolo nella mente, Tyrol in the mind, strength and courage The “official’ adaptation fortezza e corraggio possiede la gente. possesses the people. o gemma dell’Alpi, o amato Tirolo (O O puro....

Or pure .... gem of the Alps, o beloved Tirol) Custode fedele disante memorie, che Faithful keeper of memories, who carry gets changed to o gemma dell’Alpi. porti nel cuore sconfitte e vittorie. defeats and victories in his heart. Fearless o amato Trentino (O gem of the Impavido veglia la patrio suolo. o watches over the homeland. o gem of Alps, O beloved Trentino) gemma dell’Alpi, o amato Tirolo! the Alps, o beloved Tyrol!

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The Foremost: Grana Trentina Editor’s Note …Nothing is more characteristic of our people than to have in their homes and in their fields …pan e formai… bread and cheese…bread in one hand and cheese in the other. Nothing was more frustrating than my attempts to have my five children follow this rubric as they took bread and cheese and reverted to making an all American sandwich as we climbed in the Dolomities and the peaks in our valley in the Trentino. Oh well…

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he Trentino is the proud producer of many superlative cheeses but none as revered as its Trentingrana and thereby earns a place in the trinity of the foremost cheeses of Italy and the world: Parmiggiano Reggiano e Parmigiano Padano, Origin; only Grana Padano may be sold using the term Grana Padano. The grana cheese variety is a full-bodied in EU countries. hard cheese delivering a savory and nutty touch with a The two best-known examples of grana-type cheeses are Parmigiano-Reggiano and Grana Padano. The two cheeses are broadly similar, with the latter being less sharp, crumbly and grainy.The main difference between the two is that cows producing Parmigiano-Reggiano eat only grass and cereals—no silage. Silage is a type of fodder made from green foliage crops which have been preserved by fermentation to the point of acidification.

There are no preservatives and no antibiotics used. Cows that have been treated with antibiotics are suspended from production of Parmigiano-Reggiano and Grana dense and somewhat flaky texture. Grana as a type of Padano. Feeding of silage and addition of lysozyme hard, mature cheese with a granular texture is often used which is a natural enzine that prevents the “swelling” of for grating. Grana cheeses are typically made in the form the cheese while it is maturing are forbidden in of large wheels. The structure is often described as production of Trentingrana and Parmigiano-Reggiano. crystalline. Cheese crystals are whitish, semi-solid to A heritage unmatched by most cheeses, Grana Padano is solid, slightly crunchy to gritty crystalline spots, granules, in a class of its own, unique in nuances of both taste and and aggregates that can form on the surface and inside texture. Parmesan cheese is the most similar in flavor to of cheese. Cheese crystals are characteristic of many Grana Padano because they are made in a very similar long-aged hard cheeses. The wheels are divided by being process. Parmesan is slightly more salty and nutty overall split with a fairly blunt almond-shaped knife designed than Grana Padano. Parmesan can only be made in the for the purpose, rather than being sliced, cut or sawn. cities of Parma, Reggio, Emilia, Modena, Bologna and Within the European Union the term Grana is legally Mantua. protected by Grana Padano Protected Designation of

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Tentingrana has its own history. In the 1920’s Michele Marchesi (1873-1937), residing in Mirandola , in the province of Modena but originally from Rumo in Val di Non , had a company that produced copper boilers for dairies. Having maintained ties with his valley in Trentino, he decided to bring the art of making Parmigiano Reggiano there . In 1925 he produced the first forms of Trentingrana at the Rumo dairy . In 1927 there were already 7 dairies in the Val di Non that produced grana, initially spread only in the province of Trento . In 1934 there were already 12 dairies in the Val di Non that produced Trentingrana cheese, while in 1964 10,000 wheels were produced a year. Also in the mid -1960s, all the grana dairies joined the Consortium for the protection of Grana Padano .

On October 30, 1973, the consortium for the protection of "Grana Padano Trentino-Trentingrana" cheese was founded. In November 1978 the consortium warehouse of Trentingrana was inaugurated in Segno to season up to 8,000 wheels, while the overall annual production was 35,000 pieces. There is a protective agency , Consorzio dei Caseifici Sociali Trentini CONCAST, Consortium of the Affiliated Trentino Dairies, that focuses on the

enhancement e marketing); the process for the DOC (The denomination of controlled origin , known by the acronym DOC , is not a real trademark since it is common to a large variety of products,) recognition of "Grana del Trentino" was also started in 1984/1985 , which was resisted by the Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano consortia. Eventually a compromise was reached to replace the DOC request with a DOP (The protected designation of origin , better known with the acronym " DOP")and call the product "Grana Padano Marcato Trentino", "Grana Trentino" or simply "Trentino”. Grana Padana produces approximately 5 million rounds of cheese each year; Pamigiano Reggiano produces about 4 million and Trentingrana far less: 100.000).

In summary and in tribute… Trentingrana is a cheese produced in the Alpine and Prealpine valleys of the Trentino following the tradition, the rhythms of the seasons and in respect of nature. Hence, it is why its characteristics are unique such as it fragrances, aroma, balanced taste and unmistakable sweetness that make it a full-meal cheese appeal for all palates.Written by Francesco Gubert, Agronomist, Agricultural Consultant.

The Rumo Caseficio...Dairy

T

The “Caseficio di Rumo” made history for the Trentino’s Cheese Group because this Trentino’s Cheese Group began producing Trentingrana. It had its origins in 1926 when Michele Marchesi who was originally from Romo and lived in Mirandola then married a girl from Mantua. Michele learned the craft of cheese making in the city of Mirandola in Emiglia-Romagna. With this experience and with those competencies, he returned to the Val di Non and bought milk from “caseficio” (dairy) in Cloz. Thus, there emerged the Trentino Grana. However, it was not until 1954 when the Rumo Dairy Farm Cooperative began the commercial production and distribution of Trentingrana throughout the Trentino. The Cooperative have now 77 members that include family run small farms, situated 1000 and 1600 with 3 to 25 cows. The 9000 Trentingrana forms in Rumo are recognizable not only for TN319 marking that identifies the producing cheese factory but also of the organoleptic characteristics of the cheese...Organoleptic properties are the aspects of food or other substances as experienced by the senses, including taste, sight, smell, and touch, in cases where dryness, moisture, and stale-fresh factors are to be considered.

Caseficio Rumo-Its Founder and Associates

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V

Valda: My Ancestral Home

alda, the birth place of my Grandmother.

But where in the world is Valda? How did I envision Valda once I learned that my family emigrated to the USA and what would it be like once I visited? In order to answer these questions, I have to start at the beginning.

Herbert Langer, another cousin who’s family also came from Valda but settled in Wattens, Austria. I introduced Herbert to Ermanno and Gloria via email, and Herbert traveled to Valda to meet them. He also took photos of the town and the family and all the Zendron graves from the surrounding towns and mailed them to me. The mental picture of Valda was emerging in my mind.

My story begins in 2004 when my nephew, Jean Philippe Rolling and terraced hills with grapes growing and Berreitter, whom I began this journey with sent me an mountains all around. It looked beautiful. article about a Colorado woman named Lena Zendron.

She had just turned 103 years old. Who was Lena and This story cannot go on without mentioning the second how was she related? We knew that my Grandmother person I contacted and then met here in America. Wilbur was named Helen Zendron but that is all we knew. I Marisa. Wilbur had visited Valda and was a cousin and never met her as she died in 1946 and I was not born good friend of Ezio Joppi. He told me wonderful stories until 1958. My father never spoke of his parents but did of Valda and all the cousins he met. Wilbur died before say that we were a little of Italian and a lot of Austrian. I I visited Valda and could meet with Ezio. Wilbur would knew my grandfather came from Tirol, but that is all I love what I have accomplished and have done since our knew. first meeting. I wish I could share all this wonderful information with him.

When I saw that article about Lena I set out to find my family. I found the phone number of Lena’s niece, Shelia In 2014 my husband and I finally got to visit Valda, the Barrong and called her. From there I discovered that my place where my Grandmother, Elena Costantina Grandmother had six siblings, five of which came to the Zendron was born on December 22, 1870. We were USA from a place called Valda. One stayed behind. I invited to stay with Ermanno and Gloria even though wanted to know more so I made an appointment with they had no idea if we were related, but of course it is the local Latter Day Saints family research center where I turning out that most Zendrons are related. viewed and copied the Valda Church records from the Is Vada what I expected? It has been 15 years since I first microfiche records. This is when I discovered my family heard the “Valda” and it is difficult to fully remember was very large and it seemed we were possibly related to how I envisioned it to be. I think I was taken back by the everyone in this place called Valda and many from the scale of it all.The main road from Trento to Valda, the surrounding towns of Faver and Grumes. steep cliffs, the huge mountains, the breathtaking scenery I started building the family tree, and called it “The Valda and such gracious hosts. I would say that it was similar to Family Tree Project”. I searched everywhere I could to the old village I had in my mind, perhaps even older that find people with the Zendron name who could tell me I expected. Bit more than anything else, the biggest anything about the Zendron’s and Valda. I wanted to go surprise of Vada was it’s welcoming loving and generous there. I felt the need to know where my Grandmother people.Written by Lynn Berreiter, Bokeelia, Florida came from and I wanted to see Valda and meet my family, even if they were distant family. I envisioned Valda, Faver and Grumes being very close together, within walking distance. During the course of all my research, I started making friends with some of my Valda cousins. One of my first contacts was Gloria Zendron and her husband Ermanno Fassan. Both of whom I found were my cousins. Ermanno was kind enough to take photos of all around the town and send a CD with the photos to my home in Florida. I was very excited to see what the town looked like. It seemed small with only a street or two to travel on. I also made friends with Elena Zendron, my Grandmother; My uncles Carl and Victor Berreiter, born in Innsbruck; my Grandfather Karl Berreiter

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Our Cardinal,Our Brother…”Joe”

J

oseph Bernardin, son of Giuseppe Bernardin and Maria Simion, immigrants from Tonadico of Primiero, born in South Carolina rose to the highest ranks of the American Catholic Church and the history thereof as the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago. His dad, a stone cutter, one of seven brothers, volunteered to serve in the Austrian army and then joined his brothers in Columbia, South Carolina, thus forming a singular and an apart colony of Tyroleans and Catholics. “Joe” Bernadin as he was so often called was a proud Tyrolean, led a remarkable life and was truly our brother. He passed away 25 years ago.

He was without doubt the most influential leaders of his times and possibly for the entire history of the Catholic Church in the US. Cardinal Bernardin was an ecumenist that reached out to other faiths and creeds. His usual mode was to seek “common ground” in bring people together. He was regarded as a master negotiator to reconcile the increasingly fractitious elements of the American Church that was emerging from the enlightment and openess of the Vatican Council. While the Catholic Church remained silent and guarded regarding the Vietnam War, Cardinal Bernardin spoke out with skill and competence as a sole voice in the wilderness of the church. This same advocacy and witnessing was in evidence in his opposition to the nuclear arms race that was gripping the entire world during his time. During the 14 years he led Chicago’s Catholics, Bernardin revitalized a dispirited and disorganized archdiocese and tackled some of its most emotionally charged issues, among them the closing of schools and churches and the clergy sex abuse scandal.

In response to the mounting evidence of abuse in the church, Bernardin created an independent panel to review complaints of sexual abuse by priests in 1992.

Prior to coming to Chicago, He became the general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now the USCCB), as the youngest bishop in the U.S. , a post he held until 1972 and then in 1974, he was elected President of the NCCB and served in that role until 1977. Bernardin is instrumental in founding one of the conference’s most influential and successful programs, the anti-poverty Catholic Campaign for Human Development. In 1983, he wrote a pastoral letter opposing nuclear weapons called “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our esponse,” which was

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adopted and issued by America’s Catholic bishops. In 1984, during a 10-day “pilgrimage of faith” to Poland, Cardinal Bernardin is introduced by the Roman Catholic primate of Poland as an “apostle of peace,” where he electrified 250,000 pilgrims, telling them that God “vindicates the humble and the oppressed and dethrones the proud and powerful.”. In 1986, he sparks the creation of the Big Shoulders Fund, which provides financial support to needy Catholic schools in Chicago. In 1990, he announced a major restructuring that would close dozens of churches and schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 1992, he establishes an independent panel to review complaints of sexual abuse by priests and plans to appoint a victim assistance minister, someone who was not a priest, to handle the complaints. Bernardin is accused in a lawsuit of molesting Steven J. Cook years earlier in Cincinnati, where Cook went to high school and Bernardin had been archbishop. Cook dropped the allegation three months later, saying he wasn’t sure of his memories. Bernardin later met with Cook, accepted his apology and said Mass for him. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton at the White House. He is cited for holding “to his mission to bring out the best in humanity and to bring people together” at a time of transition “in his church, his community, his nation and the world.” Bernardin also says he is dedicating the honor to the realization of his prayer that the nation “will honor and protect all life, especially the unborn and the vulnerable.” The Cardinal was often on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines. Joseph Cardinal Bernardin was the last great american catholic leader of the Second Vatican Council era. The words that describe that epic period -- open, forward-looking, moderate, collegial -- described him. Cardinal Bernardin, who rose rapidly to national leadership and who was at the center of almost every major development in American Catholicism for three decades, was perfectly suited to the era.

I had the priviledge of corresponding with him. He would greet me with..”my dear Tyrolean friend” and thus confirming our mutual bond and identity…and possibly the quasi prophet foretelling the creation of the Filo`. I pray to him for the Church and for our Tyrolean American community…he was truly our brother!!!

Nos Dialet...Our Dialect #26

T

he truth will set you free…and it did for me as I researched the quasi musical anthem the Inno al Trentino for the usual music page in every Filo`.I had every attention to avoid presenting it since it had more than a hint of national chauvenism if not simple propaganda. The “official” and current version had been and is represented as the composition of Ernesta Bittanti, the widow of the arch-Irredentist Cesare Battisti. Period! Then there occurred a eureka moment. I came across a now defunct group called the Recuperanti ( the “Recoverers) which had on its website none other than Inno al Tirolo (The Hymn to the Tirol) that had been a feature and a traditon of the South Tyrol and was formatted by a Don Livio Rosa in 1915…and was a replica or the actual source of the anthem to the Trentino. However, Ernesta Bittanti changed the words my beloved Tirol to my Beloved Trentino but in the second verse freely inserted the following: Italica cuore, Italica mente, Italica linga qui parla la gente .It should be said that in what was the Tyrol and while the Teresian Reform of Empress Maria Teresa obligated the children to remain in school where Italian was learned, dialect was spoken in each of the 19 valleys while there were and still are three linguistic minorities: the Mochen, the Ladino and the Cimbro in addition to the huge German speaking populations of the South Tyrol. The change of the lyrics was not the domain of a poetic license but the Irredentist political movement, strongly tied to Italian nationalism that proported to reunite a nation(Italy became a nation only in 1861) with a territory..the Tyrol that had had 1000 consecutive years of Germanic sovereignty (Principati and the Empire)…hence, it was neither lost nor to be found having preceded..and preexisted Italy’s reunification. It also proported to return Italian speaking districts to Italy. This was the logic of Adolph Hitler when he invaded the Sudetenland and annexed it to the Third Reich. My neighbors, friends and associates in the Trentino have over the years posed a ethnic challenge to me. “Ma Louis, tu sei Italiano perche parli Italiano”. But Louis, you are Italian because you speak Italian” Accordingly, I “shut them up” in a succinct New York Style…in dialect saying: I speak English but I am not Canadian! I speak English but I am not Australian! I speak English but I am not British! Language throught out the world simply does not determine ethnicity.

LISTEN TO THE DIALECT: Do consider going to the web site of the Museo degli Usi e Costumi della Gente Trentina (The Museum of the Ways and Customs of the Trentino People) to hear film clips of people in the Province speaking the dialect…Here is their website http://www.museosanmichele.it/alfabeto-delle-cose/

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B

Bruneck-Brunico

runeck (German) Italian: Brunico Ladin: Bornech or Burnech; Latin: Branecium or Brunopolis is the largest town in the Puster Valley in the South Tyrol. The Bruneck town centre is located about 22 miles east of Brixen and 43 mi of the regional capital Bolzano. To the east, the town is 37 miles from Winnebach (part of Innichen (San Candido) on the border with East Tyrol in Austria.

According to the 2011 census, 82.47% of the population speak German, 15.24% Italian and 2.29% Ladin as first language.

church inside the town walls (at first only a small chapel) was built. beneath the castle by the Brunecker burgher Niklas von Stuck.The Catholic branch church St. Katharina auf dem Rain (also called Rainkirche ) is located halfway between the castle and the city of Bruneck in South Tyrol. There is a legend about the church bell.

When the bell was about to be sold, twelve horses on the downhill path could no longer move it and a note fell from the sky. It read: “My name is Katharina, / I know all the weather. / I'll chase away all the weather, / and I'll stay in the Rainturm. ”When the bell was brought back, Prior to the Roman occupation, the wide valley where two horses were enough for it. The building has a polygBruneck is located was uninhabited. The danger of onal, late Gothic choir closure . The choir tower ends flooding of the river Rienz moved the inhabitants to the with two onion domes on an octagon with four painted sides of the valley and the neighboring hills. The Roman Tyrolean coats of arms. With its striking tower, it forms used the Puster valley as an important arterial road used the city's landmark together with Bruneck Castle . to link the Tyrol to the Danube area of Europe hence Soon the town received the right to hold a weekly market populated the valley floor. and impose high justice. A castle leader occupied the Bruneck was part of the Principato (bishopric) of fortress as the bishop's representative.In the 14th and Brixen for 800 consecutive years.After the dissolution of 15th centuries, there was brisk trade between Augsburg the Principato of Brixen and the Napoleonic interlude, and Venice. Some of the traded goods were brought Val Pusteria returned to the Hapsburg and Austrian through the Puster Valley and often stored long-term in Hungarian Empire and then annexed to Italy after the Bruneck on the Ballplatz. This soon brought the town Great War. The town was probably named after its prosperity and fame. In our times, the great composer founder, the Brixen prince-bishop Bruno von Kirchberg, Gustav Mahler composed several of his symphonies in a and first appeared as Bruneke in a deed issued on 23 small cabin on the outskirts of Bruneck.

February 1256. At that time, the town consisted of two rows of houses forming a narrow lane. With the death of Frederick II in 1250, the Prince Bishop of Brixen. had a fortress erected above the town, which was first mentioned in 1276. The castle was significantly enlarged under Prince-Bishop Albert von Enn, who also had the town walls and moat completed until 1336. Soon thereafter, further rows of houses were built outside the eastern gate. These led to the small Church of Our Lady (today's Church of the Assumption of Mary). The first

St Catarina & Bruneck Castle

After the war, industrial zones, workshops, and department stores were built, permitting the town considerable economic and geographic growth. In the 1960s, tourism was especially important to the town, resulting in the building of numerous new hotels and guest houses.

Bruneck is characterized by the manufacturing and service industries. Important tourist centers are found all around Bruneck. Especially worthy of mention is the ski resort on Kronplatz mountain.

Brunek Castle

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Church of Assumption

I

Born a Bolognani

grew up in Readsboro Vermont, a tiny town located on the Massachusetts/Vermont border.

The Deerfield and West Branch rivers collide here and continue to scour a small steep valley where the center of town is situated. I was the tenth child of eleven and had five brothers and five sisters. I was surrounded by family, including countless first and second cousins, zias and zios. If you lived in town then we were likely related by blood, or by marriage. On a hill just outside of town, overlooking Lord’s Peak, is the town cemetery. It is the resting place of generations of my family: Jim, Rita, Girardo, Teresa, Quin, Mary. Front: Ernie Bolognanis, Maronis, Chistés, Dassattis, Scaias, Baruzzis, eventually lifted and a bar was added. They were landand Ecchers.

Girardo Lodovico Bolognani was born in Vigo Cavedine lords to two additional families in that building and sevin 1893 to Giacomo and Maria (Chisté) Bolognani. He eral small businesses that rented store fronts- a barber, a left his family and emigrated to the United States as a grocery store and a hardware and plumbing supply store. young man of 19 and arrived in Readsboro Vermont in They soon added an apartment building on School Street 1912 where he joined a community of other hard work- to their real estate holdings, which Nono upgraded by ing and industrious Tyroleans. He met and married my adding beautiful custom built-in cabinetry. In his retireNona, Teresa Rosa Maroni, the daughter of immigrants ment, Nono began a paint and wallpaper business that Amadeo Maroni and Fiore Chisté from Pre de Ledro. complimented the hardware and plumbing store owned They were married in 1920 and had five children. My by his father in law. My father and uncle purchased the father was their eldest son and was christened Giacamo commercial restaurant building and businesses from their Amadeo, but was fondly referred to as Jimmy or Jim. He parents and my mother and father expanded both busihad two older sisters; Mary Flora and Clarinda Margaret; nesses and ran them until they retired. My brothers and a younger sister Rita Helen and a younger brother Ernest sisters and I grew up working in Jerry’s Hardware and Girardo. Girardo Bolognani was a carpenter, builder and The Readsboro Inn. The property was sold out of the painter by trade and was known in the region as a good family in 2002. businessman and civic leader. In 1932 he and Nona purchased a restaurant on Main Street. Nono continued to work as a carpenter while Nona served meals and ran the business. They lived upstairs over the restaurant and eventually purchased the property and renovated their living quarters to become rooms for rent, thereby turning the restaurant into The Readsboro Inn. Prohibition was

Summer Sundays were family picnic days at Nono & Nona’s camp on Lake Sadawga in Whitingham Vermont.

I was only five years old when Nono passed away, so my memories of him are few. I do, however, remember trying to tip toe past him at the camp as he napped one day after lunch on the couch. The daily paper was casually draped over his face. I don’t know why I remember this interaction specifically, but I suspect that he frightened me by growling at me as I went by. He had a wonderful, playful trait that my father was lucky to inherit. Nono and Nona began holding an annual family reunion at their camp. The reunion brought together Nona’s siblings and their families. The Maroni reunion is still held every summer on the second Saturday of August at the Lions’ Readsboro Family Park. Written by Judy Teresa (Bolognani) Trow, Walpole, New Hampshire

.Girardo & Teresa Bolognani - 50th Wedding Anniversay 1970

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M

Re-imagining Christmas...

any years ago, I faced a parental dilemma as I objected strongly to the commercialization of Christmas since I felt strongly my role and function to teach our five children. In addition, I was conflicted as I set out to reconcile my knowledge of scripture, theology, mythology and my Tyrolean heritage. What evolved was truly singular…so many have said.

Thirty nine years ago, I created or crafted my presepio and situated it in front of my house on my front lawn. It First Sunday of Advent-the manager Isaiah, John the Baptizer, a cow and donkey...and hay. is simply became an extension and an example of the Tyrolean humanism and sacramentalizing of our God that I learned from my immigrant parents. It began as a Boy's Scout project in 1979 with just seven figures and it has grown to over 50 figures. The figures are all made of plywood with the painted images of the various crèche personalities and/ or animals. The stable and a few figures at a time begin appearing beginning on the first Sunday in Advent and progressively until Christmas Day and up to February 2, the old conclusion of the Christmas season. It is an orchestrated and synthesized liturgical, biblical, ethnic, local, family, and personal celebration all wrap up in one.

It has become a tradition in my neighborhood and has been reported in the newspapers. Allow me to introduce it to you...

Four Sundays before Christmas Day, we begin the Advent season, we set out the Advent Wreath, a soliday light in every window…and the presepio stable is erected

with rough timbers and hay. The first and foremost figures are those of Isaiah and John the Baptizer along with a cow and donkey. Isaiah and John are the prophetic precursors and prophets of the messianic era and times. They were also the prime sources of our family's Advent readings. Keeping Christmas out of Advent, there are no lights and no other figures. In the same biblio-liturgical spirit, on December 6, the feast of St Nicholas, who is reminiscent of our ancestors, Nicola Brunelli with his brother Francesco who lead our family tree in the year of 1502. The St. Nicholas's figure first appears at the front door early in the morning depicted as a kneeling and praying Santa Claus, the posture that I assume that he has as he now stands in the presence of God in paradise where he prays for us by virtue of his status in the ecclesial community of the Church.

Attached to his figure there are five lunch bags of candy, chocolates, and other goodies for my children. Similarly, on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the figure of the Virgin Mary comes nocturnly …clandestively to the front door with another set of five bags of goodies for the Brunelli children. On December 13, the feast of St. Lucy, a Tyrolean tradition, again at the front door, there appears the figure of St. Lucy with her donkey with another set of bags of goodies. Lucy is the nocturnal clandesdine gift giver in the Tyrol. Good children get candies and bad children get donkey droppings. Lucy's name means light and is consistent with the themes of light and darkness of winter and the Advent season. In 1600, my Brunelli Family were responsible for the crafting of a side altar dedicated to Santa Luzia (dialectal spelling) in Rango of the Val delle Giudicarie of the Welschtirol. Jumping ahead, on January 6, the old Italian witch, la Befana, yet another nocturnal Christmas visitor, comes along with the Magi to the front door with the same charming routine of goodies. After each of these "personalities"

December 6, Feast of St. Nicholas, Santa arrives at night December 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception with December 13, Feast of St Lucy, Lucy comes to the door with her donkey and goodies 5 bags of goodies for our children with gifts for our children, 5 bags of goodies

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"personalities" visit us at the front door, they are installed into the crèche. Faithful to the seasons, on January 6, we exchange the figure of the helpless bambino Christ child with a figure of a stand up, royally crowned and configured Christ, reminiscent of the image of the "...Son born to us, the prince of peace, the Lord of Lords, upon whose shoulders rest the dominion.(Isaiah).

During Advent when most homes are already suffused with lights, ours remains relatively dark. On Christmas day, the lights appear and remain lit until February 2, the traditional and liturgical end of the Christmas season. Thus, following the Church's timelines and sequences, we remain vigilantly in darkness in the Advent period anticipating and awaiting our promised redemption. On Christmas day, we celebrate his arrival and turn on the lights and gather almost all the figures and images. Finally, on the Epiphany, our very own Gentile feast manifestation, the pinnacle of celebration is reached and winds down to February 2, when we turn off the lights as the Christmas season concludes and Simeon's biblical expression for that Candlemas day reads "...dismiss thy servant (and the crèche as well) for I have seen the light of the gentiles..." ( Luke). The lights are extinguished and the season concludes...

Each of my five children are represented in the crèche in the mode that was pertinent during the time period when their respective figures were produced. Hence, Justin, our oldest, is represented in his Cub Scout uniform with the indicia of his Town of Cortlandt scout troop. To repeat, it was his religion badge project that first inspired and initiated the construction of the presepio. Christian, my second son, is represented as a Town of Cortlandt little league baseball player. In that year, he had a very distinguished season and hit a grand slam home run over the fence on his mother's birthday.

Jeremy, the most athletic of my children, was represented with his Town of Cortlandt. American Youth Soccer Organization uniform. He is there in uniform, with his soccer ball and his distinctive curly hair. Maria, my only and favorite daughter, is represented with a Tyrolean derndel dress. It is reminiscent of my family's ethnic origins in the Sud Tryol or Welchtirol of the Trentino in now Northern Italy. The dress was bought on our honeymoon in Europe in 1969 and remained closeted for years while we saw the birth of three boys and waited patiently for the emergence of the dress and a daughter to wear it. She was adorable in the dress and that year won the Halloween costume contest as a Tyrolean girl. She holds in her hand a bouquet of

Alpine flowers that are so special to our area. The flowers include the Stella Alpina, the Edelweiss that I have often risked life and limb in retrieving on the precipices in the Dolomite Alps that are the environment of our ancestry. Finally, Joseph is represented in his Tyrolean outfit, his leiderhosen, along with alpine flowers and his favorite and still cherished Teddy Bear. I have appropriated for myself the figure of St. Francis as the craftsman of this crèche. Francis is also my alter ego since he reinforces my ethnocentricity as well as my eccen- Christmas day, the blind, deaf, lame, the risen, and tricity. Mistakenly, Mother Teresa along poor children appear my all too reticent wife was represented by one of the reporters in the newspaper article as the Befana, the Italian witch. Ho, ho she is not even Italian and hardly a witch! Befana really represents my mom, my children's ever generous and loving nona. Befana flies through night seeking the Christ Child and wherever she finds a child leaves a gift. There are also figures of a lion, a leopard, a wolf, a kid, and bear. These are images and conceptualizations of Isaiah and not mine.

On that day...the wolf shall be the guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox....There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge ofthe Lord.(Isaiah).The juxtaposition of these opposite animals, their atypical activities of eating hay, remaining docile, and associating with their natural enemies or prey or predators....all bespeaks of the futuristic vision of Isaiah who sees messianic times as being symbolized by the presence of these animals on the holy mountain, living in concord, in a new age, and in a new Christmas day..Isaiah’s animals: Wolf, lamb, Lion, Leopard, and the Bear creation ushered in

by God's incarnating himself with his creatures. Their presence are symbols and witness to the arrival and initiation of messianic times despite the presence of all our wars and violence and discord...principle and in 33

Christmas day..All the animals of our environment appear

wars and violence and discord...In principle and in hope, we too indeed await new heavens and new earth in which we will be renewed.

There are five or really ten other figures that are the fulfillment of the prophecies regarding the arrival of the messiah. They are the figures of a blind man seeing, a deaf man hearing, a lame man walking, a mummy arisen, and Sister Teresa surrounded by ragged multi-racial children. It is Isaiah's images again that are in evidence: On that day, the deaf shall hear the words of a book; and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord, the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel...(Isaiah) Christ himself corroborates these very images and uses them to respond to a delegation sent by John the Baptizer to satisfy their curiosity and to determine whether he was the long awaited one. To demonstrate his presence and the announcement of the arrival of his messianic times, he says: Go back and tell John what you have heard and seen: the blind see, cripples walk, the deaf hear, the dead rise, and the poor have the good news preached to them...(Matthew) The arrival of Christ no longer makes present these same

Epiphany-Everyone is gathered-Shepherds, Magi, Befana, Santa, animals, our five

physical and miraculous phenomena yet believers in this day and age who are the poor in spirit and have experienced his presence through his word witness these phenomena in their hearts. The vision of these believers continue to see spiritual and moral blindness, deafness, 34

lameness and even death transformed and changed by his presence. There are figures of as many of the animals that surrounded us in the Town of Cortlandt Manor where we live that were significant or visible to my children. These included a deer, a rabbit, a squirrel, a raccoon, a possum, a dog, cats, rats, mice, turtles, frogs, ground hogs, a robin, a sparrow, a cardinal, a blue jay, the state bird, and a hamster, Joseph's hamster who died in December three years before. They are legitimately present and postured in the presepio since their creaturehood along with ours was dignified with the commingling of God with his creation. His incarnating of his Divinity brings a dignity and a reverence to all creation and to all our environment. Even the ant and the mouse are equally blessed and share the joy and presence of the redeemer.

We have appropriated the Star of Bethlehem by asserting its plausible scientific basis. One of our children made the star the topic of his science report.

Fresh from an exposition from the Hayden Planetarium in NYC, he asserted that the "star" Epiphany-the Magi & Befana arrive and a stand up was possibly a The Christ Child,,crowned. conjunction of planets that actually occurred during the time period of the Gospel's Infancy accounts. It was in the "eastern skies" in the constellation of Pisces, the constellation reserved and designated for the " Hebrew people". The Magi, astrologers, star gazers, could well understand the portent of such cosmic phenomena. To such people, the happenings in nature were indications of happenings in their societies; hence, they came to pay homage to the focus and cause of such cosmic events. Significantly, the incarnation of a God, the Creator of the stars of night, could very well have either touch directly or mingle coincidentally with the course of nature as they waited and "...groaned...for redemption." (Romans).

The very "obedience" of the cosmic creatures further applaud His Creative presence as they revel in their very own renewed dignity. The beckoning star summons the gathering of the nations represented in the arrival of the Befana and the esoteric Magi.Hence, we, too, the gathered and multicultural nations, the once rejected Gentiles receive our Epiphany, the manifestation of the Lord...I would welcome any suggestions from you for new and yet more insightful ways to configure this mystery.

Give it some thought as you look around remembering always that some day, we will see the realities that we now merely configure in sign and symbol. We will pass beyond the shadows and symbols and see things as they really are with no need of either plywood or paint...

Rather than curse the darkness of our season's commercialization of these holidays, I have lit a candle to illuminate the understanding and the spirit of Christmas for myself, my family and perhaps for those who pass by our house. Francis himself lamented the opulence and the commercialization of his medieval church; he scolded the popes and bishops and called them to poverty of spirit. While Pope Urban was building a new and magnificent and no longer remembered basilica in Rome, Francis defied and decried his culture and builds a portiuncula, a little house and a manger and proclaims the presence of God in his town, in his friends, in his nation, in his animals, and in all creation...Rather than to express a much deserved

Our Contributors are . . .

humbug to the distractions of our holidays, I have tried to sublimate and restore them for myself and my family. Perhaps eccentric but nonetheless resourceful, my crèche and these thoughts are my efforts to integrate and celebrate my understanding of the season, my God, my ethnicity, my family, my town, and my environment...

Concurrent with the progressive production of images and concepts, I did a lot of research and became a quasi-Christmasologist. I gathered and organized all that I had learned into a 300 slide powerpoint presentation and began doing presentations throughout the metro area of NY…but also in the city of Trento, Telve and Pergine Valsugana, Revo` of the Val di Non, Ponte Arche. Rango and Comighello of the Val delle Giudicarie and Vezzano of the Val dei Laghi.It is then in the spirit of all these traditions that I wish you a BON NADAL.... I wish you new visions and new images and a new feeling about the hopefulness of all our futures.(Regretably, the printing of this was delayed)

Lou’s Album-Isabella

Alberto Folgheraiter-Author, Journalist-Trento Francesco Gubert- Agronomist, Author, Val di Ledro Judy Teresa (Bolognani)Trow, Walpole, New Hampshire Lynn Berreiter, Bokeelia, Florida Maria Teresa Garber-Katonah, New York Mario Gabos, Annapolis, Maryland Riccardo Decarli - Biblioteca della Montagna, Trento Thomas Auschöll-IDM Suditirol

Photo Credits...

Cover: Wikipedia;pages 4-5 Val-Pusteria.net;suedtirolland.net;wikipedia; pages 6-7 ValPusteria.net;suedtirolland.net;wikipedia; pages 8-9 Val-Pusteria.net;suedtirolland.net;wikipedia; pages 10-1119141918-Online Encyclopedia; page 13 wikipedia; pages 14-15 Museo Ladino; page Wikipedia; page 16 Wikipedia; page 18, Flavio Faganello, Museo degli Ui e Costumi della Gente Trentina 35

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