Maria Gloria Rando

Dear Readers, A September selection of Italian connections: Andrews Sisters Patty, Maxene and LaVerne were in Naples, Italy, on a U.S.O. tour in August 1945. The Andrews Sisters were about to perform for some 5,000 weary GI’s, gathered in the …

Dear Readers, The Labor Day holiday reminded me that back in the days when chips were made of wood and not silicon, the labor that enriched the Santa Clara Valley was predominantly Italian. The fertile land and mild climate attracted …

Birthday “numero 88” was celebrated by singer Tony Bennett of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” fame in North Beach recently. The following day he had a “very public lunch” at another S.F. Restaurant. According to S.F. Chronicle columnist, …

Dear Readers, June jottings with an Italian connection:   Benevento (meaning Good Winds), a city of some 65,000 “abitanti” always triggers memories of  my father, Vincenzo, in his happy host role on Sunday afternoons offering “liquore” to his  visiting “paesani”. …

Dear Readers, On October 1, 1943 when the Allies came to “liberate” Naples from the German occupation, they found out that a rag-tag population of war-weary “Napoletani” civilians has already “liberated” it. “Grazie” to Ken Borelli, I.A.H.F. Cultural Chairman, San …

Dear Readers, As the July 4th celebrations begin, let me refresh your memory and mine on the Declaration of Independence which began “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands …

Dear Readers, Festa della Repubblica, simply stated, commemorates June 2, 1946, the date the Italian people were asked to VOTE in a referendum and choose between a Republican form of government or a return to the Monarchy.  Here is a …

Dear Readers, California, we didn’t discover it we just enriched it, this is what I wrote during the Columbian Quintcentennial when descendants of “Indigenous Peoples” and kindred spirits began hurling slings and arrows at our Italian Heritage and with the …

Dear Readers, Bits from my bookcase. Here are a few Italian connections I recently found amidst my light-hearted summer reading: They All Laughed… (Ira Flatow) is a book about inventions that changed our lives and the stories behind them. We …

Dear Readers, Author Goffredo Palmerini, who hails from the land of the “forte ma gentile” people in Abruzzi, Italy, has recently gifted the Italian reading public around the world with another gem of a book “L’Italia Dei Sogni” and his …