L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 2 W e are going to press when Italy has just surpassed 30.000 positive coronavirus cases, aware of how the peak has yet to come in spite of the drastic containment measures imple- mented. Here in the United States, the emergency has only just begun, fol- lowing the modes of the rest of the world when it came face to face with the virus. Disbelief, inability to change per- sonal habits, skepticism, fatalism, irre- sponsibility, alarmism thrown against the ridiculing of our first cautionary measures. Always keeping in mind, of course, that one should never joke about people's health, every reaction is acceptable, provided it's not inadequate. In spite of the first, mildly confused but fier- cely aggressive reactions of China and Italy, which should have served as case studies, the rest of the world has been dealing with the arrogance of politics and economy, of high finance and the productive system, of the idea all that is a machine we cannot stop, because the consequences will be unmeasurable. Truth is, there will be consequences. We can call them stagna- tion, recession, or extremely serious losses, you can choose the expression you prefer, but the substance won't change and it'll be the weakest, as usual, to suffer the most. Without a doubt, this immense ocean wave that has been shaking all social systems in the world reveals all our fragility and how "we are all in the same boat." In a world as globalized as ours, all that seems far is, in truth, just outside our door and we are probably getting full conscience of it during this pandemic. The Butterfly Effect, studied in mathematics and made popu- lar by Spielberg's Jurassic Park, materialized. This is exactly what "a butterfly moves its wings in Beijing and New York gets rains instead of the sun" means: small variations in the initial condi- An infection of humanity: an Italian lesson that reaches the US amid the Covid-19 storm From the director tions can cause enormous ones in the long term functioning of a system. Viruses spread following the simplest of criteria: surviving, multiplying, proliferating and, to do so, they don't look anyone in the eye. Just like Totò wrote in his very famous poem 'A Livella, one of Naples' poetic masterpieces, known internationally for the beauty of its verses. The piece offers important thoughts within the frame of an everyday conversation that has in it all the essen- ce of the city of Naples. Antonio de Curtis was one of the greatest comic artists of Italian theatre and early television, so revered he deserved the nickname of Prince of Laughter. In 1964 he took everyone off guard when he recounted the diatribe between two souls, a mar- quis and a garbage collector, who ended up being buried one beside the other by chance. The tomb of the first is elegant and opulent, while that of the second is "piccerella, abbandunata, senza manco un fiore" (tiny, abandoned, without even a single flower). The marquis complains about being so close to the dust- man, who stinks of misery to him. The pauper's answer is a pearl of wisdom: when death comes, she makes us all the same, regard- less to what we once were. She works like " 'a livella," a bubble level, the instrument used in construction to measure the hori- zontality of a surface. It's only the living who believe in social differences, or to say it better, "sti ppagliacciate," who believe in this nonsense. The poem's conclusion brings together the essence of all reflections: "Nuje simme serie… appartenimmo à morte," (we're serious, we belong to death), that is, we dead people are serious, we're all the same, for us distinctions don't exists. This means that, right now, there is no reason to point the fin- ger at someone or something. Rather, we should get together, work as a system, as soon as possible. We're all in the same boat and we all have to row together in the same direction if we want to get out of this storm. But if we want to follow the lesson coming from Italy, then the virus can also teach us something else. Beyond the super-human effort of our doctors and nurses on the front line, this forced col- lective quarantine has turned into a precious occasion to under- stand that overcoming hard times alone is not simple, but things get easier if we do it as a community: as a group we have more courage and more strength. This is the lesson we learned from Italy's apartment buildings, blocks and cities: they called them "flash mob" but they've really been important moments of contact among neighbors who may have not even known each other before. This has been the reac- tion of people forced home, who understood that seeing someo- ne, finding a smile, having a chat from the window, singing and dancing together for 10 minutes could help feel stronger, react, not be afraid, fight against the virus. Just as if we all said together: "sure, we're staying home sacrificing all of our liberties, the possi- bility of hugging our family and spending time with our friends, our habits, our income, our job. But by doing so, you damned virus, we'll make you weak, we'll fight you, we'll break all of your bridges and chains of contagion. We'll win, in the end." Dear readers, while expressing our best wishes to you at this difficult time, we need to make an appeal: please, support us with a small donation. This is not a selfish request, but a rather painful one, in the wake of the transparency with which we have always managed the newspaper. This garrison of Italianness, which has survived for 112 years, is honored to be the oldest community newspaper in the US, but it is in need of your sup- port to get through these challenging times. Italy has been righ- tly diverting every resource to the management of the current emergency, and we cannot raise funds by offering you our beau- tiful trips to Italy: your generosity with our sweepstakes and raf- fles has been a major source of income and support for us so far. We can only appeal to your love for L' Italo-Americano: give us a hand in overcoming this difficult moment. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all you will do. Simone Schiavinato, Director NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS P.O.BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 P.O.BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 Member of FUSIE (Federazione Unitaria Stampa Italiana all'Estero), COGITO L'Italo-Americano 610 West Foothill Blvd. Unit D, Monrovia, CA 91016 - Tel.: (626) 359-7715 PLEASE SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO P.O. BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano Newspaper (a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization), www.italoamericano.org, is the largest and longest-running Italian newspaper in America, not to mention the cultural and news resource for all things Italian in the US. A bilingual newspaper which represents an historical landmark for the Italian American Communities in the West Coast and throughout the US. 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PUBLISHER Robert Barbera Grande Ufficiale DIRECTOR/EDITOR IN CHIEF Simone Schiavinato ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Patrick Abbate EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Barbara Minafra COPY EDITOR Francesca Bezzone LOS ANGELES CONTRIBUTOR Silvia Giudici SAN FRANCISCO CONTRIBUTORS Catherine Accardi Serena Perfetto SEATTLE CONTRIBUTOR Rita Cipalla CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mariella Radaelli, Francesca Bezzone, Luca Ferrari, Stefano Carnevali, Joel Mack, Paula Reynolds, Nicoletta Curradi, GenerosoD'Agnese, Fabrizio Del Bimbo, Maria Gloria, Alfonso Guerriero Jr., Anthony Di Renzo Serena Perfetto, Kenneth Scambray, Chiara D'Alessio © 2020 L'Italo-Americano Membership: One year $59 - Single copy $2.25 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to L'Italo Americano PO Box 6528 Altadena, CA 91003

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