Maria Gloria Rando

Dear Readers,  It was in 1977 that I flew down to Los Angeles from San Francisco with a group of Italian-Americans, including former mayor Joseph Alioto and his daughter Angela Alioto Veronese. Born in San Francisco in 1916, Alioto rose …

Dear readers,  in July, let me refresh your memory and mine on the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia.  ** Although the colonists declared themselves independent of England and set up the United States of America, a …

Dear readers,  September is the month we celebrate Labor Day and my late father’s Vincenzo’s birthday.  It is a good time, I think, to reprint this column from September 2020.  ** I have always felt that, although the accomplishments of …

 Dear Readers,  Ellis Island had no wall to keep the “undesirable” immigrants out of the USA, but it had an abundance of rules, regulations, and restrictions that did. My father Vincenzo came through Ellis Island in the 1920s, but many …

Dear Readers, Sunday, June 16th, is Father’s Day, so happy Father’s Day to all you fathers and grandfathers out there, and may happy memories bring a small measure of comfort to all readers whose fathers are gone now. Hopefully, they …

Dear readers,  An August assortment of Italian connections for you.  ** Roman police inspector Brigadier Giovanni Maimone retired from the police department and received a pension immediately. However, when his partner Dox von Coburger Land retired from the Roman police …

Dear readers, July Jottings, most with an Italian connection.  The father of American jazz was an Italian-American named Dominic (Nick) James LaRocca of New Orleans. He called his five-man group the original Dixieland Jazz Band, which produced the first jazz …

Dear readers, October will always be Italian Heritage Month in the heart of Italian-Americans, and although Columbus and his day may be politically incorrect, Indigenous People’s Day is a bit over-the-top correct in my book. Nonetheless, we live and let …

Dear readers,  September brings the Italian labor swap for Belgian coal of 1946 as my Labor Day rerun in memory of all those old-timers who toiled throughout the world under deplorable conditions, so that their children might have a brighter …

Dear readers,  The reason Coca-Cola and not green tea is consumed in copious quantities by today’s youth in Japan is a story with an Italian connection, namely Francis Gragnani, an Italian-American born in Fall River, Massachusetts. During the latter part …