L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 16 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, Birds have w ings and people have books to take them to far aw ay places or make their spirits soar. Here are three newly hatched titles, pub- lished in 2018, I want to share with you: The North Beach Fis h er man (Bianchi), My American Dream (Bastianich), A bold and Dangerous Family (Moorehead). R o l a n d B i a n c h i i s m y favorite local author and has been since 1994, when his first book Tunes from a Tuscan Gui- t a r , d e d i c a t e d t o O t t o r i n o Bianchi, his paternal grandfa- ther, was published. The novel s o l d o u t i t s i n i t i a l printing. Ottorino became the first Toscano allowed in the Sicilian Crab Fisherman's Asso- c i a t i o n a t t h e S a n F r a n c i s c o F i s h e r m a n ' s W h a r f a n d w a s elected treasurer. His crab boat was berthed next to Joe Di Mag- gio's father's and they became lifelong friends. T h e s u c c e s s o f t h e b o o k prompted the author to inquire about his maternal grand parents whom he had never known. His mother was orphaned at twelve and raised by her aunt, who was illiterate and ironed shirts for a living. The Migration of Moro became his second book outlin- ing the history of his mom's experiences. Delivery Boy was next and concentrated upon the writer's c h i l d h o o d , s c h o o l y e a r s a n d early employment as a delivery boy for his uncle Guido, who owned and operated a grocery s t o r e a t F i l b e r t a n d O c t a v i a streets in San Francisco's Cow Hollow district. Having run out of grandpar- ents, Bianchi regaled his adven- tures as an undergrad at the Uni- versity of California at Berkeley. This fourth novel, ReCalections of a Bear, is an hilarious rendi- tion of college high jinks, frater- n i t y p r a n k s a n d o u t r a g e o u s behavior reflected during the P a p p y W a l d o r f f o o t b a l l e r a , when Cal had winning teams. The North Beach Fisher- man is fiction, but Bianchi's you-are-there style walks you through the infancy of an exclu- sive Sicilian fishing industry in early San Francisco. Bianchi's grandfather Ottorino, as said, became the first Toscano tolerat- ed inside the San Francisco Crab fisherman's Association. The historical references are based on fact: but for me, the frosting on the crab cake comes when Bianchi creates an ingenious boy-meets-girl scenario that t r a n s f o r m s t h e b o o k i n t o a delightful romantic page turner. Bianchi's first three books are out of print, but used copies can still be found on the Internet and ReCalection fo a Bear is available new. "The North Beach Fisher- man" can be purchased directly from the author for $15.95 plus tax and mailing for $20.00 a copy. Your order will be signed and sent to you by book mail upon receiving your personal check or money order. If you purchase the North Beach Fish- e r m a n , R e C a l e c t i o n s i s s t i l l available at the reduced price of $10.00 per copy. Send check or money order to: Roland Bianchi, 520 Clark Drive, San Mateo, CA 94402. *** A B o l d a n d D a n g e r o u s F a m i l y ( A m e l i a , C a r l o a n d Nello Rosselli from Florence) by Caroline Moorehead, offers a fresh look at life in Italy under Mussolini and Fascist rule. Now, I had read Levi's book Christ Stopped at Eboli, but I had no idea that since the 1920s Mussolini was not only ruthless, he was subtle and manipulative. Black-shirted thugs did his dirty work for him: arson, murder, destruction of homes and offices, bribery, and intimidation. His opponents - including editors, publishers, union representa- tives, lawyers, and judges- were beaten into submission or ban- ished to remote areas.  I n 1 9 2 6 , M u s s o l i n i i n t r o - duced his "exceptional laws:" il confino became the perfect solu- tion to his growing number of enemies. It would neutralize, silence, physically remove peo- ple without the nuisance of a proper trial. Better still, no actual crime needed to have been com- mitted. Simply "intending" to commit a "conspiracy against the state" was deemed subversive, of estrema pericolosità, of extreme peril, to the safety of Italy. By the spring of 1927 lines of manacled prisoners had become a familiar sight on trains going South, unshaven, dirty, often in striped prison clothes, a number printed on the left side. Among them were Freemasons, social- ists, anarchists and, above all, communists from the più rosse, the reddest Italian regions in the North: boys of fifteen, grandfa- thers of seventy-five and the wives of trade-union officials, along with artisans, journalists, w r i t e r s a n d m a n y p r o m i n e n t political figures. Soon, there were well over a thousand men and women in confino, scattered between Usti- ca, Favignana, Lipari, Pantelle- ria, Lampedusa and Le Tremiti, the harsh, scorched, waterless volcanic islands lying far off the coast of southern Italy and Sici- ly, from which many of the des- titute original inhabitants had long since emigrated. In 1924, when Mussolini's henchmen went too far, horror spread across Italy, and twenty years of struggle began. Anti- fascist resistance was born and it would end only with Mussolini's death in 1945. *** L i d i a M a t t i c c h i o B a s t i a n i c h ' s n e w b o o k , M y American Dream, is not a recipe book, it is an exhilarating mem- oir. Lidia's story begins in Pola, on the Istrian Peninsula. It was an idyllic early life, centered a r o u n d f o o d a n d f a m i l y a n d nature. Her life changed drasti- cally when Istria was annexed by Yugoslavia during Tito's com- munist reign. Suddenly, it was illegal to practice any form of religion, to have any capitalistic goals, even to speak Italian. her family - under harrowing condi- tions - escaped to Trieste, where they were placed in a refugee camp. Conditions were difficult t h e r e : f o o d w a s s c a r c e , f e w amenities were available, the future was uncertain. Yet, even there, Lidia managed to combine experience with optimism. Hope became a way of life. After two years in the camp, when she was eleven years old, Lidia's family immigrated to America. It was not easy to adapt, to learn English, to overcome being an outsider. Eventually, after the family settled in Queens, New York, teenage Lidia got a job in a bakery. She married at age nineteen and she and her hus- band, Felice, opened two suc- cessful restaurants during the seventies. That led to the open- ing of Felicia, their flagship Manhattan restaurant in 1981. How she overcame her early struggles is a fascinating and inspiring story. But so is the path she takes as she pursues her American dream: building a food and restaurant empire, cooking f o r t w o P o p e s , b e c o m i n g a n important voice in the Italian American community, becoming a loving mother and now grand- mother. My American Dream is deeply personal and absolutely extraordinary. Lidia also has written eleven cookbooks and three children's books. She is the chef/owner of four acclaimed New York City restaurants- Felicia, Becco, Esca, and Del Posto. With her daugh- ter, Tanya Bastianich Manuali, she operates Lidia's Pittsburgh and Lidia's Kansas City. Becco, Esca and Del Posto she runs with her son, Joe Bastianich, and o t h e r p a r t n e r s . S h e o p e n e d Eataly, the largest artisanal Ital- ian food and wine marketplace, in New York City, Chicago, Los Angels, and San Paulo, Brazil. ***

• Cover