L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 16 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear readers, April comes from the Latin word apertura which means to open. This is the month to open your umbrellas for April showers and watch the buds open for Spring flowers and "Ital- ian Connections…" April Fool's Day is a day people play silly pranks. So be alert. St. Francis of Paola was born in Paola (Calabria), Italy circa 1416. He cured the sick, prophe- sied the future and was a major influence on five kings and seven popes. He was educated by the Fran- ciscans at San Marco and at the age of 15 went to live as a hermit in a cave. He eventually founded nearly 500 monasteries and was canonized just twelve years after his death at age ninety-one. The religious community he founded was officially recognized by Rome in 1474 as the Hermits of St. Francis, but they changed their name to the Minim Friars. Fr. Boyle was with Columbus when he sailed the ocean blue on his second voyage of discovery to America in 1493. That St. Francis of Paola is not better known to the English-speaking world is to a  large degree the fault of those who immigrated to the USA and Canada from Cal- abria and did nothing to propa- gate the saint from Paola. In 1976, Mario Segreti, born near Paola, in Belmonte Calabro, sought to rectify this situation by co-authoring the first work in English on the Life of San Francesco da Paola. It was pub- lished by TAN Books, and has been reprinted by TAN Books of Rockford, Illinois. Lou Monte "King of Italian- American hit-records" was balm to the ears of young  Italian American uprooted from Italian enclaves as family fortunes im- proved and moved to suburbs. Born April 1917 in Lyndhust, New Jersey, Lou's hobby was to entertain friends and neighbors by singing and playing the guitar. He enlisted in the Army and after his discharge, got a break on a local radio station, WAAT in Newark, N.J.. In 1953 RCA Record decided to record him. The first song, I know How to Feel, has been forgotten, but the flip side Dark Town Strutters Ball (Italian style) suggested by George Brown, his personal man- ager, sold over 400,000 copies in 1954 and Lou Monte was a hit! Lou Monte passed away in 1989 but left us a legacy of happy music, clever lyrics and lot of smiles. Charles J. Margiotti was born in April 1891. One of Amer- ica's leading criminal lawyers, he was attorney general for the State of Pennsylvania, serving three different governors, until his death ion 1956. Umberto Nobile, pioneer in Arctic aviation born at Lauro (near Salerno), with Amundsen of Norway and Ellsworth of USA was in 1926 first to fly over the North Pole in the dirigible "Norge" from the North of Nor- way (Spitzbergen) to Alaska. No- bile was the first to fly over the spot where explorer Robert E. Perry stood on this day in 1909. Perry was the first man to travel across ice and snow to reach the North Pole, the top of the world. Umberto Nobile, the first to fly over it. Dick Rossi, the Flying Tigers pilot who downed six Japanese planes during World War II and later helped preserve the history of the world famous volunteers died in Apri 2008. Richard Rossi was born in April 19, 1915, in Placerville, California, to a family with 10 children. After graduating high school he enrolled in UC Berke- ley and for two years studied to be an electrical engineer. In the fall of 1939, Rossi left college and enlisted in the Navy. But in the days before the United States entered World War II, Rossi learned of a secret volun- teer group being formed by Claire Chennault, and Army Air Force who resigned his post to lead the effort. The volunteers would travel to China and defend the na- tion against the attacks by the Japanese. Pilots with the Ameri- can volunteer group would earn $600 a month, plus $500 for each plane shot down, so Rossi signed up. By November 1941 Rossi and his squadron landed in Burma (now called Myanmar). In De- cember, over Kumming, China, the site of devastating attacks by Japanese, Rossi was in the thick of things and the Flying Tigers shot down three enemy planes, a stunning turn for the Japanese pi- lots who until then had only known victory. Alessandro Malaspina, who led the expedition of scientific ex- ploration and geographic draw- ings of Southern California, Van- couver Island and Alaska, died April 9, 1810 at the age fifty-six. Arbor Day celebrations are marked by tree planting, to foster general interest in reforestation. Many states set Arbor Day days according to their several cli- mates, but many states, with mild climates celebrate Arbor Day to- day. When I was a child, if you saw a fig tree growing in a yard, it was a tip off that the property owner was probably Italian. Pope John Paul II, former bishop of Cracow, Poland, be- came pope 900 plus years after the death of another bishop of Cracow, April 11, 1079. His name was St. Stanisalus and to- day is his feast day. Guglielmo Marconi was born in April 1874 in Bologna, Italy and died in 1937. An engineer, he discovered the new world of space and wireless telegraph. His father was an Italian business- man. His mother was the Scotch- Irish heiress to the Jameson whiskey fortune. As a young boy, little Guglielmo was fascinated by electricity and liked to play with batteries. He started work quite young, but after experi- ments at Pontecchio, he, like many Italians, found that he would be more appreciated abroad. And at the suggestion of his Scotch-Irish mother, he went to England and established the historical Radio Station at Poldhu in Cornwall and in 1901 trans- mitted signals to St. John's New- foundland, Canada. Marconi also invented the directional aerial, ship to shore radio, early radar and foundation for our modern communication systems. Paul Revere's "Midnight Ride from Charleston to Lexing- ton:, April 19, 1775. This son of liberty, his "cry of alarm" and the hurrying hoof-beats of his horse were immortalized in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Andrew M. Canepa, of the Piemontesi nel Mondo said his research indicates that Paul Re- vere was an Italian, who de- scended from the Piemonte re- gion of Italy. Easter Sunday. BUONA PASQUA!! You're No Bunny til Some Bunny Italian Loves You…

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