L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 16 L'Italo-Americano ALL AROUND ITALY TRAVEL TIPS DESTINATIONS ACTIVITIES E ven today, the hilltop village of Bisacquino is a place for those in search of a forceful Sicilian character all its own. Deep in majestic Mount Triona, in the province of Paler- mo after Corleone and on the way to Sciacca, Bisacquino sits at 744 m above sea level with a strain of secrecy. "My town is a concentration of 'Sicilianità'," says Salvatore "Totuccio" Salvaggio, a resident who founded the Museo Civico di Bisacquino about 50 years ago. Still with the beauty and history needed to draw people in, Bisacquino was part of The Grand Tour of Sicily due to its cultural mix and riches such as the stunning Baroque façade of its Mother Church and the Sanc- tuary of the Madonna del Balzo built on the slopes of Mount Tri- ona, which was a site for the cult of goddess Demeter. A town of Saracen origin, Bisacquino derives its name from the Arabic Abu-seckin – which translates as "father of the knife" – due to the tradition of making and commercializing goat horn-handled knives that is still alive. Following typical Islamic urban design, the histori- cal center has a network of nar- row winding streets consisting of public and s emi-private alleys, cul-de-sacs, arches and waterholes. This tow n w ith tw enty churches gave birth to Frank Capra, Hollywood's top film- maker in the 1930s and 1940s, a man of passion who celebrated the triumph of the goodness of heart, courage and solidarity over evil and corruption. Born on May 18, 1897 to Sal- vatore and Ros aria N icolos i Capra, the celebrated Italian- American director moved to Los Angeles in 1903 at the age of five to join his older brother Benjamin. "It's necessary to read Capra's autobiography The Name Above the Title to better understand his bond with his birthplace," says Totuccio Sal- vaggio, autho r of the book Bis acquino. F rammenti di Memoria." In 1977, Capra, at almost 80, made a secret visit to Bisac- quino. "He desired to see his mother's house but wanted to keep his distance from certain relatives involved w ith the mafia, es pecially his uncle Francesco Troncale, a mafia bos s , but als o others ," s ays Totuccio. "C apra jus t felt ashamed." But in Bisacquino, Capra also had a good nephew, Antonino Troncale, a son of his sister Ignazia. "Uncle Frank loved this village," A ntonino told the Adnkronos news agency in 1997. "But the Bisacquinesi, unfor- tunately, don't love Capra as I do," insists Totuccio. "They say he was not generous to them. It's not true. They have a dependen- cy on excessive assistenzialismo (welfarism)." The Museo Civico dedicated three rooms to the legendary son of Bisacquino. His birth certifi- cate and his first passport are dis- played, and documentary footage about his visit to Bisacquino is shown. As well as the Capra connec- tion, the village is notable for other men, both illustrious and infamous. Vito Cascio Ferro, known as Don Vito, certainly left his mark on the N ew Y ork mafia. H e helped found the Black Hand in New York before being deported to Italy w here he became a prominent member of the Sicil- ian mafia and the guy w ho allegedly pulled the s trings behind the murder of Joe Petrosi- no, a New York City police offi- cer who was a pioneer in the fight against the mafia. "S on of a campiere (field warden) for the Inglese barons in Bisacquino, Don Vito inherited his father's mafioso behavior and the manners of nobility," Totuc- cio explains. Vito was a complex character. He started as a trade unionist and contributed to the F as ci S iciliani in the years between 1889 and 1894. "The Bisacquinesi think he was a sort of Robin Hood," Totuccio says. At the moment, Totuccio is writing a book on the secrets of his hometown. He has also found records of two Masonic lodges that date back to the early 1900s. At this point of his research, he would like to gather more infor- mation on Jack Valenti, a confi- dant of President Lyndon B. Johnson and a Hollywood insti- tution who led the Motion Pic- ture Association of America for 38 years. In 1985, during the Taormina F ilm F es t, it w as revealed that Valenti was origi- nally from Bisacquino. "He was proud to be a Bisacquinese. I would love to find the docu- ments that reconstruct that con- nection," says Totuccio. "We only know that his uncle was a railway man and had seven chil- dren." Another son of Bisacquino, Giuseppe Genovese, founded the Corriere S iciliano, a w eekly newspaper in Italian with occa- sional articles in English pub- lished in New York between 1931 and 1942 as the official organ of Sicilian Societies of America. "Genovese was a gen- erous man," says Totuccio. "He had the Public Library of Bisac- quino built with his funds in the '60s." "Nevertheless, the villagers never expressed really their grat- itude to him. Ingratitude is innate to humans, I guess. People talk needlessly," Totuccio says. "I still feel moments of intense sad- nes s w hen I think about his funeral. He wanted to be buried here but very few people showed up for the ceremony. I carried his coffin on my shoulder with other men. We walked him up to the cemetery at the top of the moun- tain and there was nobody to change with me because we were s o few . I w as s o phys ically exhaus ted that I could have dropped the coffin. I just felt so blue." "A concentration of Sicilianità," this is how Bisacquino is defined. Photo: Loredana Plaia Photo Art Frank Capra is the most notable son of Bisacquino, but there were other: Giuseppe Genovese, founder of the Courier Siciliano, was among them. Photo: Loredana Plaia Photo Art Bisacquino: birthplace of Frank Capra and goat horn-handled knives MARIELLA RADAELLI

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