L'Italo-Americano
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2019
www.italoamericano.org
4
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NEWS & FEATURES
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The best of 2019:
a year with L'Italo Americano
W
h a t a y e a r
has been for
Italians, on
both sides of
the Atlantic!
And if you have been keeping up
with us throughout the past 12
months, you're likely to have a
pretty clear idea of all the achie-
vements, events and personali-
ties that made 2019 special for
the Belpaese and its people all
around the world. You only
really need to take a look at our
opening articles to see at a glan-
ce all that made a difference for
our country and community this
year.
We started with a bang in
January speaking with Federico
Faggin, great name of Italian-
American excellence in the field
of technology: he created, all the
way back in 1970, the first com-
mercial microprocessor in the
world, the Intel 4004, and went
strength to strength from there.
But to us Faggin, we understood
speaking with him, is even more
than a great scientist, he's the
epitome of Italian-Americans
who "made it," who left Italy
with a dream that became reality
in the US. Just like it happened
to Bruno Serato, who emigrated
to America in 1980, with no
English and no money. Here, he
worked his way up to become a
chef for California's VIPs, as
well as a known philanthropist
t h a n k s t o h i s F e e d i n g t h e
Children project, which offers a
hot meal every day to more than
25,000 kids around the country.
In April, we proudly celebra-
ted the 100th birthday of a true
A m e r i c a n i c o n , L a w r e n c e
Ferlinghetti, poet, intellectual
and symbol of that all-American
phenomenon that was the Beat
Generation. It has been a honor
to chat with him. In June, we
c h e e r e d w h e n t h e A c a d e m y
d e c i d e d t o a s s i g n a l i f e t i m e
achievement Oscar to the one
and only Lina Wertmüller, who
was to receive the statuette later
i n t h e y e a r , i n t h e m o n t h o f
October. No Oscar, it seems to
us, was more deserved: Lina was
the first woman director to get
Oscar nominations (three, in
1 9 7 7 f o r S e v e n B e a u t i e s ) ,
breaking through a long lasting
gender taboo with her incredible
talent, loquacity and unmistaka-
ble white rimmed glasses.
If we dwell another moment
on the Seventh Art, other faces
emerge from our pages: that of
Sergio Leone, who left us on the
30th of April of 30 years ago and
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, symbol of American poetry and of the Beat Generation, turned 100 this year
One of the "nonne" of the Pasta Grannies project at work (Copyright: Emma Lee)
Continued to page 6
