The Italian Connection

Dear Readers, St. Rocco’s Feast Day, August 16th, is celebrated with great enthusiasm in many small towns of Southern Italy. Here I will share Vincenzo Ancona’s (1915-2000) poem, dedicated to the habit of offering ex-voto to him:  A certain shepherd …

Dear Readers,  July jottings, most with an Italian Connection. Jazz, honored by the US Postal Service with the issue of a Jazz Forever Stamp in 2011, reminds me that the father of American Jazz was an Italian-American named Dominic (Nick) …

Dear Readers,  The same boat, but a different float… Figuratively speaking, all of our parents were “in the same boat” when they began their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. However, when Marisa Colombo Russo of Salinas, California, wrote the story of her first class …

Dear Readers,  Father’s Day is celebrated in June, hence some “Italian Connections” from my paternal side: Antonio Meucci “invented the telephone,” my father used to say, but of course all we little Italian-American kids had learned the inventor was Alexander Graham …

Dear Readers, Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807- 1882) was contacted by our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War (1861-1865) and offered the rank of Major General in the Union Army, but he did not accept.  During this patriotic month of July, let me …

Dear Readers,  In pre Silicon Valley days, Santa Clara, then known as “The Valley of Hearts Delight,” had an abundance of “Italian Connections.” In a 1998 copy of “La Rivista,” Prof. John De Vincenzi, then president of the IAHF (Italian …

Dear Readers, Veterans Day (November 11th) and Thanksgiving Day (November 24th) are celebrated in November. Since many of our readers or members of their families are veterans of one or more wars that have taken place in their lifetime – …

Dear Readers, November Notes with an Italian connection. November comes from the Latin word novem, “nine” because this had been the ninth month of the early Roman Calendar. *** November begins with All Saints Day. Since this feast, which has …

Dear Readers, An October assortment of “Italian Connections” for you: Anthony Fauci plans to retire in December after 50 years in government and will step down as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Anthony Stephan …

Dear Readers,  A September selection of “Labor” related Italian Connections as the first Monday in September, Labor Day, pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. First created and celebrated during the labor movement in the late 19th century, Labor …