Italian America Magazine Summer 2014

Italian Heroes

The Partisans of WWII

Daughters & Dads: A Lifelong Bond

Talk of Love

Meet Novelist Christopher Castellani

A Place on the Team Italian Americans in Sports

A Gala Celebration The Sons of Italy Foundation® NELA

E SID R R IN

E ELF M M SH

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ITALIAN AMERICA

SUMMER 2014

VOL. XIX No. 3

Italian America Th e O ff i c i a l Pu b l i c a ti o n o f t h e O r d e r S o n s o f I t a ly i n A m e r i c a ®

Features

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ITALIA COMBATTE!

The WWII Resistance in Italy

By Peter Drago

12 18

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ALL THIS TALK OF LOVE

Meet Novelist Christopher Castellani

By Susan Jensen

DAUGHTERS AND DADS

A Lifelong Influence

By Donna DiCello & Lorraine Mangione

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE The Sons of Italy Foundation 2014 Gala

By Dona De Sanctis

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A PLACE ON THE TEAM Italian Americans in Sports

By Gerald Gems

ON THE COVER: Highlights from the 2014 SIF NELA Gala. Clockwise from the top: Justice Sam Alito; Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi with Sen. Christopher Dodd; Secretary Leon Panetta; LTG Flora Darpino with Gen. Raymond Odierno; and Labor’s Robert Scardelletti and Harry Lombardo. Photos by Max Taylor. [See story on page 18.]

2 High Profile 3 National News 4 Oggi in Italia 5 Pagina Italiana 9 Book Club

D e pa r t m e n t s

15 It’s “Only” a Movie 16 On the Bulletin Board 17 Giovinezza!

29 Fighting Stereotypes (CSJ)

30 OSIA Nation 32 Letters to the Editor 33 The Last Word 34 The Sons of Italy Shoppers Guide

Italian America is published by The Order Sons of Italy in America® 219 E Street, NE • Washington, DC 20002 • Tel: 202/547-2900 • Web: www.osia.org Editor-in-Chief Dona De Sanctis, Ph.D. ddesanctis@osia.org Writers Carol Elfo Cummings, Diane Crespy, Peter Drago, Donna Di Cello, Gerald Gems, Emil Imbro, Susan Jensen, Lorraine Mangione Graphic Designers Krystyne Hayes, Diane Vincent To advertise: Call Pat Rosso at 215/206-4678. Email: pieassociates@comcast.net. See www.osia.org for advertising rates, specs, demographics, etc.

Italian America Magazine is a publication of the Order Sons of Italy in America® (OSIA), the nation’s biggest and oldest organization for people of Italian heritage. To subscribe, see www.osia.org or call 1-800-552-6742.

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ITALIAN AMERICA

High Profile OF SPECIAL NOTE

PETER ARCIDIACONO, a researcher at Duke University, recently led a study that found a possible reason why women are less likely to be highly paid professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. His study indicates that high grades rather than less aptitude might be the reason. Women college students tend to aim for straight As and drop out of disciplines where they get Bs or lower. However, the college majors that tend to lead to high income jobs are less likely to award As. Apparently, male students are not as afraid of getting Bs as women are, and are rewarded for this later in life.

DORIAN DeSANTIS was honored recently by the Washington DC Police Foundation for his heroism during last year’s shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. DeSantis, a DC police officer, fired the shots that killed the gunman, Aaron Alexis September 16, 2013 after he murdered 12 people. Another officer, Michael Abate flew the victims by helicopter to hospitals.

DAVID GALLO is an experienced hunter of plane wrecks at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was among the experts consulted after the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March. In 2011, Gallo led the team that found the black boxes from an Air France jet two years after it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

LUCA MAESTRI will take over the reins as Apple’s chief financial officer in September. He was born in Rome and spent 20 years at General Motors before joining Apple in 2013. As Apple CFO, he will handle the finances of the world’s largest tech company.

NIC PIZZOLATTO, novelist, screenwriter and producer, created the HBO hit, “True Detectives,” starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. The 8-part series was so successful that a second season of filming is underway.

DISCOUNTS GALORE! Visit www.osia.org’s “Market Place” section for special OSIA membership discounts on Italian products, language lessons, fine stationery products, genealogy research, travel and more! Also see the Shoppers Guide in this issue.

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Italian Americans in the NEWS

IN MEMORIAM

CHARLES BARSOTTI, whose simply drawn cartoons and subtle humor ran in the New Yorker magazines for many years, died of brain cancer June 16 in Kansas City, Mo. He was 80. Beginning in the 1960s, he published more than 1,300 cartoons in the magazine that took special aim at kings, psychiatrists, and greedy businessmen.

JULIA CUNIBERTI, who served in the OSS during WWII, died from a fall in Riverdale, NY February 8.

She was 90. Highly educated, she was the Americanborn daughter of an Italian lawyer in Washington, DC. She joined the OSS, a precursor of the CIA, to process intelligence material from Europe in French, Italian and German. After the war she worked for the OSS in Europe and later she became a public school art teacher.

AL PLASTINO, a comic book artist who drew many superheroes, including Superman and Batman, died Nov. 25, 2013 in New York of prostate cancer. He was 91. A prolific Superman illustrator of the 1950s who drew for newspaper comic strips, Plastino also worked as a comics writer and editor. He co-created Supergirl, Brainiac and the teenage team, the Legion of Super Heroes.

STEVE ROSSI of the comedy team Allen & Rossi, died of esophageal cancer June 22 in Las Vegas at age 82. He appeared regularly on shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and Merve Griffin. The team broke up in 1968. Early in his career, he performed with Mae West.

JERRY VALE, whose warm baritone voice brought him fame and fortune in the 1950s and ‘60s, died May 18 in Palm Desert, Ca at age 83. He was born Genaro Vitaliano in the Bronx and became a popular recording artist, nightclub performer and television guest star. Among his hits, “You Don’t Know Me” and “Amore Scusami.”

MASSIMO VIGNELLI, the Italian designer who gave the subway maps and signs of Washington, DC and New York City their signature, but simple look, died May 27 in New York City. He was 83. Trained in Milan, he came to the U.S. in the 1960s with his wife. Together they founded a successful design firm that created business logos, books, furniture, dishware and shopping bags, including Bloomingdale’s Big Brown Bag. ITALIAN AMERICA

National News

Italian American issues and events

“Unbroken” Hero’s Story Coming to Silver Screen Unbroken, the incredible survival story of Louis Zamperini will be released in movie theaters later this year by Angelina Jolie, who directed and produced the film. It is based on Unbroken, the best-selling book by Laura Hillenbrand about Zamperini who endured starvation, torture, and disease as a POW of the Japanese during World War II.

raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Seven years after competing in the 1936 Olympics, Zamperini, a rising American track star, was drafted into Louis Zamperini the U.S. Army during the Second World at age 19 in the War Shortly after that, his military plane 1936 Olympics crashed and he found himself on a life

A preview of Unbroken is on YouTube. Narrated by Tom Brokaw, it blends footage from the movie with actual interviews with Zamperini, who died July 3 at age 97.

Zamperini spent 47 days drifting more than 2,000 miles until he was captured and tortured by the Japanese for two and a half years. Miraculously, he survived, but was a troubled alcoholic for many years until he met the Rev. Billy Graham and became a born-again Christian.

Zamperini at age 81 in the 1998 Olympics

Sons of Italy Launches Membership Contest Looking to attract new members to your lodge? Throw a party. That’s what the Royal Gorge Lodge in Canon City, Colorado did last year when it hosted the city’s firstever Italian festival. More than 2,100 people came to try Italian food, dances, and crafts while learning about the Sons of Italy®. It will now be a yearly event.

vice president. “We are looking for success stories,” says Longo. “All lodges that have developed and implemented a creative, innovative plan that increased membership, are eligible,” he says.

“OSIA is looking for creative ideas like this one to help lodges increase their membership,” says National President Anthony Baratta. To find them, he has established a Membership Contest for lodges that have held successful campaigns and are willing to share their tips.

Submissions will be judged on OSIA’s National content, presentation, and docuMembership Commentation. First prize is $350; secmission Chairman ond prize is $250; and third prize Dan Longo is $100. All three winners will be featured in the magazine. The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2014.

The contest is organized by OSIA’s National Membership Commission, chaired by Dan Longo, national 2nd

“The committee is sure there are many great ideas out there,” Longo says. “We hope our lodges will share them.”

Membership Contest

The first Italian Festival in Canon City, Colorado helped attract new members to the local Sons of Italy® lodge.

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Submissions should include the number of members at the beginning of the membership drive; the number at the end; and the duration of the program.

Deadline: October 31, 2014. Send to Dr. Mark DeNunzio 1201 Ariola Drive Pensacola Beach, FL 32561. Email entries also accepted. Send to: denunziodds@yahoo.com ITALIAN AMERICA SUMMER 2014 3

Oggi in Italia

Italy’s news, politics and culture

Italy’s First Black Minister

By Carol Elfo Cummings

In 2013, then-Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta appointed the country’s first black cabinet minister, Cecile Kyenge as minister of integration, a position she continues to hold under Italy’s current leader, Matteo Renzi.

Kyenge, 48, entered Italy from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1983 as a clandestine immigrant.

Eventually, she married an engineer from Calabria, had two daughters, and became an Italian citizen. She went on to earn a medical degree from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome; and is an ophthalmologist at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in northern Italy. She entered politics in 2004 at the district level in Modena and later became the provincial councilor in Modena for the Democratic Party.

As minister of integration, Kyenge says a high priority will be changing Italy’s citizenship law. Currently, foreigners’ children who are born in Italy are not granted citi-

zenship. She wants to change that by implementing citizenship ius soli, or by birth.

Immigration issues will figure prominently in Italy’s future. The country’s Cecile Kyenge, Italy’s first black cabinet minister, is in charge of population has been immigration issues. shrinking since the end of WWII. According to ISTAT, the Italian government’s bureau of statistics, 8,000 fewer children were born there during the first four months of 2013 compared to the same period last year. Immigrants to Italy are the only ones adding to the population.

Since her cabinet appointment, Kyenge has been the target of cultural and racial attacks by politicians belonging to the right wing Lega Nord [Northern League] that also advocates separating northern Italy from the south.

Petrosino Murder Solved

By Dona De Sanctis

The wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine, a saying that proved true in the case of Giuseppe (Joseph) Petrosino. It took more than 100 years, but the Italian police have finally identified the man who murdered Petrosino, the first Italian American NYPD detective, who was assassinated in Palermo in 1909.

In June, Italian authorities announce the name of the man who murdered NYPD Detective Joseph Petrosino. [Splash News Photo]

In June, the Italian police arrested 95 suspected Mafiosi in Palermo. One of them, Domenico Palazzotto, 29, was caught boasting during a wiretapped telephone call that his great uncle, Paolo Palazzotto had killed Petrosino.

At the turn of the last century, Petrosino was famous for taking aim at La Mano Nera, the Black Hand, a network of Italian gangs that preyed on the early immigrants in New York City’s Little Italy. In March 1909, he went to Palermo to investigate the Black Hand’s ties with the Sicilian Mafia. It was a secret mission, but the American

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press blew his cover before he left New York. Petrosino refused to cancel the trip, however, because he believed the Mafia would not kill a police officer – a fact that was true in Manhattan, but not in Palermo. He was shot in downtown Palermo in front of a church while waiting to meet an informant.

Petrosino’s family was both shocked and excited to hear the news, according to the New York Post. “I’m happy that the Italian police and the NYPD never gave up searching for the killer of my great uncle,” Petrosino’s great nephew, Joseph, 67, told the Post. He is a retired assistant district attorney in Brooklyn while his son, Petrosino’s great-great-nephew Joseph, 28, is a NYPD police officer.

Petrosino remains the only NYPD officer ever killed abroad. A park in Manhattan’s Little Italy and a Long Island City School are named in his memory.

ITALIAN AMERICA

Pagina Italiana

Per chi studia la nostra lingua

Tutto Sul Gelato

Durante l’estate in Italia, la gelateria è il luogo più affollato della città. Il gelato piace a tutti – sia bambini che adulti. Ma qual’è la storia di questo dolce delizioso?

Le Origini

Non è facile attribuire una “paternità” al gelato. Alcuni la fanno risalire addirittura alla Bibbia: Isacco, offrendo ad Abramo latte di capra misto a neve, avrebbe inventato il primo “mangia e bevi” della storia. Altri, invece, la affidano agli antichi Romani che si distinsero ben presto grazie alle loro “nivatae potiones”, veri e propri dessert freddi fatti di neve.

Il cono fu inventato dall’italo-americano Italo Marchioni nel 1904.

Due Varietà Di Gelato

Dal punto di vista produttivo e della lavorazione, esistono due varietà ben distinte di gelato: il gelato artigianale e il gelato industriale.

Una gelateria artigianale dove il gelato contiene solo materie prime fresche.

Bisogna però aspettare il Cinquecento per assistere al trionfo di questo alimento. In particolare, è Firenze a rivendicare l’invenzione del gelato ‘moderno’, che per primo utilizza il latte, la panna e le uova. Golosa innovazione che si deve all’architetto Bernardo Buontalenti. Altro grande epigono del gelato fu anche un gentiluomo palermitano, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli che, trasferitosi a Parigi alla corte del Re Sole, aprì il primo caffè-gelateria della storia, il tuttora famosissimo caffè Procope.

La Storia Moderna

Ma la storia moderna di questo goloso alimento comincia ufficialmente quando l’italiano Filippo Lenzi, alla fine del XVIII secolo, aprì la prima gelateria in terra americana.

Il gelato si diffuse a tal punto da stimolare una nuova invenzione: il cono inventato nel 1904 da Italo Marchioni, un immigrante italiano della città di New York.

Il primo gelato industriale su stecco, il Mottarello al fiordilatte nasce in Italia nel 1948. Gli anni 70 e la diffusione del freezer domestico battezzano invece il primo secchiello formato famiglia, il Barattolino.

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Quella artigianale è caratterizzato dall’uso di materie prime fresche. Rispetto a quello industriale può presentare le seguenti differenze: il prodotto è solitamente fresco e prodotto dallo stesso rivenditore ed ha minore quantità di grassi e d’aria.

Il gelato industriale è prodotto molti mesi prima del consumo, con l›impiego preparati e di materie prime come latte in polvere, succhi di frutta concentrati, e di additivi come coloranti, emulsionanti, stabilizzanti e aromi. I gelati industriali vengono detti anche soffiati, perché prodotti con l›introduzione di aria, durante la fase di gelatura, fino al 100-130 per cento, per cui diventano molto soffici e leggeri.

Il Consumo Del Gelato in Italia

Il consumo del gelato in Italia continua a crescere.

Si calcola un consumo annuale superiore a 15 Kg (33 libre) a persona. Una spesa di 5 miliardi di euro ($6.8 miliardi) per l’acquisto di coppe, coni, bastoncini e vaschette, per il 60% artigianali e per il 40% industriali.

Fonti: L’Istituto del Gelato Italiano & pocketcultures.com

In estate gli italiani vanno in vacanza dove consumano chili di gelato!

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Italian Partisans in WWII

As the ambulance approached a Nazi checkpoint about 30 miles north of Rome, the patient lying in the back remained calm. Alberto, a veteran of many such encounters, knew one wrong move would result in instant execution.

behind the German lines as Italian citizens engaged in a life-or-death battle with their former Fascists rulers. Peter Tompkins, an American journalist, who spied for the Allies in Italy during the war says, “The contribution of Italian anti-Fascist partisans to the campaign in Italy in World War II has long been neglected.”

A German soldier poked his head inside the vehicle, rifle in hand, and saw three male orderlies attending to a pale man in a bloodstained shirt, who appeared to be at death’s door.

After a brief search, the guard let them through.

One hour later, the four men stopped near a railroad track and jumped from the ambulance. While three of them used crowbars to bend the track, Alberto planted an explosive device a few yards down from where the train would de-rail. Aboard were several Nazi and Fascist officers carrying important papers describing the German defenses around Rome that they had to deliver the Nazi High Command in the north.

Thirty minutes later, as the four men drove to their safe house, they heard a loud explosion. Their mission was a success.

Author Leon Weckstein recounts this episode in his book, 200,000 Heroes, which documents the bravery of Italian partisans in World War II. During the war, Weckstein was a SUMMER 2014

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One of an estimated 200,000 Italian partisans in WWII.

23-year-old U.S. Army staff sergeant fighting in Italy where he worked closely with members of the Italian Resistance.

The train derailment Weckstein writes about was only one of hundreds of similar acts of heroism carried out each month by the Italian men and women partisans. Much of the written history of World War II in Italy describes the struggle between the Allied forces slowly fighting their way north and meeting strong resistance from the Nazis occupying Italy, but relatively little is mentioned about the “civil war” that was taking place

By 1942, Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party had governed Italy with an iron hand for 20 years. His grandiose vision of a new Roman Empire led him to join forces with Adolf Hitler’s Germany that resulted in sending illequipped Italian military on ill-fated missions to Greece and North Africa.

Finally, in July 1943, Mussolini was ousted and ordered arrested by King Vittorio Emanuele III. Two months later, the Allied forces landed armies in southern Italy. Italy surrendered but with dire

Monuments to the heroism of local partisans are found all over Italy. This one is in Lissone, near Milan.

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consequences for both her troops and civilians. Betrayed by their former ally, the German army captured and sent over 600,000 Italian military to labor camps and then occupied Italy. Himmler’s SS became more aggressive in hunting down Italian Jewish citizens and sending them to concentration camps. Any Italian suspected of sympathizing with the Allies was arrested, tortured, and often executed. Italy’s hopes for a speedy liberation from her German oppressors vanished when bad weather and the Germans’ easily defended positions in key cities and territories slowed the invading British and American armies to a crawl.

Fighting Back In this climate of terror and intimidation, Italian partisan groups began forming to fight the Nazi occupation of their country. When Italy surrendered in September, 1943, many of her soldiers deserted their units, raided supply depots, and fled to the mountains. A famous raid on a Berretta factory in October 1943 liberated a large cache of sub-machine guns being made for the German army.

Over a period of weeks, these soldiers, along with other Italians, who had escaped from prison camps, and volunteers from the local villages formed partisan units of various sizes.

Their superior knowledge of the confusing mountainous terrain allowed them to strike German units quickly and then disappear, only to strike again at some other location.

In March, 1944, for example, Italian partisans freed 64 Jewish prisoners from the Servigliano Prison Camp near the Adriatic coast. The Fascists recaptured 30 of them, but the following June, a partisan raid freed these 30 along with 60 more who had just been

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mand centers. They also set up safe houses to hide Jewish families and escaped political prisoners.

Women Partisans

Partisan Irma Bandiera was captured, tortured and executed by the Fascists, but never betrayed her fellow resistance fighters.

She was 29 years old.

transferred to Servigliano, according to Leon Weckstein.

Such acts of sabotage forced the partisans to live under the harshest of conditions, sometimes going days without food while exposed to the cold rain that was present for most of the fall. Eventually they became more organized and communicated with each other through a radio station known as Italia Combatte (Italy Fights).

Sgt. Manuel Serrano, an American G.I. from Brooklyn, escaped from a German prison camp on the Adriatic coast and fought with the partisans for 20 months before reuniting with his unit. Author Donald L. Miller relates how Serrano described the usefulness of this radio. “Every night we’d turn on the radio to listen to our signal, ‘Sole tra monti (the sun is between the mountains).’ When we heard that signal we’d take down our instructions for the next raid.”

In big cities like Rome and Naples, partisan units set up spy networks to gain intelligence from German com-

Over 35,000 women were members of partisan groups, most of them between the ages of 20 and 29. Mainly, their roles were non-combative.

They supplied food and moved weapons, but a number of women actually fought. After seeing her husband shot and her brother imprisoned by the Fascists, Gina Borellini took her place alongside the men in battle and eventually lost a leg in a fight against an overwhelming German force.

The partisan, Carla Capponi was a vice commander of her squad when she assassinated a Nazi officer in front of the Hotel Excelsior on Rome’s Via Veneto and took his briefcase, containing important information about the German defense of the city. She also participated in the famous raid that killed 33 of Hitler’s elite SS troops in the heart of Rome. Orders from Berlin demanded the reprisal killings of ten Italians for every dead German.

The result was the massacre of 335 innocent men in the Ardeatine Caves on March 24, 1944. Today, it is a national shrine dedicated to their memory.

A group of Italian women partisans. Nearly 700 women partisans were killed or wounded.

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Among the most tragic examples of heroism is Irma Bandiera, who was captured by the Fascists when they caught her smuggling weapons outside Bologna. She was tortured for a week, eventually blinded, and finally shot, but she never gave up the names and plans of her fellow partisans. She was 29 years old. After the war, she was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Valor, Italy’s highest honor for heroism. Sixteen other women partisans were also so honored.

Partisans and the OSS The American Office of Strategic Service (OSS), a forerunner of today’s CIA, saw the value of helping the Italian partisans. It airdropped arms and supplies, and sent undercover American military, including the aforementioned Peter Tompkins, to work with them behind enemy lines.

Classified documents released 20 years ago by the CIA reveal how Tompkins organized partisans in the mountains above Anzio, just south of Rome, in January 1944 when the American forces landed there to begin their assault on the Germans occupying Italy. The partisans were in constant radio communication with American commanders, relaying information about German troop movements towards the beach, greatly contributing to the Allies’ eventual victory.

Many OSS officers were firstgeneration Italian Americans who spoke Italian fluently and understood the culture. One of these was Mario Fiorentini, who worked with the partisan, Alfredo Michelagnoli, better known as “Fred.” After the liberation of Rome, these two men organized a new partisan force to continue the fighting in the north. For this purpose they recruited several former officers from the Italian Army who became

invaluable colleagues to Fiorentini in the operations ahead.

As Mussolini and Hitler discovered to their regret, Italian men and women fought with an unexpected fierceness to destroy Fascism and rid their country of the Nazis forever.

Peter Drago is a retired college professor, living in Kennesaw, GA. His novel, The Partisans: Sons and Daughters was a Sons of Italy National Book Club selection this year. It is available at Amazon.com and Kindle. Contact him at pdrago24@gmail.com

The Italian Resistance: The Facts

• Winston Churchill wrote of captured Allied soldiers in Italy, “… at least 10,000 Allied servicemen were … guided to safety, thanks to the risks taken by members of the Italian Resistance and the people of the countryside.”

• Field Marshall Albert Kesselring, one of Nazi Germany’s most skillful commanders, who led Hitler’s occupying military forces in Italy, estimated that the 200,000 Italian partisans fighting were responsible for over 30,000 Germans killed or wounded in the summer of 1944.

• On April 27, 1945, the Italian partisan, Umberto Lazzaro was checking a column of trucks containing SS troops heading back to defeated Germany when he spotted Benito Mussolini. He immediately arrested him and turned him over for execution.

• According to one estimate, the Italian Resistance Movement suffered nearly 50,000 casualties between killed and wounded, including 683 women.

• In all, German or Fascist forces killed some 70,000 Italians (including both partisans and civilians) for Resistance activities. Ultimately, however, these figures do not indicate the extent of civilian participation in the Resistance, which scholars continue to debate, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

As Tompkins notes, during the crucial battles of Anzio in January and February 1944, the partisans gathered and sent extremely accurate information about German attack plans via a secret OSS radio in Rome. [Editor’s Note: for Peter Tompkins’ riveting and detailed eye-witness accounting of the OSS and Italian partisans see www. cia.gov] SUMMER 2014

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The Sons of Italy

Book Club

SUMMER 2014 Selections

The Secrets of Italy

Carving a Niche for Himself Mona Lisa

By Douglas J. Gladstone

By Dianne Hales

“The Italian paradox” is popularly used to describe the maddening contradictions that make modern day Italy both admired and scorned. Italians are praised for their artistic genius, healthy cuisine, and laid back dolce far niente lifestyle but ridiculed for their inability to deal effectively with crime, bureaucracy, and fragile governments. Few observers, however, have been able to explain why Italy and her people are so complex. In his book, subtitled “People, Places, & Hidden Histories,” cultural historian Augias, who is also a journalist, attempts to do this by looking at the customs, tragedies, and triumphs that have made the Italians who and what they are today. [$26.00; hardcover; 304 pages; Rizzoli ex libris]

Few people know that the Piccirilli brothers carved the Lincoln Memorial, and even fewer are aware that that the master carver of Mount Rushmore was also Italian. In his new biography, subtitled The Untold Story of Luigi Del Bianco, Gladstone reveals the miscarriage of justice that has ignored Luigi Del Bianco and his role in creating America’s iconic monument to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

From 1933 to 1940, Master Carver Del Bianco worked on the monument, which was completed the next year. Gladstone speculates that prejudice against Italian immigrants kept his contributions a secret. Ironically, even today he is not named on the monument’s website. [$12.00; paperback; 132 pages; Bordighera Press]

Every year, more than nine million people visit the Louvre in Paris to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s portrait of a Renaissance matron. The Mona Lisa has perhaps the most recognizable face in the world, but who was the woman behind the iconic portrait? Author Hales, who wrote La Bella Lingua, praising Italy’s language, now studies the country’s most famous woman, inspired by new discoveries about Mona Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo and her life in early 16th century Florence where she was born, raised, and married to the wealthy local merchant who commissioned her portrait. Hales’s study blends history and biography for a fascinating read about the lady with the mysterious smile. [$28.00; paperback; 336 pages; Simon & Schuster]

By Corrado Augias

Also Worth Reading Here in Cerchio

Edited by Constance Sancetta Between 1910 and 1913, an Abbruzzese peasant wrote about 40 letters to his son, who was working in a Pennsylvania coal mine. In his letters, Antonio Vasquenz tells about life in Cerchio, their ancestral village, as he struggles with sickness, death, natural disasters and crushing poverty.

Vasquenz’s letters, sad, colorful and, above all, honest, help explain why nearly 5 million Italians left Italy for America more than 100 years ago. [$45.00; paperback; 156 pages; Bordighera Press]

Italian POWS Speak Out at Last

By Carlo Ferroni During WWII, thousands of Italian troops were captured by Russia, England, and the United States.

The British sent Italian POWs to South Africa, India, and Australia where they suffered from grueling heat and starvation. In Russian camps, conditions were so bad that most of the 60,000 Italian POWs died, but life was much better for the Italian POWs in the U.S. Now, historian Ferroni helps the survivors tell their story in their own words. [$39.00; paperback; 446 pages; Teneo II Press] Reviewed by Dona De Sanctis SUMMER 2014 9 ITALIAN AMERICA

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All This Talk ofLove Meet Novelist Christopher Castellani

By Susan Jensen

In an exclusive interview with Italian America, author Christopher Castellani talks about his trilogy of novels on the fictional Grasso family, who immigrate to America from Italy after WWII. The last novel in the series, All This Talk of Love is a N.Y. Times Book Review Editor’s Choice while his first, A Kiss from Maddalena, was selected by the Sons of Italy National Book Club in 2002.

Castellani’s parents came from a small town near Rieti in central Italy and settled in Delaware after the war. “My family came here for greater economic opportunity, not because they were starving the way the earlier Italian immigrants were at the turn of the 20th century,” he says.

“But, like the fictional Grassos, they still endured loss of country, language, and family.”

He was a model child. “I never rebelled, not even as a teenager,” he says. “I tried hard to give my parents a return on their investment of thousands of minimum wage hours.” Welleducated, Castellani holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College; an M.A. from Tufts University; and an MFA in fiction from Boston University. Today, he is the artistic director of Boston’s Grub Street, one of the country’s leading nonprofit creative writing centers.

He just won a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction.

His trilogy develops chronologically although each novel is a complete story. The first two, A Kiss from Maddalena and The Saint of Lost Things, follow the Grasso family from teenage MadSUMMER 2014

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dalena’s marriage in Italy to her new life in l’America. By the last novel, Maddalena and her husband are elderly; their children and grandchildren, grown and educated.

ITALIAN AMERICA MAGAZINE [IAM]: All This Talk of Love explores many different kinds of love. Did that evolve with the story?

CHRISTOPHER CASTELLANI [CC]: I set out to explore the different types of love – between spouses, parents/children, friends, family. Also, the different way Italians love versus Americans. Americans romanticize love. Italians know building a family together creates enduring love. One of the things mentioned repeatedly in the story is the difference between loving with your heart versus loving with your soul or brain. For my characters, romantic love involves the heart and is not to be trusted.

IAM: You also conveyed a sense of the indignities of aging and grief at death of loved ones, without being depressing.

CC: There are many losses this family endures – the loss of country, language, a young son and the losses that come with old age. I tried to keep the sadness balanced with light so that overall the novel is uplifting. At the end, they remain deeply engaged in life and with each other, the way Italians do. We have a very strong life force.

IAM: Respect is a big issue in Italian families and plays a role in the Grassos’ daily life.

Author Christopher Castellani ITALIAN AMERICA

Castellani’s trilogy of novels about the fictional Grasso family who immigrate to America

CC: Unlike the way Italians are depicted on TV and the movies, real Italian American families value and expect respectful language and behavior from their children. In the novel, even a hint of disrespect from their 45-year- old daughter causes Antonio and Maddalena to quickly put her in her place. That’s a real Italian family.

CC: Maddalena worries not so much about herself, but that there will be no one to protect her family after she is lost completely to dementia. The depth of everyone’s affection for her remains, even when she does not know her own name. I tried to end the novel with a cheerful reminder that all we have is this moment.

IAM: What do you think of the way Italian Americans are portrayed in the media?

IAM: In prior interviews you noted that you speak to your parents nightly, just as Frankie Grasso does.

CC: We are portrayed as cartoonish characters – hysterical, violent, foul-mouthed, and promiscuous. The reality is so very different from that.

CC: I definitely identify with the mammoni, [mamma’s boys] even though I haven’t lived at home in 20 years.

Like Frankie in the novel, I am well aware that the time with my much older parents is growing short.

IAM: Can novels like yours change that image? How? CC: My mission when I write about Italian Americans is first and foremost to tell the most honest story I can. That said, I also want to convey the deep love, respect, strong work ethic, and patriotism common to many of us. I avoid writing about organized crime because that’s simply not a part of the daily lives of most Italian Americans I know.

They are much more focused on hard work and education.

IAM: One of your central characters, Maddalena, develops Alzheimer’s yet even as she progresses into dementia, the novel stays upbeat.

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IAM: Are any of your novels being considered for the movies or television?

CC: An accurate portrayal of Italian American families by the entertainment industry is long overdue. Who knows? Maybe now that the trilogy has been published and is getting a lot of attention, maybe more people will read the books and someone will want to bring the Grassos to life for the modern audience.

Susan Jensen is a free-lance writer in Salisbury, NC. Contact her at suejensen57@gmail.com

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Daughters and

By Donna DiCello and Lorraine Mangione SUMMER 2014

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Dads

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What do Italian American women think of their fathers? When they were children, were their fathers close or distant? Did they spend a lot of time together or was he always at work? And, if their fathers have died, how do these daughters grieve? We explored answers to these questions in Daughters, Dads, and the Path through Grief: Tales from Italian America, our soon-to-be-published study on the Italian American father-daughter relationship and its influence throughout a woman’s life.

As trained psychologists, we knew that our field has traditionally given little importance to the positive aspects of the father-daughter relationship in general and even less specifically on Italian American fathers and daughters.

But recent research indicates that a father’s influence on his daughter is lifelong and much more vital to her emotional, psychological and intellectual development than previously thought.

While actual studies on the subject are scarce, the Italian American father-daughter relationship is shrouded in popular misconceptions and stereotypes. Italian American fathers are believed to favor sons over daughters; to dismiss education; and to be punitive and even harsh. However, our study uncovered evidence that shattered these stereotypes, replacing them with portraits of close, loving, and influential, albeit sometimes conflicted relationships between Italian American fathers and daughters that were rich in complexity.

Our method was simple. We put out a call to interview Italian American women who had basically sound relationships with their fathers. The interview would trace the father-daughter story from childhood into adulthood. In psychology, such in-depth interviews have fewer people in it compared to a survey. We hoped to find 15 to 20 women to interview. We got 51 – nearly triple that number.

The women ranged in age from 33 to 86. Most lived in large northeastern cities, suburbs, and small towns with a few from across the country. They represented a breadth of educational backgrounds – from an 8th grade education to a doctoral degree. Their occupations were a cross-section of the workforce: business owners, artists, writers, secretaries, teachers and teacher’s aides, nurses, attorneys, administrators and administrative assistants – even a film maker and a congresswoman. Their families come from southern Italy and Sicily, with a few from Tuscany and Liguria.

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The complex relationship between Italian American fathers and daughters is explored in this new study.

Early Influence Participants stated that throughout their childhood, they felt the importance of their relationship with their fathers. They recounted instances of shared activities that ranged from reading books; discussing philosophy; and listening to music to playing basketball; swimming; fishing; and working on electronics. Many recalled these activities were marked by great affection and playfulness that sometimes included practical jokes; a sense of adventure that might entail flying in their father’s airplane; or sledding in the winter.

Most participants reported receiving paternal support for their independence, interest in going to school, and having a career. Several women connected with their fathers through church, religion, and spirituality. Although a few women described fathers who wished for or favored sons, most reported warm and close relationships in which they felt valued. Some fathers were particularly empathetic and compassionate. One woman conjectured that this was due to the poor treatment her father received as a young immigrant.

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not be discussed. A few had regrets about topics never discussed, such as a father’s wartime experience or the loss of a family member. The closeness and attention these women remembered having with their fathers contrast to the stereotype of the aloof Italian American father who leaves child-rearing to his wife.

Study participant Anna Daniele (L) being interviewed by Dr. Lorraine Mangione in her bakery and café, “La Fiorentina,” in Springfield, Massachusetts. [Photo: Alessandria Schumaker]

Education was actively promoted by the fathers, whether it was finishing high school or attending college, preferably close to home for many dads. Even graduate work was encouraged although in one case, the father did not understand the field chosen. Several women noted that their fathers had not had the educational opportunities they enjoyed. They believed this strengthened their fathers’ emphasis on education. One participant told of her father taking her to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to speak with the dean about college when she was very young. It was a bit embarrassing, she says, but stimulated her to think about getting a degree.

Fathers and Family Family was the center of the world for the fathers of most participants. Some daughters said their fathers sacrificed for the extended family. Many saw their dads as family story-tellers and jokesters; wonderful sons to their elderly mothers; and lovers of good times with family on a Sunday afternoon at the park or during holiday dinners.

Many fathers expected their daughters to marry and have children. However, domestic life was not necessarily valued above getting an education, entering a profession, or developing one’s talents and abilities.

While many fathers worked long hours, and several were civic-oriented or spent time at Italian clubs, all the participants described their fathers as being “present and involved.” Many had special traditions: going to church and then breakfast with just their father; taking bus rides together; or going to a sports event together. Some women said they could speak with their fathers about “almost anything,” even their boyfriends. They saw their fathers as confidantes.

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Some participants noted their fathers being protective, veering toward over-protection once they reached adolescence. However it was often coupled with tolerance. One woman stated that her father kept her and her siblings “on a short leash,” but she understood his protectiveness, given the number of teen-agers in the family.

For the most part, participants weathered normal teenage conflicts with their dads successfully. Sometimes, fathers were more lenient than mothers. One woman remembered wanting to travel abroad. Her mother vetoed the idea, but her father “asked pertinent questions” and then said yes. Another woman commented that her dad always trusted her when she left home for college and later out of her parents’ home and into a serious relationship.

Later Influence Most women saw their father’s influence extending throughout their lives. One woman’s family smiles at her remarkable mechanical aptitude that is like her dad’s. Another sees her daughter transforming her father’s tool and die machinery into theater pieces. An artist who engages in a life of study believes it comes from her Jesuit-trained father’s own love of learning. A lawyer’s father always told her that she had “a good, strong background, nothing fancy but very solid.” That stayed with her. Another father “visits” his daughter in dreams to talk over her most important decisions. Some women pray to their fathers for wisdom. A few saw changes they were considering that might have upset the dad were he still alive.

The fathers we met through their daughters’ memories were loving, hard-working, inspiring, and devoted. The daughters looked to their fathers for advice, values, and their Italian heritage. One woman summed up what many expressed. “Italians ... have a sense of history and pride, and there’s substance there.” We resoundingly agree.

Donna DiCello, Psy.D. is a clinical psychologist in New Haven and Wallingford, CT and an assistant clinical professor at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Email: donnadicellopsyd@gmail.com . Website: www. donnadicellopsyd.com.

Lorraine Mangione, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Antioch University New England in Keene, New Hampshire. Email: lmangione@antioch.edu ITALIAN AMERICA

How stereotyping shapes the public image of today’s Italian Americans.

Send your contributions to ddesanctis@osia.org or mail to: “It’s Only a Movie,” Italian America Magazine, 219 E Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. Include name and daytime telephone number. No telephone calls please. Mailed submissions cannot be acknowledged. Contributors’ names, when known, are in parenthesis.

By Dona De Sanctis

• PASTA PIGS Six hundred years ago, Italians invented the fork and taught the rest of Europe good table manners, but apparently three Italian restaurants in Virginia Beach, VA are ignorant of our contributions to fine dining. Witness their unflattering advertisement promising “an incredible Italian experience.” Incredible, all right. And insulting. Lucien E. Votta, Maryland

• HOW SAD IT IS Last summer, The New York Times panned the movie, How Sweet It Is for its predictable plot and “unpleasant clichés” which is how critic Rachel Saltz categorized the stereotyping at the movie’s core. The story involves a failed alcoholic producer, Jack Cosmo who owes a Mafia don big bucks. Cosmo can avoid being murdered if he puts on a show for the gangster’s birthday.

It was written by Brian Herzlinger with Jay Black, but, as usual, the stars are Italian American: Joe Piscopo and Paul Sorvino. National CSJ, Washington, DC

• JUDICIAL MENU A New Jersey divorce court judge was forced to step down from a case last October after he referred to the Italian American litigants as “tomatoes...in need of straining.” The judge’s name? Philip Maenza. Wonder what would have happened to the good judge if the litigants had been African Americans and he called them watermelons? Vito Sciancalepore, New Jersey

• COME AND [DON’T] GET IT! First, New York State’s “Wandering Dago” food truck and now Louisiana’s “Wop Wagon”! That is the name Adam Parma, a second-generation Italian immigrant, chose for his roving fast food truck. He says it means “With Out Pizza” but the popular Italian snack is on his menu. Despite complaints, he does not plan to change the name. Manny Alfano, Italian American One Voice Coalition, New Jersey

• VATICAN WISEGUY A new TV series, The Young Pope, now in production features a corrupt American pope whose scandalous character “will rival ...Tony Soprano of The Sopranos; Walter White of Breaking Bad; and the devious politician Frank Underwood of House of Cards,” according to the Paolo Sorrentino producers. Of course, the pope is Italian American: His Holiness Lenny Belardo. The 8-part series is written and directed by Oscar-winning director, Paolo Sorrentino (La Grande Bellezza), who previously directed Sean Penn as a relentless Nazi hunter in This Must Be the Place. Bravo, Paolo. You do us proud!

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Luigi Del Bianco was the chief carver of Mount Rushmore, who also refined the faces’ expressions.

Despite documents and photographs proving this, the National Park Service refuses to formally recognize Del Bianco on its website.

Now the Italian American One Voice Coalition is circulating a petition that will go to the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama. It asks that the National Park Service formally recognize Luigi Del Bianco as the chief carver of Mount Rushmore. To sign the petition, go to: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/luigi-delbianco-recognition.

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Bulletin Board

What’s new: discounts, services and events

OSIA Tours to Costa Rica

Rhode Island’s Italian Voices

Tropical Costa Rica in January boasts an average 80˚F temperature and nine hours of sunlight a day. Through Collette Tours, OSIA members can experience Costa Rica for themselves this winter. The trip departs January 26 and ends February 3.

Tiny Rhode Island boasts one of the highest percentages of Italian Americans in the nation—nearly 20 percent or one in five residents.

Now the Italian American Historical Society has collected stories of their immigrant past in Voices of Rhode Island’s Italian-Americans. The book offers 50 oral histories and more than 200 photographs that document their early struggles and later successes after traveling thousands of miles to a new land often with nothing more than an address on a crumbled piece of paper. The soft-cover book is $24.99 plus tax with free shipping. To order, call 401/944-1897 or email: Volare39@cox.net.

Book by August 26 and save $100 per person. See ad inside front cover for details. Collette offers four tours a year to various destinations (except Italy; be sure to check out our trips to Italy offered exclusively through our partner Unitours).

Remember to mention “Order Sons of Italy in America” and promotion code “U001.AX1.918”.

Finding the Mother Lode

Heroic Naples

Can we ever know enough about our Italian immigrant ancestors? Not as far as award-winning documentary film maker Gianfranco Norelli is concerned. Several years ago, he produced the documentary, Pane Amaro (Bitter Bread) on their struggles.

Now he has created a companion piece, Finding the Mother Lode, which a PBS station in California wants to broadcast and distribute it in 3 films of 30 minutes each.

The station, however, needs funding to re-edit, promote and distribute the documentary. Contributions are tax-deductible. See www.findingthemotherlode.com for details.

During WWII, Naples was heavily bombed and then occupied by the German forces. In September 1943, the Neapolitans rebelled, driving out the Nazis during four days (9/27-30) with only stones, Molotov cocktails, and sticks. Naples is the only city during the war that successfully repelled the Germans. Now film maker Randy Stucker is looking for survivors of this historic moment.

Contact him at 260/ 483-1256 or randy186mps@ yahoo.com

Our Wine Heritage

John Basilone Remembered

Several years ago, wine expert Dick Rosano wrote the only in-depth history of how Italian Americans have influenced this nation’s wine-making.

Wine Heritage begins in the early 1600s to the present and includes profiles of the nearly 100 Italian American wineries still operating today. Originally sold for $29.95 each, Rosano is offering it to OSIA members for only $10.00 each and will autograph the copy on request. Contact him at dickrosano@comcast.net.

Next year marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima which cost the life of Marine Sgt. John Basilone, the most highly decorated enlisted man in WWII. To honor his memory, his niece, film maker Diane Basilone Hawkins produced an award-winning short documentary on her heroic uncle.

She is now working on a longer version called Legacy of a Hero, which she hopes to complete by next March, but she needs funding. To contribute, see johnbasilone.com or call 908/328 2944.

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Giovinezza!

News for Young Italian Americans

Italian American Fraternity Celebrates Centennial

By Emil Imbro

Alpha Phi Delta, the nation’s only Italian Heritage Fraternity, celebrated its 100th anniversary with a Centennial Gala April 5 in Washington, D.C. The fraternity began in 1914 at Syracuse University in New York State, thanks to seven undergraduate men of Italian descent.

When Cesidio Guarini, arrived at Syracuse University in 1911, he found only one other Italian-American student, Ferdinand Di Bartolo among the school’s 6,000 students. The two quickly became friends. The next year, two more Italian Americans came to the school: Anthony Frascati and Nicholas Frunzi. In 1913, they were joined by Otto Gelormini, Dominic Ciolli and Joseph Cangiamilia. The men founded an Italian club, Il Circolo Italiano to bring together lovers of Italian culture and heritage at the university and in the city of Syracuse.

Finally, on November 5, 1914, one year to the day after forming their club, the seven young men founded the Alpha Phi Delta Fraternity.

As the mass migration of Italian immigrants to America was at its peak, Italians formed neighborhood enclaves to be together with those of similar heritage for friendship, comfort and security. This movement also took place at universities across the country. In 1916, Nicholas Frunzi transferred to Columbia University and discovered a similar group of four Italian American men who had banded together to form their own fraternity. The two groups met and decided to merge; Alpha Phi Delta found its second home.

Gen. Raymond Odierno accepts a plaque of appreciation from (L. to R.) fraternity members Col. Charles Garbarino, M.D.; Centennial Chair Anthony Carfang; and Navy Commander Daniel Cimmino.

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About 400 guests attended the Alpha Phi Delta anniversary gala in Washington, DC last April.

During the past 100 years, over 20,000 young men from more than 90 colleges and universities have become part of the Alpha Phi Delta Fraternity, brought together by the strong family bonds of la famiglia, so revered in the Italian culture.

In 1964, after 50 years of exclusive Italian American membership, the fraternity opened its doors to young men of all nationalities seeking the bond of “la famiglia” so deeply a part of Italian heritage and culture. Its leadership, scholarship, mentoring, community service and chapter management programs are aimed at producing men of character and citizenship. Alpha Phi Delta graduation rates are 25 percentage points above the national average.

The Gala in April was attended by over 400 brothers and family members. The keynote address was delivered

by General Raymond Odierno, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, who spoke fondly of his journey from his humble upbringing in New Jersey to the highest rank of the U.S Army. Also among the honored guests were the Italian Consul from Pittsburgh, Carla Lucente; delegations from the Order Sons of Italy in America, the National Italian American Foundation, the District of Columbia Lido Civic Club, and the Freemasons of Italia Lodge #2001 of the Grand Lodge of Washington, DC. The centennial celebration of Alpha Phi Delta will continue this summer, at its annual convention in Harrisburg, PA from August 13th to 17th, 2014. Further information about Alpha Phi Delta Italian Heritage Fraternity, starting a chapter or endowing its leadership programs can be found at www.APD.org.

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Sons of Italy Foundation® Celebrates 26th Gala

By Dona De Sanctis

Leaders in government, military justice and labor were honored May 22 in Washington, D.C. by the Sons of Italy Foundation ® (SIF), the philanthropic arm of the Sons of Italy ®, the nation’s biggest and oldest organization for people of Italian heritage.

THE HONOREES Leon Panetta received the 2014 SIF National Education and Leadership Award (NELA) for his long and distinguished career as a statesman, lawyer and professor. Mr. Panetta served 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Later, he directed the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton Administration where he subsequently served as President Clinton’s chief of staff. He left Washington to found the Panetta Institute for Public Policy in California with his wife, but returned to government in 2009 as director of the CIA and then as secretary of defense in the Obama administration.

In his riveting address, Secretary Panetta said that our nation “still faces dangerous threats in a dangerous world” and urged the audience to “embrace those values that keep America the greatest country on earth.

We have to fight for what we believe in,” he said.

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Sen. Christopher Dodd was awarded the 2014 SIF Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Service, based on his 36 years in Congress, representing Connecticut.

During his political career, he authored or co-authored legislation that includes the Family and Medical Leave Act; the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; the Help America Vote Act; and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In 2011, he retired from government service to become the current head of the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington, D.C. He was introduced by Democratic Congressional Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was a friend of his sister’s in college. She said that Sen. Dodd’s legislative record “made a real difference in the lives of many Americans.”

In his speech, Sen. Dodd spoke of the importance of public service. “We ought to celebrate people who have the courage to stand before others on Election Day and serve,” he said.

The SIF Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Service is presented annually to a person who is not of Italian heritage. The award and the recipient reflect the significance of working together to build a better global community. Previous recipients include President Bill Clinton; Vice President Joe Biden; Sen. Jack Reed;

About 700 guests attended the 2014 SIF NELA gala at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. on May 22.

Sec. Panetta was introduced by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who spoke via satellite. She spoke of the crucial role Sec. Panetta played in both the Clinton and the Obama SUMMER SUMMER 2014 2014

administrations. For the latter, she said “he ran the operation that brought Osama Bin Laden to justice.”

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former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Gen. Colin Powell.

Lt. Gen. Flora Darpino received the 2014 SIF Special Award for Military Justice. As Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army, she oversees nearly 10,000 judge advocates and civilian attorneys in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corp, known as JAG. A 26-year decorated veteran, who served in Iraq, she is the first woman in the Army’s 236-year history, to lead its legal services.

struggled to complete his education and become a teacher.

“So when I see the SIF scholarship winners here tonight it drives home to me what the SIF does to help young people who are the future of our Italian American community and of our country.”

During the evening, SIF President Joseph DiTrapani announced that the Foundation was donating $20,000 to outfit an SUV for a wounded veteran. A number of wounded warriors were guests at the gala, sponsored by various Sons of Italy® lodges.

She was introduced by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno, who congratulated her, and the In all, about 700 guests attended this year’s NELA black SIF for its scholartie gala. Among ship work. In her the special guests speech, LTG. Darwere Italy’s Ampino remembered bassador to the her parents who U.S. Claudio Bitaught her “to sogniero; Gen. work harder and Jim Jones, a rebe more successful tired Marine Corp to find our place.” officer and PresiHer married name dent Obama’s foris O’Brian but mer U.S. National “my law degree Security Advisor. and all documents Also present were read ‘Darpino’ to U.S. Congresshonor my father, men Kerry Bena WWII veteran tivolio (Michiwho was born in gan) and John Springtime was the décor’s theme for the 2014 SIF NELA gala.

Italy.”

Larson (Connecticut); Georgetown Harry Lombardo is this year’s SIF Humanitarian.

Entertainment President and Café Milano owner Franco His long career with the Transport Workers Union began th in 1972 when he was hired to clean cars. He worked his Nuschese. For the 13 consecutive year, actor Joe Manway up through the ranks to become the union’s inter- tegna was the Master of Ceremonies. national president in 2013. Among his achievements for workers is his negotiation of a new pension formula that resulted in a 100 percent increase in the value of the benefits workers in the local he led received.

He was presented his award by Robert Scardelletti, of the Transportation Communications Union/IAM. Mr. Lombardo spoke movingly of the values he received from his parents that shaped his life and career. “I have dedicated my life to protecting the dignity of working men and women and to fostering strong working families,” he said.

NELA HIGHLIGHTS Guest speaker this year was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who remembered how his father SUMMER 2014 19 ITALIAN AMERICA

Over its quarter-century-plus, the SIF gala has honored President Bill Clinton, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, AIDS researchers Anthony Fauci and Robert Gallo, the late Geraldine Ferraro, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace, USMC (Ret.), and entertainers Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Regis Philbin and Joe Mantegna.

As the philanthropic arm of the Order Sons of Italy in America® (OSIA) to date, the SIF has contributed more than $130 million to medical research, disaster relief, scholarships, and cultural preservation, along with other special projects. NELA Gala proceeds help fund these philanthropic programs. Next year’s NELA Gala will be May 21 in Washington, D.C. ITALIAN AMERICA SUMMER 2014 19

NELA Highlights

NELA MC Joe Mantegna (L.) with Democratic Congressional Leader Nancy Pelosi and Secretary Leon Panetta.

U.S. Congressman Kerry Bentivolio (Michigan), on the left, meets Cpt. Louis Cavaliere (USN, Ret.), chairman of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains.

Dr. Christine Grady and her husband, AIDS researcher Dr. Anthony Fauci (L) meet Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero.

(L. to R.) Justice Samuel Alito, Secretary Leon Panetta and the SIF’s Philip Piccigallo.

Photographs © Max Taylor No reprint or reproduction without permission.

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito greets SIF President Joseph DiTrapani.

LTG Flora Darpino, the first woman to be U.S. Army Judge Advocate, receives her award from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno.

(L. to R.) Anthony Morella, former Ambassador to the OECD with his wife, Connie Morella, a former U.S. Congresswoman, and former National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones (USMC, Ret.).

U.S. Congressman John Larson (Connecticut), on the left, chats with other NELA guests.

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Hillary Rodham Clinton sent her congratulations via satellite to Secretary Leon Panetta.

Senator Christopher Dodd thanks the SIF for his award.

Sons of Italy National Trustee Maria Fassio Pignati, a soprano, performs the national anthems of Italy and the U.S. as the gala opens.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito greets Sons of Italy National President Anthony Baratta.

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U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, an honoree, is greeted by SIF CEO Philip Piccigallo (R.).

Tenor Sean Harris performs selections from opera as well as classic Italian and American songs.

(L. to R.) Senator Christopher Dodd chats with Georgetown Entertainment President & CafĂŠ Milano owner Franco Nuschese and SIF President Emeritus Paul Polo.

Robert Scardelletti (L.), a past honoree, presents Harry Lombardo of the Transport Workers Union with his award.

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THE 2014 SONS OF ITALY FOUNDATION® NATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS AND THEIR SPONSORS

The 2014 SIF national scholarship winners.

Justina Valgento receives the Frank J. DeSantis Scholarship from Lynn Lawrence-Murphy, president of the Grand Lodge of California.

Madeline Saviano receives the 2014 National Education and Leadership Grant from OSIA ® National President Anthony Baratta (L.) and SIF President Emeritus Paul Polo.

Three scholarship winners were unable to attend the NELA Gala. They are Christopher Giuliano (the George J. Spatuzza Scholarship); Jena Neuscheler (the NIABA/SIF Scholarship); and Leah Ragno (the Henry F. Salvatori Memorial Scholarship).

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Marisa Mitrano receives the Charles Evans Scholarship from Charles Evans Foundation President Linda Munson.

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Sarah Giordano receives the OSIA Grand Lodge of Illinois/Wisconsin Scholarship from SIF Trustee Richard Della Croce and Grand Lodge President of Illinois/Wisconsin Marie Marsalli.

John Cherichello receives the Italian Language Scholarship from Michele Ment, chair of the SIF Education Committee, on the left, and OSIA ® National Past President Joanne Strollo.

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SGT Michael Notrica, U.S. Army, receives the SIF/Wounded Warrior Project Scholarship from OSIA® National Past President Robert Messa.

Daniel Lauriola receives the Dr. Vincenzo Sellaro/ Grand Lodge of New York Scholarship from Joseph Rondinelli, president of the Grand Lodge New York, (L.) and SIF President Joseph DiTrapani.

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Italian Americans in Sports

By Gerald Gems

themselves Sicilian, Neapolitan, or Calabrian rather than Italian. So did the U.S. Immigration Service which categorized northern and southern Italians as belonging to different races.

Sicilians were believed to be of African or Arab heritage and were often classified as non-white or the “missing link” between the white and black races.

In 1877, an Italian named Cesare Orsini attempted to introduce New Yorkers to pallone, the Italian national game similar to jai alai, but the venture proved a dismal failure. Orsini had the misfortune of bringing the game to a nation in the throes of baseball fever.

He could not even count on support from Italian immigrants because they had little or no “national pride” in their Italian identity.

A LOST IDENTITY Ironically, Italian immigrants who came to America did not think of themselves as Italians because for centuries after the fall of Rome in the 5th century A.D., there was no Italy. The peninsula was divided among foreign powers and the Catholic Church and split even further by regional tensions between north and south. Italy was finally unified in 1861, but in name only. Italians spoke their local dialects since there was not yet a national language. They had little allegiance to anyone other than their kin and identified with their village or town rather than with Italy. The newly formed Italian government in the north didn’t help the peasants, especially in the south where life became so desperate that people began leaving in droves.

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Francesco Pizzolo, pictured here on a 1912 American Tobacco Company baseball card, was one of the first Italian Americans in baseball. He played under the name Ping Bodie.

Clementine Brida (aka Maud Nelson) was a pitcher in 1897, who later owned and managed her own team.

In the southern states, Italian immigrants were often lynched and their children sent to segregated schools. In the north, they were paid less than black and white workers.

Many Americans feared racial mixing and the dilution of their supposedly superior stock. Eventually, in 1924, Congress passed immigration quota laws, aimed at keeping out people from the southern Mediterranean and Eastern Europe.

Americans might have disparaged Italian immigrants but recognized that they possessed one defining characteristic in abundance: physical strength.

Though generally smaller than the average American, they were remarkably strong, thanks to working the land in Italy. The booming American economy needed that physical prowess to sustain its growth. Italians readily found employment as laborers building railroads, subway tunnels, and myriad construction projects or other jobs that required physical endurance.

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As we shall see, the children of these early immigrants who inherited their fathers’ muscular strength, used this attribute in a completely different field of endeavor: sports. Their athletic ability eventually helped all Italians gain both a national identity and acceptance.

A SPORTS IDENTITY At the turn of the last century, Italians were the largest ethnic group to hit these shores. State and federal officials now had the task of turning them into Americans. They focused on the children, passing mandatory education laws so children could learn

of Dorando Pietri from Italy, who had recently lost a controversial decision to American Johnny Hayes in the 1908 Summer Olympic marathon on London. In a rematch, Pietri defeated Hayes, setting a new world record in front of 10,000 spectators.

Rookie Joe DiMaggio with his brothers Vince (L) and Dom at the 1936 World Series in New York. [Getty Images]

and efficient democracy. Employers especially liked the role of umpires and referees, who taught unquestioned obedience to rules, a lesson that transferred easily to the workplace at a time when labor unions threatened employers’ profit margins.

Pietri continued to run against ethnic rivals throughout the United States, lauded and feted by Italians wherever he went. Pietri gave pride to all Italians, who flocked to his performances regardless of their birthplace in Italy. That pride continued when a naturalized citizen, Gaston Strobino, won a bronze medal for the United States in the 1912 Olympic marathon.

The immigrants also benefitted from the sports approach because it helped them and their children become accepted by the larger American society. In fact, some of the first Italians to gain distinction in the United States were athletes. In 1899, Lawrence Brignoli, son of an immigrant peddler, triumphed in the Boston Marathon.

Marathon running drew even greater attention with the 1908 arrival Rocky Graziano, one of the greatest knockout artists in history of boxing

Eleanor Garatti-Saville, won two gold medals in swimming during the 1928 and 1932 Olympics.

English, and along with the language, the norms, standards, and values of their adopted country.

Many Italian immigrant children, however, did not speak English, which made their assimilation problematic.

Educators found a solution by introducing sport into the schools, parks, and playgrounds to teach competition, the basis for the capitalist economy. Sports also taught teamwork, self-sacrifice, and leadership skills, which contributed to a harmonious SUMMER 2014 27 ITALIAN AMERICA

Not only Italians, but a joyous hometown welcomed their American hero back to Paterson, New Jersey.

Runner Dorando Pietri was one of the first Italian athletes to gain fame in America.

From the 1920s on, other Italian American athletes brought laurels to American Olympic teams. Italian Americans also dominated professional boxing, a sport where physical prowess, fortitude, courage, and toughness could not be denied. . In the 1930s, Italian Americans packed boxing arenas to cheer Primo Carnera, ITALIAN AMERICA SUMMER 2014 27

The role of sports in helping Italian Americans gain an identity is explored in this new study

by Gerald Gems. It was a spring 2014 Sons of Italy National Book Club selection. [$45.00; h a rd c o v e r ; 3 3 6 pages; Syracuse University Press].

the Italian heavyweight champ in the United States.

Eventually, Italian Americans made a name for themselves in the sport.

Among the most memorable, Rocky Graziano, one of the greatest knockout artists in history of boxing, and Rocky Marciano who ruled the boxing ranks as the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world. The symbolic importance of that title, signifying the epitome of the Social Darwinian pyramid, forced whites to claim Marciano as their own in the sea of black contenders.

WOMEN ATHLETES But what about Italian women athletes? In Italy, girls and women were generally more sheltered, but America presented them with new challenges and opportunities. While immigrant parents allowed their daughters to work to supplement family income, they could not envision girls participating in sports. Yet girls too were attracted to the exuberance they found in games. Clementine Brida (aka Maud Nelson) began pitching for the Boston Bloomer Girls in 1897 and by 1911 she co-owned and managed her own team, inspiring other Italian girls.

Margaret Gisolo suffered the protests of males after her decisive hit won a boys’ state baseball championship in 1928, and the association promptly banned girls. Brida consequently hired SUMMER 2014

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Gisolo for her barnstorming team, but neither woman could have envisioned such entrepreneurial or athletic opportunities in Italy.

Italian American women gained recognition in several sports. Eleanor Garatti-Saville won fame as a national swimming champion, world record holder, and gold medalist in the 1928 and 1932 Olympics. Jennie Caputo and Connie Caruccio were national gymnastic champions during the 1930s and 1940s, respectively. Ada Lunardoni Cumiskey, their 1936 Olympic teammate, as well as GarattiSaville and Caruccio competed even after their marriages, a distinct departure from the domestic lifestyles of women in Italy.

PLAY BALL! But it was in the nation’s favorite sport that first-generation Italian Americans gained national fame. One of the first was Francesco Pizzolo, a slugger from San Francisco. For about ten years, between 1911 and 1921, this son of immigrants pursued a career as a center fielder under the pseudonym of Ping Bodie. He gained fame as a slugger in the American League playing for the Chicago White Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Yankees, but his father disowned him for Anglicizing his name.

A few years later, in 1926, the Yankees signed Tony Lazzeri who attracted even more Italian American athletes to the game, and was New York’s first Italian American baseball great, but he also endured ethnic slurs that spawned many fights throughout his career.

A tipping point in the assimilation process came with the baseball career of Joe DiMaggio, who joined the New York Yankees in 1936, becoming an immediate hero among Italian Ameri-

cans. Yet sportswriters continued to describe him in unflattering terms, suggesting he was non-white and had “un-American traits” until his greatness could not be denied.

When World War II erupted, Italy under Mussolini declared war against the United States and allied itself with Germany and Japan. Immediately, the U.S. government declared 600,000 Italian immigrants in America “enemy aliens.” They were largely elderly people who had never become citizens, but they had to obey curfews, travel restrictions, loss of property, and sometimes relocation. DiMaggio’s father, a fisherman in San Francisco, had his boat confiscated and could not travel to his son’s restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf. Eventually, he and his wife were forced to relocate from their home temporarily. Italian Americans quickly proved their loyalty by enlisting. Their sheer numbers in the military surpassed that of any other ethnic group, according to some scholars, and left no doubts about their loyalty to America.

That identity was further solidified after the war as Joe DiMaggio became acknowledged as the greatest ballplayer in America’s national pastime, and cemented Italians’ claim to whiteness with his albeit brief marriage to the Hollywood goddess, Marilyn Monroe.

As a result of their talent in baseball and other sports, these athletes helped Italians in America shape a new identity as a people, proud of their heritage and grateful to their adopted land that gave them a place on the team.

Gerald R. Gems is a professor at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. He is the author of Sport and the Shaping of Italian American Identity. Contact him at grgems@noctrl.edu.

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®

The Commission for Social Justice

fighting defamation

The CSJ Perspective

By Joseph Boncore, National President

I am honored to become your new national CSJ president as the Commission for Social Justice® celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. It was launched in 1979 to fight the stereotyping of Italian Americans in entertainment, advertising and media. Over the years, while we have won a number of battles, the war is not over. So I am calling on you, my brothers and sisters, to become even more active in the CSJ and its mission.

Over the coming weeks, I will contact all OSIA state presidents, urging them to set up or strengthen their existing state CSJ affiliate. There is strength in unity, but unity is impossible without communication. We need to share information across state lines so we can support one another in letter writing campaigns and other protests that are unfair and disrespectful.

An example of this occurred last April when the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed an ordinance that names as “Indigenous People’s Day” the same day as Columbus Day and will celebrate both in the future. I have written the city’s mayor, Betsy Hodges protesting

Joseph Boncore Named CSJ National President In June, the Sons of Italy Supreme Council appointed Joseph Boncore the new national president of the Commission for Social Justice®. He replaces Carlo Carlozzi who resigned for personal reasons. ®

President Boncore is president of the Winthrop Mixed Lodge #2057in Winthrop, MA. A graduate of Providence College and the Massachusetts School of Law, he has practiced law for over 6 years at the Boncore Law Office and is treasurer of the Justinian Law Society. Mr. Boncore is a son of national past OSIA president, Philip Boncore.

this ordinance. I urge all of you to do the same. [See below for her contact information.]

In my letter, I pointed out that although it is noble to recognize the contributions of Native Americans, was it really necessary to do so on the same federal holiday that allows Italian Americans to celebrate their history and contributions to America? I urged her to repeal this unjust ordinance. We need to utilize our great membership to get this point across to the city through polite but convincing letters, emails or phone calls.

I hope to you will join me in this campaign. I would like to hear from you. Reach me at CSJ@OSIA.ORG To protest the “Columbus Day/Indigenous People’s Day” in Minneapolis, contact: The Honorable Betsy Hodges Mayor of the City of Minneapolis 350 S. 5th St. (Room 331) Minneapolis, MN 55415 Telephone: 612/673-2100 Email: Go to www.minneapolismn.gov and click on “Contact the Mayor”

Hero’s Memory Honored Anthony Casamento was one of 27 Italian Americans, who have earned the Medal of Honor. A WWII Marine, he was severely wounded yet continued to fight at Guadalcanal, one of the deadliest battles in the Pacific. He died in 1987 at age 67, but his memory continues to be honored in Islip, NY which has erected a monument and named a park after him. In June, NYS CSJ Chairman Louis Gallo and WWII veteran Arnold Merkitch collaborated with the town to re-dedicate the monument in a ceremony that saw the participation of the Marine Corps League that provided a gun salute.

REMINDER OSIA’s National Headquarters’ website is seen by millions worldwide. Link your site to it and let the world be your stage. Contact Diane Crespy at dcrespy@osia.org or call 202/547-2900.

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®

OSIA Nation ®

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

NEW LODGE

Ohio

The Sons of Italy® has a new lodge on the West Coast, bringing to 22 the number of OSIA lodges in Idaho, Oregon and Washington that are under the Grand Lodge of the Northwest, reports GL President Tony Anderson. It is called the Tre-Città Lodge #2881, in Tri-Cities, WA, and was formed thanks to Anderson’s efforts, according to OSIA National President Anthony Baratta. “Tony traveled 3 ½ hours each way from his home in Tacoma to make it a reality in October, 2013,” says Baratta. Benvenuti ai Figli d’Italia in America!

The Grand Lodge of Ohio, the Canton Museum of Art and Walsh University are mounting a traveling exhibit of 34 paintings of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, reports GL President Terry Lattavo. They depict scenes from each of the 34 chapters of the Inferno, the first part of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.

The first meeting of our new Tre-Città Lodge in Washington State.

OSIA Mourns JOE CIANCIO, a dedicated and active member of the Order, died June 16 at age 92. He was the father of former Colorado Grand Lodge President Pam Wright. Joe was a founding member and president of the Denver Lodge #2075, which once had over 500 members. He later helped form the Grand Lodge of Colorado, became its president and then president emeritus and also served two terms as a national trustee for Colorado. A memorial scholarship in his name will be established through the Denver Lodge. To donate, contact Dominic LoSasso at dominic@tylerdominiccreative.com.

The Italian artist Amos Nattini began the paintings 1921 on the 600th anniversary of Dante’s death and took 20 years to complete all three parts of the epic poem. Copies were then made, bound, and sold. In 1928, a Sons of Italy ® lodge in Canton helped purchase one of the books for the local library, which later donated it to the art museum where it was archived for nearly 75 years until discovered in 2013.

About $12,000 is needed to mount, frame and exhibit the paintings. So far, the Grand Lodge, the Ben V. Marconi Lodge #1628, and the Nick Rizzi Lodge #2850 have contributed, Lattavo says. The exhibit will be at Walsh University from August to December. For more information and to host the exhibit, contact the Canton Museum of Art at 330/ 453-7666.

SALVATORE DiFIORE, father of Fifth National Vice President Nancy DiFiore Quinn, died May 31. He was an active member of the Per Sempre Lodge #2344 in Lynbrook, NY where his son-in-law, John Quinn, is first vice president.

RALPH VALLONE who belonged to the Roma Lodge #71 in Washington, D.C. for more than 60 years, died March 8 at age 80. He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Helen Marie, their five children and 12 grandchildren.

Dante crossing the River Styx by Amos Nattini.

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®

OSIA Nation ®

OSIA LODGES AT WORK

florida Since 2012, the Joseph B. Franzalia Lodge #2422 in Fort Walton Beach has hosted a Pasta Night Dinner to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. This year’s dinner raised $4,025 bringing to nearly $10,500 the event’s total donations so far. Plans are already underway for the event’s fourth dinner next February, reports lodge president, Kathy Foster.

Members of the Joseph B. Franzalia Lodge support our troops.

Washington State Ten members from the Seattle Fedele Lodge #1390, led by Martin Patricelli, assisted firefighters and other volunteers during a landslide disaster that struck Oso last March.

Forty-two people died and 49 homes were destroyed. OSIA volunteers delivered water, tools, and supplies to survivors including orphaned children and the homeless. They also prepared and served 840 meals; and delivered 500 gallons of dish soap to the National Guard to clean the victims’ possessions, earning praise from the local mayor.

OSIA volunteers assisted local Italian folk dancing was firefighters during thepart Osoof a Christmas fund-raiser disaster. [Photo: Roz Mascio] SUMMER 2014 31 ITALIAN AMERICA

Special recognition MEMBERS: ROBERT BALDASSARI has been given the 2014 Outstanding Member of the Year Award by the Virginia Society of CPAs for his professional work, charitable efforts and community service. He was chosen out of 11,000 members. He belongs to the International Lodge #2522 in Washington, D.C. BRIAN BATTAGLIA, a Clearwater, Florida attorney, was made an honorary member of the Central Gulf Coast Lodge # 2708 at its April meeting for his contributions to U.S. - Italy relations.

RICHARD FELICETTI has had his book, Regardless, They Were the President of the United States published. It is based on visits to all the graves of our deceased presidents, and includes photographs. Available on amazon.com. He belongs to the Illinois Chicago Heights Lodge #1430.

ANGIE MOLINARI recently celebrated her 100th birthday. She has been a member since 1973 and now belongs to the Seattle-Fedele Lodge #1390 Seattle, WA. Altri cent’anni, Angie!

PAUL POLO, an OSIA past national president and president emeritus of the Sons of Italy Foundation ®, was honored by the Daughters of Italy Lodge #2825 (Clearwater, FL) and the Loggia Mona Lisa Lodge #2699 (Tampa, FL) during their ninth annual Festa della Repubblica Italiana June 1. He was one of four distinguished Italian Americans recognized for dedication to their heritage, communities, and professions.

LODGES: THE GRAND LODGE OF FLORIDA has successfully petitioned the state legislature to proclaim every October Italian and Italian American Heritage Month throughout the state beginning this year. The resolution was drafted and presented by state senator Maria Lorts Sachs. “We are grateful to Senator Lorts Sachs and thank her on behalf of the Sons of Italy ® and Florida’s 1.8 million Italian Americans,” says Edward Mottola, Jr., GL of FL immediate past president.

THE GRAND LODGE OF MASSACHUSETTS gave $30,000 in scholarships to 29 college students during its first joint Massachusetts Education and Law Awards ceremony May 4. The students attend Harvard and Boston universities, MIT, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and other schools. This marked the 59th year of the GL’s scholarship program.

THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE LODGE #2259 of Orange County, CA and the Orange County American Italian Renaissance Foundation have donated $50,000 to the University of California at Irvine’s Birth Defects Library and Genetics Program. The two groups raised the funds through community activities, including a street fair, says lodge member Frank DeSantis, who is also an OSIA national past president.

ITALIAN AMERICA SUMMER 2014 31

The Perfect Gift

Please give this gift subscription to:

Looking for a unique present for family or friends? Give the gift of your rich Italian American heritage with a one-year subscription to Italian America magazine, the most widely read publication in the U.S. for people of Italian descent. We will contact your gift recipient telling him or her (or them) of your present. Fill out the form below and return to us ASAP.

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Letters to the Editor Regarding “How Did Vincenzo Become James?” (Winter 2014 issue), here’s my take. A boy named “Vincenzo,” probably had the Italian nickname, “Vincenzino” often shortened to “Cenzino” or “’Nzino.” To an American ear, that nickname might have sounded like “Zini” or “Jimmy.” Mystery solved?

As an aside, my family came from San’Arsenio, Provincia de Salerno and several of the boys were “Arsenio,” which was very foreign to Americans. As a result, they took the American names, “Henry,” “George,” and even “Sennie.” But today, my 30-year-old cousin named Arsenio is proud of the name and uses it in its Italian version.

Anne Ippolito, Normandy Beach, NJ

CALLING LODGE PRESIDENTS As lodge president, you are responsible for sending the names and addresses of all new members to your Grand Lodge. You also must inform your Grand Lodge of all address corrections and changes, too!

Every issue of Italian America has a Shoppers Guide section at the back with products, trips, books and services aimed at Italian American consumers. These items and services make wonderful gifts as well as useful products for home and personal use.

We urge our readers to make the Shoppers Guide their “go-to” directory when needing something for themselves, family and friends.

Our advertisers support us. We hope our readers will support them. Also, when you order something, be sure to mention that you saw their ad in our magazine.

Some offer our readers a discount.

Grand Lodge information is listed at www.osia.org under “About OSIA” or call OSIA National at 202/547 2900.

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Italian America The Official Publication of

Italian America Magazine is produced by the national headquarters of the Order Sons of Italy in America®, 219 E Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 202/5472900. Email: nationaloffice@osia.org OSIA National Executive Director Philip R. Piccigallo, Ph.D. Office Manager Andrea Beach Director of Development Diane Crespy Publications Editor Dona De Sanctis, Ph.D. Social Media & Communications Coordinator Krystyne Hayes Administrative Assistant Laura Kelly Executive Assistant Elisa Wilkinson Italian America is the official publication of the Order Sons of Italy in America® (OSIA), the largest and longest-established organization of American men and women of Italian heritage. Italian America provides timely information about OSIA, while reporting on individuals, institutions, issues, and events of current or historical significance in the Italian-American community nationwide.

Italian America (ISSN: 1089-5043, USPS: 015-735) is published quarterly in the winter, spring, summer and fall by OSIA, 219 E St. NE, Washington, DC 20002. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. © 2014 Order Sons of Italy in America®. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any method without permission of the editor is prohibited.

Statements of fact and opinion are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily imply an opinion on the part of the officers, employees, or members of OSIA. Mention of a product or service in advertisements or text does not mean that it has been tested, approved or endorsed by OSIA, the Commission for Social Justice®, or the Sons of Italy Foundation®. Italian America accepts query letters and letters to the editor. Please do not send unsolicited manuscripts. Italian America assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Annual subscriptions are $20, which are included in dues for OSIA members. Single copies are $2.98 each.

OSIA MEMBERS: Please send address changes to your local lodge. Do not contact the OSIA National Office.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Italian America, 219 E St. NE, Washington, DC 20002. Subscriptions are available through the OSIA National Office, 219 E Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. OSIA membership information is available at (800) 552-OSIA or at www.osia.org. Archives are maintained at the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn.

Printing by Printing Solutions Inc., Sterling, Va. To advertise: Call Pat Rosso at 215/206-4678 or email her at pieassociates @comcast.net. Also see www.osia.org for advertising rates, specs, demographics, etc.

SUMMER 2014 33 ITALIAN AMERICA

By Anthony J. Baratta, OSIA National President

As I travel the country, visiting our lodges and grand lodges, I am often surprised to learn that some of our members do not realize they belong to the biggest and the oldest organization for Italian Americans in the U.S. With supporters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, we are also the nation’s only grassroots organization for Italian Americans. An organization as vast and far-flung as our beloved Order needs structure to function efficiently. What exactly is that structure and how does it work?

The Sons of Italy actually consists of three organizations. The first is the parent organization, the Order Sons of Italy in America® (OSIA).

It was founded in 1905 by Dr. Vincenzo Sellaro in New York City. Today, OSIA is spread across the United States in a network of community or “filial” lodges under the administration of state chapters or “Grand Lodges.” In turn, both filial and grand lodges are under the “Supreme Lodge,” made up of national officers, including myself, along with trustees that set policy for the Order. The Supreme Lodge is at our national headquarters in Washington, D.C. For people who cannot attend meetings and participate in lodge functions, we have a special category of membership called “at-large.” These members receive all the benefits of OSIA, but they cannot vote or hold office. Some lodges are in states that do not yet have a Grand Lodge.

They are called “Subordinate Lodges” and are administered by the Supreme Lodge.

Under OSIA is the Sons of Italy Foundation® (SIF), founded in 1959 as the Order’s philanthropic arm. The SIF distributes funds to the Order’s charities that have been raised by the lodges. It also raises funds for these causes, including scholarships. [Editor’s Note: see page 26 for details about the SIF and its programs.]

And finally, the third “arm” of OSIA is the Commission for Social Justice® (CSJ), founded in 1979 as OSIA’s National Anti-Defamation Committee and later called the Institute for Liberty and Justice. In 1981, it became officially the CSJ and today fights stereotyping while spreading information about the contributions of Italian Americans through its Positive Image campaigns. CSJ news is on page 28 of every issue.

As a lodge or at-large member, you also belong to the SIF and the CSJ. I know you are as proud as I am to be part of all three organizations and their very specific responsibilities. Thanks to these three organizations, we have a well-earned national reputation for patriotism, generosity, and pride in our Italian heritage. We are counting on your continued support for all three of these important organizations.

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The Sons of Italy Shoppers Guide ®

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On The Bookshelf Books by and about Italian Americans

THE GLASSBLOWER’S APPRENTICE

by Peter Pezzelli

The Internationally Acclaimed Author of Home to Italy and Francesca’s Kitchen returns with a new tale of love, friendship, and Italian American life!

Find it on Amazon.com BarnesandNoble.com and bookstores everywhere visit PeterPezzelli.com

SUMMER 2014 35 ITALIAN AMERICA

ITALIAN AMERICA SUMMER 2014 35

A Sweeping Series Set in Stunning Tuscany

Sun Guide Author- Guido Albanese Jr.

Myths and legends can illuminate aspects of the way we live today, helping us view our lives in the grander scheme.

“Sun Guide” attempts to draw from that story telling tradition.

Verse from “Sun Guide” An epic narrative spanning each decade from WWII to the 1980s by award-winning author www.ATuscanSeries.com

PAUL SALSINI

www.amazon.com

For the wolf''s howl is the lion's growl, and the eagle's cry from the sky.

Available at : BlueInk REVIEW Trafford Publishing Barnes & Noble Amazon

albaneseguido@gmail.com

Travel and Tours to Italy

Remember! Sons of Italy members receive a special discount of 15%!

Repeat advertisers also receive a discount.

For more information, contact Pat Rosso at 215/206-4678 or email her at pieassociates@comcast.net.

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THINK OUTSIDE T H E B OT T L E FIND THIS AND OTHER INNOVATIVE RECIPES USING OUR EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL ON COLAVITA.COM

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Treat Yourself to a

Summer of Love The Grand Finale of the Valentine Series

The Supreme Macaroni Company NOW IN PAPERBACK From the Author of The Shoemaker’s Wife

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SUMMER 2014

For 38 a signed bookplate, email adrianaasst@aol.com.

ITALIAN AMERICA